Short communication, Note
Risk assessment of non-occupational asbestos exposure can it be done?
F. Valić
; »Andrija štampar« School of Public Health, Medical Faculty, Unioersity of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Because of a long latency period of asbestos-induced lung cancer and mesothelioma, all the published risk assessment models for risk assessment of non-occupational asbestos exposure are based on the mortality analysis at high-level occupational exposures of 20-40 years before, mathematically extrapolated to current, very significantly lower, asbestos exposures in the general environment. This paper deals with the errors involved in such extrapolations and illustrates the unfeasibility of practical applications of currently available models for asbestos risk assessment. The main weaknesses emphasized are wrong fibre types and sizes included in the models, the -non-threshold hypothesis, taken as proved, and the great errors introduced by conversion of weight or total particle concentrations measured in the past into fibre counts, the current standard measure of exposure levels. The calculations are performed of threshold limit values for ambient airborne asbestos fibres derived on the basis of some of the main published risk assessment equations which would bring about unfeasibly low values for practical application.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
152628
URI
Publication date:
15.6.1989.
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