Comparison of Risk Assessment Criteria and Distribution of Asbestos-Containing Materials in School Building

Abstract

We investigated the distribution of Asbestos containing materials(ACMs) in Korea for 15 school buildings built before and after 1990, including elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. In order to perform risk assessments of samples gathered from the buildings, the study used four different rules as the criteria: results from the AHERA rule, the HSE rule and the ASTM rule on ACMs were measured against the available risk assessment of asbestos in Korea, a rule was proposed based on schools environment and background. In the ACMs aging of the samples before 1990, chrysotile and amosite in the ceiling samples were detected 2-5 % and 2-3 %, respectively. Overall, a higher detection rates was found in samples emanating in baumlight (chrysotile 5-8 %) used in a cubicle partition in the bathroom more than ceiling samples (chrysotile 2-5 %) taken from classrooms. As a result of air samples of asbestos, most of the samples had concentration levels below of Indoor Air Quality Management Standards (0.01 fiber/cc), except for two samples in the kindergarten and elementary school. Risk assessment and evaluation of ACMs indicated the similar results in AHERA rule, HSG264 rule and ASTM rule and proposed the new assessment(available risk assessment of asbestos in Korea) was made based on the Korea background.