Environmental site assessments and audits: Building inspection requirements

Environmental site assessment criteria were originally developed by organizations that focused, almost exclusively, on surface, subsurface, and pollution source contamination. Many of the hazards associated with indoor environments and building structures were traditionally not considered when evaluating sources and entities of environmental pollution. Since a large number of building materials are potentially hazardous, careful evaluation is necessary. Until recently, little information on building inspection requirements of environmental problems has been published. Traditionally, asbestos has been the main component of concern. The ever-changing environmental standards have dramatically expanded the scope of building surveys. Indoor environmental concerns, for example, currently include formaldehyde, lead-based paint, polychlorinated biphenyls, radon, and indoor air pollution. Environmental regulations are being expanded and developed that specifically include building structures. These regulatory standards are being triggered by an increased awareness of health effects from indoor exposure, fires, spills, and other accidents that have resulted in injury, death, and financial loss. This article discusses various aspects of assessments for building structures.     

利用煤矸石熔制岩棉的机理与工艺研究

合理利用废弃物资源，防止环境污染是世界各国急待解决的问题．本文介绍了国内第一条煤矸石岩棉生产线的工艺设计及其年产万吨的生产性试验，表明该产品的主要技术性能已达到国家规定的优等品标准；并探讨了煤矸石熔制岩棉的机理，为煤矸石资源的高效益深度开发利用提供了新的途径．     

CRITIQUE—Consumer product safety: Risk assessment of exposure to asbestos emissions from hand-held hair dryers

The paper by Dr. William Hallenbeck of the University of Illinois on pp. 23–32 of this issue ofEnvironmental Management contains an estimate of the risk of respiratory cancer resulting from exposure to asbestos fibers emitted from asbestos-containing hairdryers. The study, which is described as a worst case analysis, concludes that the use of these hairdryers would result in a maximum of 0.15 deaths from respiratory cancer per year in the United States, based on a median case estimate of asbestos fiber emission from hair-dryers. This estimate of risk was developed using data from one epidemiologic study.In this critique, we suggest that the use of other epidemiologic studies and the inclusion of other minor, reasonable changes to the basic assumptions made by Hallenbeck could significantly change the estimate in the direction of greater risk. Indeed, the use of other epidemiologic studies in the risk estimate results in an increase in the predicted risk of up to 3 orders of magnitude. Inclusion of changes both in the epidemiologic study used and in certain model assumptions results in an increased risk prediction of over 4 orders of magnitude in the extreme.Since there is no definitive basis on which to include or exclude certain assumptions or relevant studies, the risk estimate at best must be represented as a range of values. Such a range demonstrates the inherent uncertainties associated with estimating the risk to humans from known carcinogens. The size of the range developed in this analysis may actually be underestimated since no attempt has been made to evaluate the uncertainty associated with the choice of the dose-response model.The material found within this paper contains the views of the authors who are employees of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and does not necessarily reflect official opinions or policies of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.This paper was prepared in the course of the official duties of the authors as employees of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. It is in the public domain and may be freely copied and reproduced.     

我国石棉替代品生产、使用、危害及防护措施状况

虽然石棉的用途广泛、价格低廉 ,但因其危害严重 ,存在着致癌问题 ,部分发达国家对石棉的使用进行了严格限制 ;为了降低石棉对人体健康的伤害 ,国际上大力提倡使用石棉替代品。针对我国石棉替代品使用的现状 ,重点对目前使用最多的石棉替代品 :玻璃棉、岩棉等的生产、使用、危害及其防护措施状况进行了概要的回顾和简单分析。     

利用煤矸石熔制岩棉的机理与工艺研究

介绍了年产万吨的国内第一条煤矸石岩棉生产线的工艺流程及其生产性试验，产品的主要技术性能达到了国空标准ＧＢ１１８３５－８９中的优等品种质量规定，并探讨了煤矸石熔制岩棉的机理，为煤矸石的深度开发利用提供了新途径。     

Environmental impact assessment of sprayed-on asbestos in buildings

This study evaluated the environmental impacts of sprayed-on asbestos, which had been used as insulation material in buildings, from multiple perspectives, mainly at the disposal stage. The health risks from asbestos emission and energy consumption were estimated. Two disposal scenarios were assumed for the asbestos: melting for reduced-risk disposal and ordinary packaging/landfilling. We estimated the asbestos emission and health risk in the case of packaging/landfilling, assuming uncontrolled management of the landfill site. A difficulty with introducing health-risk concepts into life cycle assessment (LCA) is the pulse–flux problem, which is discussed in the light of these estimations. In order to solve this problem, we proposed a method using a conversion factor representing exposure-dose/emission, and showed that emission could be converted into health risk. We also estimated the energy consumption for melting asbestos in the disposal stage, which can decrease the health risk. If we consider the energy consumption for the life cycle of asbestos, only a little energy is required for melting, compared with the large amount of energy saved in the use stage owing to the insulating effect of the asbestos. The trade-off relationship between health risk and energy consumption for the disposal scenarios indicated the need for weighting methods to handle trade-offs such as this. Received: July 2, 1998 / Accepted: December 20, 1999     

