title: Airborne fiber concentration and size distribution of mineral fibers in area with serpentinite outcrops in Aichi prefecture, Japan.
abstract: Airborne fiber concentrations and size distributions of both asbestos and nonasbestos fibers were determined at property boundaries of 4 serpentinite quarries producing crushed stone (quarry property boundary), 10 sites within 10 km of the area with serpentinite outcrops (serpentinite area), and 2 sites in a reference area. The asbestos was identified in 7 rock and 3 soil samples collected in the serpentinite area. The geometric means of airborne concentrations of asbestos and nonasbestos fibers longer than 0.2 microm in length were: 384 and 447 fibers/liter (f/L) in the quarry property boundary (in operation), 12 and 124 f/L in the quarry property boundary (in closed), 5 and 103 fibers/liter in the serpentinite area, and less than 2 and 59 fibers/liter in the reference area, respectively. There was a significant difference in airborne concentrations of both asbestos and nonasbestos fibers among the areas. Ttremolite/actinolite were found with chrysotile in the stones. Airborne concentrations of tremolite/actinolite were higher than those of chrysotile at the quarry property boundary and in the serpentinite area. Tremolite/actinolite were also found in the soils. There was no significant difference among the areas in the arithmetic means of fiber size distribution of both asbestos and nonasbestos fibers.
authors.affiliation: Nagoya City Public Health Research Institute, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hisanaga
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kohyama
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D017632:Asbestos, Serpentine / Q000032:analysis*; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D019016:Mineral Fibers / Q000032:analysis; D010316:Particle Size; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D017632:Asbestos, Serpentine; D019016:Mineral Fibers