Regulation of in-place asbestos-containing material

Our plain-English summary of Regulation of in-place asbestos-containing material, by N. Cohen (Environmental Research, 1991).

The study

• Author: N. Cohen
• Journal: Environmental Research
• Published: 1991;55(1):97-106
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 2 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. 004466).

Abstract

Approximately two-thirds of New York City's 800,000 buildings contain asbestos. Most of this material is damaged or deteriorating. Legislation pending in the New York City Council (Bill number 453) would require virtually all building owners to inspect for asbestos, to develop management and maintenance plans to prevent disturbance of intact material, and to provide notice of the presence of asbestos to building occupants. This paper reviews the legislation and discusses its features that have been questioned. It concludes that regulation of in-place asbestos is necessary and appropriate.

In plain English

This article was a policy review, not a new study. The author, from the Manhattan Borough President's office, described Bill 453, then pending before the New York City Council. The bill would require inspection of nearly every city building for in-place asbestos. Owners of buildings with asbestos would keep management and maintenance plans and notify occupants. Owners of one- and two-family homes would only inspect and sample before transferring title. A 1988 survey by the City's Department of Environmental Protection estimated that 68% of city buildings contained asbestos, from 84% of tall office buildings to 17% of garages. It rated 16% of the material in poor condition, 68% fair and 16% good. The author answered five objections to the bill: that chrysotile is less harmful than amphibole fibers, that everyday airborne levels are low, that compliance is costly, that the bill would spur needless removal, and that it relies on visual assessment, not air sampling. The author cited an earlier Yale building study in which simulated maintenance work produced high fiber levels. The author concluded that regulating in-place asbestos is necessary and appropriate.

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: Policy review and commentary on pending New York City legislation (Bill 453); the author collected no new data
• Who was studied: Buildings in New York City, as assessed in a 1988 New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) study of a statistically representative sample of buildings from all building classes; the study's table projects a total of 752,478 buildings
• Exposure: In-place asbestos-containing building materials, such as surfacing material and thermal system insulation like pipe wrapping, that maintenance and other workers may disturb; the proposed legislation does not distinguish between fiber types
• Main results:
  • The bill would require building owners to have DEP-certified inspectors evaluate and sample nearly every building in the City
  • Under the bill, the owner of a building that contains asbestos would have to implement an operations and maintenance plan and a comprehensive management plan
  • Under the bill, owners of one- and two-family homes would only have to inspect and sample for asbestos before transferring title
  • The DEP study, as reported in the article, estimated that 68% of all New York City buildings contain asbestos, ranging from 84% of tall office buildings and 74% of walk-up apartments to 62% of stores and 17% of garages
  • In the DEP study, 16% of all asbestos was in poor condition, defined as more than 10% of the surface damaged or deteriorated
  • In the DEP study, 68% of asbestos was in fair condition (some damage, covering less than 10% of the surface area) and 16% was in good condition (no surface damage)
  • DEP estimated that the legislation could cost building owners between $5,738 and $178,697 per building (in 1988 dollars)
  • Citing an earlier study (Sawyer, 1977) in a Yale University building with sprayed-on friable asbestos, the author reported that workers simulating normal building activity were exposed to an average of 7.7 fibers per cubic centimeter while installing track lighting
  • Citing EPA (1988), the author reported that surveys of 94 non-school asbestos-containing buildings found airborne levels from 0.0 to 0.2 fibers per cubic centimeter, with a mean of 0.006
  • On whether chrysotile is less harmful than amphibole fibers, the author stated that the epidemiological literature on relative fiber toxicity appears inconclusive
  • Answering the objection that the bill relies on visual assessment rather than air sampling, the author argued that air sampling at a single moment fails to detect episodic exposure
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that regulation of in-place asbestos is necessary and appropriate. The author also argued that it is legitimate to protect building workers, who face large risks, even though risks to most occupants are likely to be very low
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The DEP study did not measure airborne fiber concentrations
  • Only limited personal air monitoring of building maintenance and repair workers had been done
  • The author acknowledged uncertainty about the risk of ambient asbestos levels in buildings

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos-Containing Material (ACM), Notice.

Related studies

• Mesothelioma among employees with likely contact with in-place asbestos-containing building materials — H.A. Anderson, L.P. Hanrahan, et al. (1991)
• Regulation of priority carcinogens and reproductive or developmental toxicants — K. Hooper, J. LaDou, et al. (1992)
• Asbestos-containing materials in New York City buildings — P. Lundy, M. Barer (1992)
• Carcinogenic hazards from inhaled carbon black, titanium dioxide, and talc not containing asbestos or asbestiform fibers: recent evaluations by an IARC Monographs Working Group — R.A. Baan (2007)
• Potential health hazards associated with exposures to asbestos-containing drywall accessory products: A state-of-the-science assessment — A.D. Phelka, B.L. Finley (2012)
• Environmental aftermath — L. Claudio (2001)

Browse more research in Environmental Research, or return to medical research.