Penetration of overall hoods by water-borne crocidolite fibres

Our plain-English summary of Penetration of overall hoods by water-borne crocidolite fibres, by R. Goode, T. Waldron (The Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 1977).

The study

• Authors: R. Goode, T. Waldron
• Journal: The Annals of Occupational Hygiene
• Published: 1977;20(2):195-6
• Type of article: Letter
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This letter to the editor, by two authors at British Leyland UK Ltd, described contractors removing crocidolite from roof girders at Longbridge, Birmingham. The workers wore man-made fibre overalls with a built-in hood and air-fed face masks. They soaked the crocidolite with water and scraped it off. One worker had to work beneath a girder, and the soaking water fell on his head. After he washed his hair in the shower, a filter passed over it showed crocidolite fibres under the microscope. He had to wash his hair five times in all before contamination fell to negligible levels. The authors wrote that it appeared the fibres had entered his hair via the soaking water, and that water-borne crocidolite could pass through the hood's man-made fibre. Workers were then given plastic shower caps to wear over their hoods. When the same worker was retested before showering, no fibres were detected. To confirm penetration, the authors passed crocidolite mixed with water through hood material. The liquid that came through was collected on a membrane filter and showed very heavy crocidolite contamination.

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: letter to the editor describing a workplace observation involving one worker, plus a simple test of the hood material
• Who was studied: contractors' employees removing crocidolite from roof girders at British Leyland, Longbridge, Birmingham; the hair testing was done on one worker who worked beneath a girder
• Exposure: crocidolite on roof girders, soaked with water and removed by hand-held scraper; workers wore man-made fibre overalls with self-contained hood and air-fed face masks
• Main results:
  • After the worker who worked beneath the girder washed his hair in the shower, crocidolite fibres were obviously present on a filter passed over his hair and examined by phase contrast microscopy at x400
  • Crocidolite was still present after a second hair wash, though in reduced quantity. The worker had to wash his hair five times in all to reduce contamination to negligible levels.
  • Workers were supplied with plastic shower caps worn over their overall hoods. When the same worker continued working beneath the beam and was retested before showering, no fibres were detected.
  • Crocidolite mixed with water was passed through the hood material. The liquid that came through (the filtrate) was passed through a membrane filter and examined, and very heavy contamination by crocidolite fibres was observed.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors wrote that it appeared the crocidolite had entered the worker's hair via the soaking water, and that crocidolite fibres carried in water can penetrate the man-made fibre. They considered entry around the face unlikely because the hood was close-fitting and sealed by the full face mask. They judged it reasonable to conclude that the shower caps had prevented water-borne crocidolite from penetrating the hoods.

Topics

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

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