Fibre concentrations and size distributions of airborne fibres in several European man-made mineral fibre plants

Abstract

Although the nominal diameters of fibres produced in the glass and rock wool industries are usually 6-15 micrometers, these products contain a small proportion of respirable fibres (less than 3 micrometers diameter). Particular significance has been attached to the biological risk arising from the long (greater than 10 micrometers), fine (less than 1 micrometers) fibres. Therefore, the medical research sponsored by the Joint European Medical Research Board into the effects of man-made fibres on health has included detailed environmental studies on both the exposure levels to respirable fibres and the fibre size distributions at the European plants selected for epidemiological work. This paper summarizes the results obtained so far. The size distributions (length and diameter) of the airborne man-made mineral fibres are compared with similar data previously reported for airborne asbestos fibres.