Exposure to ceramic man-made mineral fibres

Ceramic fibres (also known as refractory fibres) are regarded here as man-made mineral fibres (MMMF) capable of withstanding temperatures of 1000-1600 degrees C without appreciable distortion or softening. Ceramic fibres are manufactured largely from the aluminosilicate group of minerals but some contain only alumina, zirconia or silica. Simultaneous personal gravimetric and optical fibre count samples were taken throughout the industry. It has not been possible to correlate gravimetric results with fibre counts in any meaningful way. The general conclusions are as follows: (a) gravimetrically, exposures ranged from less than 1 mg/m3 for light tasks to over 10 mg/m3 for some insulation workers. Exposures above 10 mg/m3 were not necessarily associated with correspondingly high fibre counts; (b) fibre counts rarely exceeded 1 f/ml, and it appears that ceramic fibre materials, in company with other MMMF, do not readily produce high airborne fibre counts; (c) control of dust from mineral wools to 5 mg/m3 achieves control to below 1 f/ml. This relationship does not hold for superfine MMMF and does not always hold for ceramic fibres.