Techniques for the Detection, Identification and Analysis of Fibers (1970)

This 1970 article by Robert G. Keenan and Jeremiah R. Lynch of the U.S. Bureau of Occupational Safety and Health reviewed laboratory methods. It was not a study of workers or patients. It described ways to detect, identify and analyze mineral fibers in bulk materials, in airborne dust from workers' breathing zones, and in lung tissue, with attention to chrysotile, amosite and crocidolite asbestos. The authors reported that hydrochloric or nitric acid dissolved the metal content of chrysotile-containing samples but did not fully attack amosite, crocidolite or glass. They recommended hydrofluoric acid digestion for all samples meant for heavy metal analysis. Microsieving had shown more nickel and chromium in finer particle fractions. A magnesium-based atomic absorption method let the authors analyze thousands of personal samples for chrysotile, but only where chrysotile was the sole source of magnesium. With an electron microprobe, an amosite fiber was found at the core of an asbestos body from an asbestos worker's lung. A similar-looking body from a foundry worker's lung had no asbestos fiber at its core. The scanned text is badly damaged and stops partway through.

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 is a copy from J-M's medical library.