68 Global change
save lives
Spatial light scattering science could
‘Particle thumbprint’ technology, pioneered by scientists at our Centre for Atmospheric and Instrumentation Research in the 1990s, now holds the key to protecting people most at risk of exposure to potentially lethal asbestos fibres.
Asbestos is one of the world’s most deadly industrial toxins. Although the European Union has now banned its use and manufacture, asbestos is still present in many public buildings, offices and private dwellings. Common hiding places are ceiling panels, pipe insulation, water tanks, boilers and textured wall coverings. Asbestos is most dangerous when it is disturbed and airborne fibres are inhaled.
Until now, there has been no practical way of protecting those who are most at risk of exposure, such as plumbers, electricians, builders and demolition workers. Rather than continuous in-situ monitoring to detect and warn people of the presence of dangerous fibres in the environment, airborne particles are analysed in a laboratory. This process can take hours or even days, wastes valuable time, and often leaves people at risk of exposure.
The EU ALERT Rapid Asbestos Detection project aims to address this problem by producing the first real- time monitor for airborne asbestos fibres. The underpinning research and development for the portable ALERT monitor comes from our scientists’ pioneering work in the area of single particle characterisation by spatial light scattering (SLS) during the late-1990s.
This ‘particle thumbprint’ technology and instrumentation, developed by our Centre for Atmospheric and Instrumentation Research (CAIR), provides a non-destructive, real-time method of detecting specific particle types. Over the last decade the technique has been successfully adopted by commercial, government and research organisations in Europe, the US and Japan for a variety of defence, environmental and health applications. For example, it has been used as part of first line defence to alert troops of possible airborne bio-warfare agents; to monitor pollens and fungal spores
associated with allergies; to monitor pollution from incinerator smoke-stack emissions; and for atmospheric cloud microphysics and climate research.
Professor Paul Kaye, leader of the ALERT development team at the University of Hertfordshire, explains the significance of the asbestos detection monitor:
‘It has the potential to save many lives. Asbestos exposure is the leading cause of work-related deaths in Europe. It has been estimated that worldwide more than one hundred thousand people die each year from occupational exposure to airborne asbestos fibres.
‘Our spatial light scattering technology is well proven in the field and forms the basis of the ALERT monitor. On its own, however, it isn’t sufficient to always discriminate asbestos from other similar, but far less harmful, fibres such as those of gypsum or glass that are commonly found around building or demolition sites. The new monitor therefore takes advantage of asbestos’ magnetic properties – virtually unique among respirable fibres – to allow the light scattering system to discriminate between asbestos and these other fibre types. It will monitor the air in the vicinity of the worker and will provide, for the first time, a warning of exposure to potentially lethal asbestos dust virtually the moment it becomes airborne.’
The new low-cost device is expected to be available within two to three years, with predicted sales of around six hundred thousand units in the first ten years. In addition to protecting trades-people and helping to prevent a significant proportion of asbestos- related deaths, the economic benefit is likely to be significant. It is thought that the future cost of worker compensation claims in the European Union could be reduced by around Û 255m.
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