Extreme airborne asbestos concentrations in a public building

Our plain-English summary of Extreme airborne asbestos concentrations in a public building, by E. Ganor, A. Fischbein, S. Brenner, et al (British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1992).

The study

• Authors: E. Ganor, A. Fischbein, S. Brenner, P. Froom
• Journal: British Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1992;49(7):486-8
• Cited by: 6 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 004454).

Abstract

Fibre concentrations of asbestos were measured in the air of a communal dining room in which the damaged ceiling had a sprayed on coating of insulation containing asbestos. The average concentration of crocidolite asbestos fibres was 4 f/cm3, 20 times the highest air concentration that appears to have been reported previously for a public building. It is concluded that although air concentrations of asbestos fibres in public buildings containing asbestos insulation materials are usually low, high concentrations can occur. This may have implications for the risk of exposed persons developing diseases associated with asbestos.

In plain English

This article was a case study from Israel reporting air measurements in the communal dining room of a kibbutz. In 1970 the dining room ceiling had been sprayed with insulation containing asbestos. Birds clinging to the ceiling damaged it, and the material was visibly deteriorating five years before the measurements. Four eight-hour air samples were analysed by scanning electron microscopy. The fibres showed the typical spectrum of crocidolite asbestos. Concentrations ranged from 3 to 5 fibres per cubic centimetre (f/cm3), with an average of 4 f/cm3. The authors reported that this was 20 times the highest concentration previously reported for a public building and much higher than levels found at other Israeli sites, including a highway and a garage repairing asbestos brake linings. They also found 3 f/cm3 of crocidolite in another public building with a damaged sprayed ceiling. The asbestos was removed from the dining room. The authors cautioned that the earlier studies used a different microscopy method. They concluded that very high airborne asbestos exposure can occur in public buildings and that further measurements in buildings with damaged asbestos insulation are warranted.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Case study: environmental air sampling in one building, compared with earlier published measurements and with other sites in Israel
• Who was studied: The communal dining room (200 m2) of a kibbutz (communal settlement) in Israel. Its ceiling had been sprayed with asbestos-containing insulation in 1970, and the insulation had been damaged by birds. Four separate air samples were collected.
• Exposure: Airborne fibres from damaged sprayed-on ceiling insulation containing crocidolite asbestos. Samples were collected for eight hours and analysed by scanning electron microscopy (method RTM-2).
• Main results:
  • Air concentrations in the dining room ranged from 3 to 5 f/cm3.
  • The average concentration in the dining room was 4 f/cm3, which the authors said far exceeded an Israeli guideline value of 0.0016 f/cm3 for the general environment and indoor air in public buildings.
  • The fibres from the dining room showed the typical spectrum of crocidolite asbestos.
  • The dining room concentrations were 20 times higher than the highest concentration previously reported for a public building. That earlier figure was 0.2 f/cm3, from a Canadian study that excluded school buildings and damaged buildings. They were also more than 120 times the concentrations reported by all other authors cited.
  • The dining room concentrations were much higher than those measured with the same method at other sites in Israel. These sites were an asbestos cement plant, a dump site for its waste, a garage repairing asbestos brake linings, and a highway.
  • The authors later identified another public building with a sprayed asbestos ceiling in poor condition, where crocidolite fibres reached 3 f/cm3.
  • The asbestos was removed from the dining room immediately after the test results. A health survey of potentially exposed people was being considered.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that very high exposure to airborne asbestos fibres can occur in public buildings. They said further environmental assessment and air measurements are warranted in buildings with damaged asbestos-containing insulation.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The earlier published building measurements used for comparison were made with transmission electron microscopy, while this study used scanning electron microscopy. The authors were unaware of any studies comparing the two methods.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Crocidolite.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Crocidolite.

Related studies

• Re: Asbestos exposures in public and commercial buildings — T.P. Sterling, W.L. Rosenbaum, et al. (1994)
• Asbestos in the air of public buildings: a public health risk? — J. Whysner, V.T. Covello, et al. (1994)
• Asbestos in New York City public school buildings--public policy: is there a scientific basis? — R. Wilson, A.M. Langer, et al. (1994)
• Airborne asbestos in buildings — R.J. Lee, D.R. Van Orden (2008)
• Composition of heavy metals and airborne fibers in the indoor environment of a building during renovation — M.T. Latif, N.H. Baharudin, et al. (2011)
• Airborne asbestos levels in school buildings in Italy — A. Campopiano, S. Casciardi, et al. (2004)

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