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Abstract
The anxiety caused by potential nonoccupational asbestos exposures has fueled a 3 billion dollar industry annually to remove asbestos products from commercial buildings and schools in the United States alone. To examine the impact that this activity has had, a 2-year study was implemented which measured asbestos levels before and after asbestos removal in a U.S. school building. Air sampling protocols followed the Environmental Protection Agency guidelines outlined in the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act. All samples were analyzed by a Yamate level II transmission electron microscopy analysis. Two hundred eighty-nine air samples were collected on 26 different evenings over the 2-year period. One hundred twenty of the 289 samples were selected at random for analysis. Based on these analyses, the geometric mean airborne asbestos concentration before removal was 0.0004 structures/cc of air (s/cc). A significant rise in the airborne levels persisted after removal; the geometric mean was 0.0017 s/cc 653 days after removal. The half-life concentration of asbestos was estimated at 377 and 254 days for projects 1 and 2, respectively. It was estimated that up to 4 years would be required to return to preremoval concentrations. Data indicated that larger fibers were preferentially resuspended from interior surfaces while smaller fibers were preferentially exhausted from the building. Despite the significant rise in asbestos levels, the asbestos-related health risks were extremely low. Significant differences in surface concentrations were not observed. This observation was probably due to the present limitations of the sampling and analytical methods available. In addition, the massive cleaning that occurred after removal and prior to reoccupancy of the building confounded this comparison.