Indoor airborne asbestos pollution: from the ceiling and the floor

Our plain-English summary of Indoor airborne asbestos pollution: from the ceiling and the floor, by P. Sebastien, J. Bignon, M. Martin (Science, 1982).

The study

• Authors: P. Sebastien, J. Bignon, M. Martin
• Journal: Science
• Published: 1982;216(4553):1410-12
• Cited by: 15 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 004691).

Abstract

Electron microscopic measurements of the concentrations of airborne asbestos were carried out inside and outside an office building having ceilings sprayed with a crocidolite-containing material and floors covered with vinyl-chrysotile tiles. Under normal conditions in this building, constructed 10 years ago, the two asbestos-containing materials released fibers into the air. This is the first measurement of elevated (up to 170 nanograms per cubic meter) concentrations of indoor airborne asbestos associated with the weathering of asbestos floor tiles during their service life. Asbestos flooring is used in a large number of buildings and represents the third largest use of asbestos fibers in the United States and in Europe, ranking after roofing and asbestos-cement pipe.

In plain English

The authors measured airborne asbestos in one office building 20 km south of Paris, where 300 white-collar employees worked. Corridor ceilings had been sprayed in 1970 with a material that was almost pure crocidolite, and the floors were covered with asbestos vinyl tiles. Air was sampled at four indoor sites and on the roof over five working days, during activity periods only, and analyzed by electron microscopy. Outdoor air contained only chrysotile, at 0.1 ng/m3. Indoors, crocidolite measured 0.2, 0.5, 0.9 and 33 ng/m3 and chrysotile 8, 21, 25 and 170 ng/m3 at sites 1 to 4. Site 4, which had the highest levels, was a workshop. The authors attributed the crocidolite to the sprayed ceilings. The ceiling material contained no detectable chrysotile, and the only chrysotile-containing material found was the vinyl floor tile, some of which was visibly damaged. In the absence of any other explanation, the authors concluded that the short airborne chrysotile fibers had escaped from the floor tiles. They said this first measurement would need confirming in other places and by other laboratories.

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: Environmental air-monitoring investigation of a single building: simultaneous indoor and outdoor air sampling, plus bulk sampling of building materials, analyzed with an analytical transmission electron microscope
• Who was studied: One six-floor office building 20 km south of Paris, occupied by an engineering company with 300 white-collar workers; ceilings sprayed in 1970; monitoring requested in December 1980
• Exposure: Friable sprayed ceiling material that was almost pure crocidolite (no chrysotile or man-made mineral fibers detected), and 5400 m2 of asbestos vinyl floor tiles containing chrysotile
• Main results:
  • Outdoor air (roof) contained only chrysotile, at 0.1 ng/m3
  • Indoor air: crocidolite 0.2, 0.5, 0.9 and 33 ng/m3, and chrysotile 8, 21, 25 and 170 ng/m3, at sites 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively
  • Sites 1 to 3 were corridors; site 4, with the highest concentrations, was a workshop including part of a corridor
  • The authors attributed the airborne crocidolite to the sprayed ceiling material
  • No airborne chrysotile fiber longer than 3 micrometers was found on the filters
  • The only material in the building found to contain chrysotile was the vinyl floor tile; some tiles were visibly damaged
  • Compared with 36 earlier-measured buildings sprayed with amphibole-containing material, only 22 percent had airborne amphibole concentrations above 33 ng/m3, the maximum found in this building
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded, in the absence of any other explanation, that the short chrysotile fibers in the building air had escaped from the vinyl matrix of the floor tiles
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors described this as a first measurement that would need confirmation in other places and by other laboratories
  • The explanation that higher activity at the workshop caused the higher concentrations there was offered only as a hypothesis

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, Chrysotile, Asbestos-Containing Material (ACM), Asbestos-Cement Pipe.

Related studies

• Exposure to airborne asbestos during abatement of ceiling material, window caulking, floor tile and roofing material — J.H. Lange, S.L. Sites, et al. (2008)
• Exposure to airborne asbestos during abatement of ceiling material, window caulking, floor tile, and roofing material — J.H. Lange, S.L. Sites, et al. (2006)
• Indoor asbestos pollution: application of hazard criteria — R.N. Sawyer (1979)
• A meta-analysis of airborne asbestos fiber concentrations from work with or around asbestos-containing floor tile — A.L. Perez, M.L. Nelson, et al. (2018)
• Environmental airborne tremolite asbestos pollution and pleural plaques in Afghanistan — C. Voisin, I. Marin, et al. (1994)
• 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)

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