Electron Microscope Measurement of Airborne Asbestos Concentrations: A Provisional Methodology Manual (1978)

This item is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency methodology manual, not a study of people or workers. Only its abstract, a notice of revision and its table of contents were available. The manual described a provisional electron microscope procedure for measuring the concentration of asbestos fibers in air samples. In the method, an air sample was deposited on a polycarbonate membrane filter, a specimen grid was examined in a transmission electron microscope, and fiber identity was verified by selected area electron diffraction. The manual used asbestos as a collective term for six minerals: chrysotile, amosite, crocidolite, and the asbestiform varieties of anthophyllite, actinolite and tremolite. It defined a fiber as a particle with an aspect ratio of 3 to 1 or greater and substantially parallel sides. This was a June 1978 revision of a document first published in August 1977. A notice stated that the changes were mostly minor, with the main ones in the fiber classification rules. The analytical data supporting the method were placed in a separate final report, and the available pages contained no measured concentrations or analytical findings.

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From J-M's medical library

This copy comes from the Johns-Manville medical library. It was among the papers J-M kept in its medical library without an index entry.