The risks from airborne asbestos in the urban environment

Abstract

Asbestos has found many uses during the past few decades and has been widely employed in the construction of buildings. There is in consequence some general, background concentration of airborne asbestos fibres in the environment, and in recent years concern has grown that this may give rise to some health risk among the population at large. Does this risk warrant action (for example, the removal of asbestos from buildings) to reduce the concentration? It is difficult to answer such a question rationally without some knowledge of the magnitude of the risk; it is the purpose of this paper to provide estimates of the two most important risks which may arise from exposure to airborne asbestos in the environment— death from lung cancer and death from mesothelioma. These estimates of risk are made by extrapolation from past industrial experience; the difficulties involved—particularly the lack of reliable exposure data—are discussed. Finally, a comparison is made of the risks that result from the inhalation of asbestos fibres with some other cancer risks.