[Quantitative determination of asbestos in bulk samples]

In this work, the general problems regarding asbestos determination in bulk samples are discussed. It appears that to date there are no analytical methods that can be considered satisfactory for solving these problems. The approach adopted by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (National Health Institute) is presented herein: X-ray diffractometry (XRD), that makes use of the silver filter method, is employed for asbestos concentrations equal or higher than 1% (w/w); scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for concentrations lower than 1%. The work describes in detail and discusses the analytical procedures adopted.