Abstract
Objectives: According to the compliance of the asbestos-related regulation, every building has to be inspected for asbestos presence before its abatement work. This study was performed for identifying the types and contents of asbestos in building bulk samples. Materials and Methods: Bulk samples were collected during the asbestos inspection in 2010. We grouped the bulk samples into the regulated asbestos containing materials(RACM), presumed asbestos containing materials(PACM), and construction products. Additionally, the types of asbestos in all bulk samples were identified by polarization microscopy(PLM). Results: The RACMs were from building, house, pipe and facility. The RACMs were found mainly building (72.1%) and house (93.7%). The contents of chrysotile in building, house and facility were 66.9% (1-90%), 89.7% (2-90%) and 11.0% (2-90%), respectively. PACMs were surfacing material, thermal system insulation (TSI), and miscellaneous material. The miscellaneous materials that showed a high detection rate (79.2%) were ceiling, roofing and wall materials. Among them, the roofing materials had high chrysotile content(9.7%, 2-21%), followed by wall (8.7%, 2-21%) and ceiling (3.4%, 1-17%). In the construction products, asbestos was found mainly in slate (92.6%, 2-21%), including chrysotile. The slate had high asbestos content (9.7%, 2-21%), followed by cement flat board (8.7%, 2-19%) and textile (3.4%, 1-17%) Conclusions: Utilizing these results, it would be contributed to construct a useful ACM database and prevent from asbestos exposure to workers in the asbestos abatement and maintenance works.