Personal exposure to asbestos dust during clearance certification

Our plain-English summary of Personal exposure to asbestos dust during clearance certification, by S. Bailey, A. Conchie, D.M. Hiett, et al (The Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 1988).

The study

• Authors: S. Bailey, A. Conchie, D.M. Hiett, C. Thomas
• Journal: The Annals of Occupational Hygiene
• Published: 1988;32(3):423-6
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This short communication reported personal air sampling by occupational hygienists from four UK consulting laboratories during asbestos clearance certification. Clearance certification is the inspection made after asbestos materials have been removed and an enclosed work area has been cleaned. The authors collected 100 samples at lapel level during routine inspections. Of these, 68% followed removal mainly of asbestos coating or thermal insulation, and 32% followed removal of asbestos insulating board or asbestos cement. The article did not report which asbestos fibre types were present. Averaged over the actual sampling time (5 to 194 minutes), the highest result was 0.4 fibres per millilitre and the group mean was 0.04. Averaged over a notional 4 hours, assuming no further exposure, the highest result was 0.1 and the mean was less than 0.01. Five percent of the sampling-period results, and none of the 4-hour results, exceeded the 0.2 fibres per millilitre 4-hour Control Limit. None exceeded 0.5. The authors concluded that properly conducted clearance inspections were not associated with high exposure relative to the Control Limits. They assessed respirators with a nominal protection factor of ten as most suitable.

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: Exposure measurement study (short communication): personal air sampling during routine asbestos clearance certification inspections
• Who was studied: 100 personal air samples taken during routine clearance certification inspections of isolated asbestos work areas, by consultants from four consulting laboratories in the United Kingdom. Dates of sampling not stated.
• Exposure: Airborne asbestos dust during clearance inspections after removal work. 68% of inspections followed mainly asbestos coating or thermal insulation removal; 32% followed removal of asbestos insulating board or asbestos cement. Fibre types in the samples were not reported. Samples ran 5 to 194 minutes (average 39 minutes) at 2 litres per minute.
• Main results:
  • Averaged over the actual sampling period, the highest result was 0.4 fibre per ml and the group mean was 0.04 fibre per ml.
  • Averaged over a notional 4-hour period (assuming no further exposure), the highest result was 0.1 fibre per ml and the group mean was less than 0.01 fibre per ml.
  • 49% of the sampling-period results and 87% of the 4-hour results were at or below 0.01 fibre per ml, the level the authors described as insignificantly low.
  • 5% of the sampling-period results, and none of the 4-hour results, exceeded the 0.2 fibre per ml 4-hour Control Limit.
  • None of the sampling-period or 4-hour results exceeded the 0.5 fibre per ml 4-hour Control Limit.
  • The authors estimated that exposure from clearance inspecting over any 12-week period would be unlikely to exceed 4.8 fibre-hours per ml, so the Action Levels would not be exceeded.
  • On the basis of these findings, the authors assessed respirators with a nominal protection factor of ten as most suitable for routine clearance certification inspection.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that properly conducted clearance certification, following their Operating Code, is not associated with high personal exposure to airborne asbestos dust relative to the Control Limits. They also concluded that long-term exposure would tend to be less than one-tenth of the Action Levels.

Related studies

• Effect of respiratory protective equipment on exposure to asbestos fibres during removal of asbestos insulation — H. Akkersdijk, C.F. Bremmer, et al. (1989)
• Physiological and subjective responses to working in disposable protective coveralls and respirators commonly used by the asbestos abatement industry — M.K. White, T.K. Hodous, et al. (1989)
• Usage of personal protective devices among Egyptian industrial workers — A.A. Kamal, G.M. Sayed, et al. (1988)
• Reproducibility of dust disturbance techniques during clearance sampling after asbestos removal — J. Prentice, B. Gonsalves (1985)
• Evaluation of the deposition, translocation and pathological response of brake dust with and without added chrysotile in comparison to crocidolite asbestos following short-term inhalation: interim results — D.M. Bernstein, R. Rogers, et al. (2014)
• Lung fiber burden in the Nottingham gas mask cohort — G. Berry, F. Pooley, et al. (2009)

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