Historical Asbestos Measurements in Denmark - A National Database

Ana Sofia Fonseca*, Amalie Kofoed Jørgensen, Bianca Xuan Larsen, Marina Moser-Johansen, Esben Meulengracht Flachs, Niels Erik Ebbehøj, Jakob Hjort Bønløkke, Trine Olesen Østergaard, Jesper Bælum, David Lee Sherson, Vivi Schlünssen, Harald William Meyer, Keld Alstrup Jensen

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

OBJECTIVES Due to the long lag-time for health outcomes, historical asbestos exposure measurements are valuable to support assessments of associated occupational health effects, and also to assess time trends and effects of preventive measures. METHODS Different sources of stored data were collated, assessed and refined to create a harmonized database on historical asbestos fibre concentrations measured in specific work tasks and different industries. The final database contains 9236 asbestos measurements from Danish workplaces collected from 1971 to 1997. RESULTS The geometric mean of asbestos concentrations in different occupations and tasks ranged from 0.003 to 35 fibres cm-3. Highest concentrations were registered during handling of asbestos products in the construction services during the period 1981-1997. Although all the measured asbestos exposures without the use of respiratory equipment by the worker in the period of 1971-1997 exceeded the current 8-h time-weighted average exposure limit of 0.1 fibres cm-3, the majority of samples collected in the earlier period of 1971 to 1980 did not exceed the exposure limit of 2 fibres cm-3, which was in place at the time. All exposure data obtained from 1980 and onwards were found to be one seventh of the mean fibre concentrations in the previous measurement period. The impact of time shows a clear exponentially decreasing trend-line. CONCLUSIONS Despite limitations in coverage of different occupations and tasks associated with the inventoried historical asbestos measurements, the data are helpful to identify specific work scenarios within an industry, where relatively high asbestos exposure levels may still occur or have occurred from 1971 to 1997.
Original languageEnglish
Article number643
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume19
Issue number2
ISSN1661-7827
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2022

Bibliographical note

This article belongs to the Special Issue Air Pollution: Occupational Exposure and Public Health

Keywords

  • Asbestos fibres
  • Database
  • Historical exposure measurements
  • Occupational exposure
  • Personal sampling
  • Phase contrast microscope

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