Estimation of exposure to asbestos-cement dust on building sites

In the Federal Republic of Germany, about 1.2 million tons of asbestos are handled on building sites, for example, by roofers, carpenters and ventilation fitters. The objective of this study was to determine both the exposure to dust during the handling of asbestos-cement products on building sites and the possible resulting fibrogenic health hazard. In order to assess the tumour risk, this cross-sectional study should be enlarged to a longitudinal study. Dust measurements were made on about 40 building sites with four static and four personal dust samplers and a Tyndallometer. Evaluation was performed by infrared spectrography and light and scanning electron microscopy. Peak concentrations of more than 100 fibres/ml of length greater than 5 micrometers or about 80 mg/m3 fine dust were observed in the vicinity of the grinding machine. The asbestos content of the fine dust was about 10%. Scanning electron microscopy showed a wide variation of fibre lengths and diameters; a large proportion of fibres with diameters below 0.2 micrometers was found. Long-term, mean values and confidence intervals of the concentration of fine dust were calculated from the measurements. For example, the mean fine dust mass concentrations for roofers cutting corners of asbestos-cement sheets with the grinding machine amounted to 2.2 mg/m3 when the cutting was done in the open air at a fixed location. When cutting was performed on the roof, the mean fine dust mass concentration amounted to 1.8 mg/m3.