Identification and Control of Asbestos Exposures (Draft)

This is a draft paper by L.J. Cralley of the U.S. Public Health Service. It is not a study. It reports no new data on workers or disease. Instead it describes how asbestos exposures can be identified, measured and controlled. The author noted that research in the United Kingdom and the United States had shown airborne fiber levels to be a much better index of asbestos exposure than overall dust levels. The author also described standards under which air samples are collected on membrane filters and fibers are counted by phase contrast microscopy at 400 magnification. According to the author, special precautions are needed when asbestos is handled in loose form, such as in mining, milling, shipping, warehousing, processing and blending. Firmly bound products such as vinyl asbestos tile and cement products normally pose no special problem unless they are reshaped or broken down so that fibers are released. The control methods described included exhaust ventilation, enclosure, wet methods, housekeeping, worker education, respirators, air monitoring and periodic medical examinations. The author concluded that asbestos can be used safely if adequate precautions prevent excessive and unsuspected exposures.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

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.