David N. Weissman, M.D.’s Testimony: Asbestos Exposure Assessment

Read more from the testimony of Dr. Weissman, who spoke before the Senate’s Committee on the Environment and Public Works about the dangers of asbestos. In this section, he discusses research on asbestos exposure assessment.

NIOSH is also doing research in the area of exposure assessment.

A recently published American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International Standard – “Method for Sampling and Counting Airborne Fibers, Including Asbestos Fibers, In Mines and Quarries, by Phase Contrast Microscopy” – contains a proposed methodology for separating fiber-like particles other than asbestos from probable asbestos fibers.

The new ASTM procedure has not yet been validated to confirm that it produces accurate, reproducible results. A current NIOSH study will address this issue by documenting the performance of the ASTM procedure.

Another important issue in asbestos exposure assessment is sampling in dusty environments, such as mines. Traditional filter samplers quickly become overloaded with dust, limiting the ability to detect asbestos fibers.

One approach to reducing this problem is to use a sampler that only collects particles small enough to reach the airways of the lung when inhaled, and not larger particles that mostly deposit in the mouth, nose, and throat. NIOSH is currently evaluating two such “thoracic” particulate samplers in comparison to the traditional filter sampler in two different mining environments.

Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2007/06/t20070612c.html

Courtesy of EPA

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