Man-Made Mineral Fibres: Hazard, Risk and Regulation

Abstract

Exposure to asbestos dust can cause fibrosis and/or cancer of the lungs or pleu ra. Experiments have confirmed that this can occur in animals exposed to a variety of non-asbestos fibres. The man-made vitreous fibres are manufac tured and used in vast quantities and the possibility that they pose some haz ard has attracted particular attention. No epidemiological studies have caused concern over the health effects of these materials and there are reasons to believe that the animal experiments overestimate their hazard. This is particu larly true when fibres are injected or implanted into the body cavities. Many regulatory agencies are attempting to devise regulations covering hazard label ling or risk reduction but none are yet scientifically satisfactory. Both the European Union and the German authorities have attempted to devise classi fication schemes based partly on the ability of fibres to persist in tissue but the more sophisticated German approach is flawed as it takes no account of many factors affecting solubility and relies on injection experiments to modify the classification generated by a crude composition index.