The membrane filter method for fibre counting is now ~50 years old. It was designed for fibre counts in the age of asbestos manufacturing, when the occupational  exposure limit (OEL) was  2 f/ml and was able to count up to 100 f/ml, for when controls were lacking.

The EU amendments (2023/2668) to the Asbestos Working Directive (AWPD) is proposing  a new OEL some x1000 lower at 0.002 f/ml by the end of 2029. Even the x10 reduction due next year to 0.01 f/ml, requires more than just using the clearance indicator sampling strategy in UK HSG 248.

Can we just keep using the old method by sampling ever greater volumes of air, counting more empty fields of view and adjusting the statistics to get over the line? Or will automated PCM counting coupled with AI be a realistic option and come to the rescue?

How do we verify AI counts?

Find out what FAAM SC3 research committee and others, including you, are thinking.

This one hour webinar will follow the previous format with two short (<10 minute) presentations to help explore and discuss the options, followed by a Q&A session.

The two short presentations will be given by Martin Harper and Garry Burdett.

Speaker Biographies

Garry Burdett is an active member of FAAM SC3 science and Technology committee and has well over 40 years of experience of measuring asbestos concentrations in air, water, land and many other matrices. After working in both the UK for the Health and Safety Executive and in the USA, he is now “retired”, which means no one pays him for his time anymore. However, prompted by the EU’s proposal for a x50 reduction in the OEL the whole issue of how we reduce the risk to asbestos removal  and maintenance workers, needs radical thinking from what is the best way to monitor the  risks from asbestos,  to how we can best control them to an acceptable level.

Dr Martin Harper has degrees and diplomas in geology, chemistry and occupational health. He is a Chartered Chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Certified Industrial Hygienist and Fellow of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, and a Fellow of the American Society for Testing and Materials. He served 14 years with the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, was one of the authors of the NIOSH “Roadmap” for asbestos research and was responsible for the latest update to NIOSH method 7400. He is currently a Courtesy Professor in the Dept. of Environmental Engineering Sciences at the University of Florida.