Metal contamination of Posidonia oceanica meadows along the Corsican coastline (Mediterranean)

The aim of this study is to determine metal (Cd, Co, Cr, Hg, Ni, Pb) concentrations in Posidonia oceanica tissues along the Corsican coastline. The results show that except for Cr, all the metals are preferentially accumulated in the blades; this is particularly interesting as it means that future metal analyses may be carried out only on the blades avoiding thus the removal of the shoots. Moreover, they show that metal concentrations may reflect the "background noise" of the Mediterranean Sea. Station 15 (Canari) can however be distinguished from the others due to its high Co, Cr and Ni concentrations. This result may be related to the presence of a previous asbestos mine, located near this station. Therefore, this study reinforces the usefulness and the relevance of Posidonia oceanica as a tracer of spatial metal contamination and as an interesting tool for water quality evaluation.     

Development of a testing method for asbestos fibers in treated materials of asbestos containing wastes by transmission electron microscopy

Appropriate treatment of asbestos-containing wastes is a significant problem. In Japan, the inertization of asbestos-containing wastes based on new treatment processes approved by the Minister of the Environment is promoted. A highly sensitive method for testing asbestos fibers in inertized materials is required so that these processes can be approved. We developed a method in which fibers from milled treated materials are extracted in water by shaking, and are counted and identified by transmission electron microscopy. Evaluation of this method by using asbestos standards and simulated slag samples confirmed that the quantitation limits are a few million fibers per gram and a few μg/g in a sample of 50 mg per filter. We used this method to assay asbestos fibers in slag samples produced by high-temperature melting of asbestos-containing wastes. Fiber concentrations were below the quantitation limit in all samples, and total fiber concentrations were determined as 47–170 × 10^?6 f/g. Because the evaluation of treated materials by TEM is difficult owing to the limited amount of sample observable, this testing method should be used in conjunction with bulk analytical methods for sure evaluation of treated materials.     

Ambient monitoring of asbestos in selected Italian living areas

This paper presents the results of an intensive monitoring activity of the particulate, fall-out and soil of selected living areas in Italy with the aim to detect the asbestos concentration in air and subsequent risk of exposure for the population in ambient living environments, and to assess the nature of the other mineral phases composing the particulate matrix. Some areas were sorted out because of the presence of asbestos containing materials on site whereas others were used as blank spots in the attempt to detect the background environmental concentration of asbestos in air. Because the concentration of asbestos in ambient environments is presumably very low, and it is well known that conventional low–medium flow sampling systems with filters of small diameter (25 mm) may collect only a very small fraction of particulate over a short period, for the first time here, an intense monitoring activity was conducted with a high flow sampling system. The high flow system requires the use of large cellulose filters with the advantage that, increasing the amount of collected dust, the probability to collect asbestos fibers increases. Both the protocol of monitoring and analysis are novel and prompted by the need to increase the sensitivity towards the small number of expected fibers. With this goal, the collection of fall-out samples (the particulate falling into a collector filled with distilled water during the monitoring shift) and soil samples was also accomplished. The analytical protocol of the matrix particulate included preliminary X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), optical microscopy and quantitative electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). Correlations with climatic trends and PM10 concentration data were also attempted.The surprising outcome of this work is that, despite the nature of the investigated site, the amount of dispersed asbestos fibers is very low and invariably lower than the theoretical method detection limits of the SEM and TEM techniques for identification and counting of asbestos fibers. The results are compared to the literature data worldwide and an updated model for asbestos fibers dispersion in ambient environments is proposed.     

Consumer product safety: Risk assessment of exposure to asbestos emissions from hand-held hair dryers

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is concerned that consumer exposure to asbestos from consumer products may present an unreasonable risk of injury. Recently, CPSC has obtained agreement by industry to cease production and distribution of hair dryers containing asbestos heat insulation. CPSC intends to broaden its investigation by selecting consumer products containing asbestos for priority attention. The Commission does not intend to make quantitative estimates of cancer risks posed by exposure to asbestos fibers in making regulatory decisions. This position may lead to a serious waste of resources for the Commission, industry, and society. The Commission should focus its initial attention on those products for which the release of asbestos is significant enough to cause an unreasonable health risk. To make a risk assessment for a particular use of asbestos, CPSC must acquire or request data on asbestos emissions and define unreasonable risk to health.In an attempt to give some meaning to the phrase risk assessment, the primary goal of this paper is to present a detailed risk assessment of exposure to asbestos from hand-held hair dryers. Several scenarios of use are presented using various assumptions regarding time of operation, mixing of fibers in a small room, rate of fiber emission, and time of exposure. The worst case analysis of the health risk of exposure to hair dryer emissions is based on several conservative assumptions and shows that the increased number of deaths per year due to respiratory cancer is 4 for the entire United States population. A more representative case analysis shows the increased number of deaths to be on the order of 0.15 per year.