Monitoring and identification of airborne asbestos in unorganized sectors, India

Our plain-English summary of Monitoring and identification of airborne asbestos in unorganized sectors, India, by F.A. Ansari, I. Ahmad, M. Ashquin, et al (Chemosphere, 2007).

The study

• Authors: F.A. Ansari, I. Ahmad, M. Ashquin, M. Yunus, Q. Rahman
• Journal: Chemosphere
• Published: 2007;68(4):716-23
• Cited by: 13 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Rajasthan state in India is credited to cater more than 90% of total production of asbestos in this country, of which around 60% is processed there in unorganized sectors including milling and manufacturing of asbestos-based products. Unorganized asbestos units particularly mills showed unhealthy occupational conditions, therefore industrial hygiene study was carried out focusing on the prevalence of asbestos fibres in air at work zone area of asbestos milling units. Fibre levels were in the range of 2.00-5.09f/cm(3) and 4.07-15.60f/cm(3) in unorganized asbestos mills of Rajasthan located at Beawer and Deogarh districts, respectively. Like asbestos concentration, fibre type and length are also vital factors in the health risk assessment of industrial workers. Phase contrast and polarized light microscopic study of asbestos fibres showed their amphibole nature registering about 90% as tremolite and rest as anthophyllite. Fibre length measured micrometrically were sub-grouped in <10microm, 11-20microm, 21-30microm and >30microm. About 30-40% fibres belonged to sub-group <10microm. It is concluded that unorganized asbestos mills bear poor industrial unhygienic conditions reflected specifically from their manyfold higher fibre concentrations than the Indian and International standards. Poor industrial unhygienic conditions are attributable to obsolete milling technology, lack of pollution control devices and escape from regulatory control.

In plain English

This study measured airborne asbestos fibres in small, unorganized asbestos milling units in Rajasthan, India. The authors sampled air in six mills at Beawer (29 workers: 24 men, 5 women) and four mills at Deogarh (36 workers: 25 men, 11 women). They used personal and area samplers, and counted and identified fibres by phase contrast and polarized light microscopy. Mean fibre levels in individual mills ranged from 2.00 to 5.09 fibres per cubic centimetre at Beawer and from 4.07 to 15.60 at Deogarh. The authors compared these with the Indian and international standard of 0.1 fibres per cubic centimetre. The fibres were amphiboles. Tremolite made up 86.6 to 95.6% at Beawer and 83.6 to 92.2% at Deogarh, and the rest was anthophyllite. Fibres shorter than 10 micrometres made up 27.9 to 46.9% of fibres in Beawer mills and 29.9 to 32.8% in Deogarh mills. Workers used no personal protection, the mills had no pollution control devices, and photographs showed children in the mills. The authors concluded that industrial hygiene conditions in these units were very poor.

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: Workplace air-monitoring (industrial hygiene) survey with fibre counting and identification by phase contrast and polarized light microscopy
• Who was studied: Ten unorganized asbestos milling units in Rajasthan, India: six at Beawer (B1 to B6) with 29 workers (24 males, 5 females) and four at Deogarh (D1 to D4) with 36 workers (25 males, 11 females); sampling dates not given
• Exposure: Airborne dust from milling of asbestos-bearing rocks into asbestos powder, sampled with personal and area samplers; fibres identified as amphiboles (tremolite and anthophyllite)
• Main results:
  • Mean fibre concentrations in the Beawer mills (B1 to B6) ranged from 2.00 to 5.09 f/cm3
  • Mean fibre concentrations in the Deogarh mills (D1 to D4) were higher, ranging from 4.07 to 15.60 f/cm3
  • The authors stated that all workplace fibre counts were manyfold higher than the Indian and international standard of 0.1 f/cm3
  • The fibres were amphiboles. Tremolite made up 86.6 to 95.6% of fibres in Beawer samples and 83.6 to 92.2% in Deogarh samples, and the rest was anthophyllite
  • Fibres shorter than 10 micrometres made up 40.0%, 46.9%, 35.7%, 42.0%, 31.3% and 27.9% of fibres in Beawer mills B1 to B6, and 29.9 to 32.8% in Deogarh mills D1 to D4
  • Workers used no personal protective measures, and the mills had no engineering control devices to reduce pollution
  • Photographs in the article showed children, including small babies, present in the milling units
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that industrial hygiene conditions in unorganized asbestos units were very poor and that the units appeared to be under no regulatory control. They recommended that such units be put under regulatory control.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Industrial Hygiene, Amphibole Group, Tremolite, Anthophyllite.

Related studies

• An environmental survey in chrysotile asbestos milling processes in India — A.K. Mukherjee, H.R. Rajmohan, et al. (1992)
• Exposure of UK industrial plumbers to asbestos, Part I: Monitoring of exposure using personal passive samplers — G. Burdett, D. Bard (2007)
• Assessment of the future mesothelioma disease burden from past exposure to asbestos in ship recycling yards in India — R. Singh, J.W. Cherrie, et al. (2020)
• A case from India of pleural malignant mesothelioma probably due to domestic and environmental asbestos exposure: a posthumous report — V. Muralidhar, P. Raghav, et al. (2019)
• Present status of asbestos mining and related health problems in India--a survey — A.L. Ramanathan, V. Subramanian (2001)
• Identification and analysis of ambient EMPs — D.R. Van Orden (2018)

Browse more research in Chemosphere, or return to medical research.