Acta Montanistica Slovaca (Sep 2009)
Detection of asbestos fibres in selected building materials
Abstract
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral having a fibrous structure. The Directive 2003/18/EC of the European Parliamentand of the Council of 27 March 2003 considers „asbestos“ the following fibrous silicates: actinolite, gruenerite (amosite), anthophyllite,chrysotile, crocidolite, tremolite.Materials based on asbestos fibres and other mineral fibres have preferential characteristics; they are chemically, electricallyand thermally resistant. Because of these unique characteristics, asbestos is utilized by builders, mainly in roofing, insulation materialsand facades.In connection with the restriction of the usage of asbestos fibres usage in EU is due to the documented carcinogenic impact,it is necessary to detect and identify these fibres.Selected samples of building insulation materials were studied by the polarized light microscopy and by the scanning electronmicroscopy. For the purpose of measuring asbestos, only fibres with a length of more than five micrometers, a breadth of less than threemicrometers and a length/breadth ratio greater than 3:1 were taken into consideration. Asbestos fibres, fibres of mineral wooland cellulose we identified.
