• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.108-115
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• 2008

This study was performed to investigate the current status, in Korea, of the production of asbestos containing products (ACPs) such as asbestos cement products, asbestos friction materials, asbestos joint sheets, asbestos textile products, and other asbestos-containing products from May 2 to July 30, 2007. The information on ACPs was obtained through written questionnaires from 16 of the 27 companies that produce ACPs in Korea. The production amounts of asbestos containing gaskets were 70 tons in 2004, 90 tons in 2005, and 55 tons in 2006 in 4 companies and that of asbestos friction materials were 435.5 tons in 2004, 540.4 tons in 2005, and 454.3s ton in 2006 in 10 companies. The type and number of ACPs were:- 19 asbestos cement products, produced by 2 companies; 47 asbestos friction materials produced by 18 companies; 12 asbestos joint sheets productes by 4 companies; 18 asbestos textile products from 3 companies, and 6 other asbestos products from 5 companies. The database of ACPs was constructed to include the products name, identification number, name of company, production year, composition, asbestos content (%), usage, specification, and a picture. The database will be used to efficiently identify ACPs and to avoid asbestos exposure in workers and the general population.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.423-432
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate asbestos handling history of workers at automobile manufacturing plants in Korea. Methods: National regulations on asbestos and Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency(KOSHA) database on the information of asbestos containing products were reviewed. We investigated asbestos related materials from one automobile manufacturing plant. Material safety data sheets(MSDS) collected in 2010, work environment monitoring results reported from 2000 to 2013, trade union reports and asbestos survey reports were reviewed. We also interviewed workers with long career and did walk-through survey. Results: The Ministry of Labor in Korea has permitted asbestos manufacturing since 1990. In 1997, the use of crocidolite and amosite asbestos were banned. In 2007, the Korean government announced a total ban on the manufacturing, importation and use of all kinds of asbestos, which took full effect in 2009. A total of 174 asbestos products information from KOSHA database was analyzed. Extruded cement panel for building, special brake for crane farm machinery, gasket, joint sheet and thermal insulator were produced until 2007. From automobile manufacturing plant survey, we confirmed that asbestos containing materials(ACM) such as gasket, heating induction materials have been used until 2011. Asbestos containing building materials(ACBM) such as bamlites, slate and ceiling tex were reported at 122 asbestos dismantling projects in 2014. Conclusion: Although the use of all kinds of asbestos were banned from 2009, ACMs and ACBMs installed before 2009 were still found at automobile manufacturing plant until 2011 and 2014 respectively. In particular, asbestos slates should be managed because most of slates had not been removed until 2014.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.57-62
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• 2011

Asbestos have been used around the world because of reliable and cost-effective physicochemical characteristics. After incubation period about 15-40 years asbestos can cause various cancers, including malignant mesothelioma when inhaled into the air. These properties turned out, asbestos have been banned from using in developed countries. Also in Korea also, the use of asbestos was banned across the board by revision of Industry Safety and Health Act in February 2009. Therefore, the problem of asbestos is not when using. It is about dismantling, maintenance, and the final processing of asbestos waste. Asbestos Cement slates which is Widely distributed throughout the country as roofing materials has much scattering potential compare with inside materials. Also Ministry of Environment is planning to introduce legislation 'Asbestos Safety Management Act' through Environment Announcement and The same Act. 24 show as follows. Minister of Environment or governor should do survey on the actual condition targeting rural buildings with slates and partly or fully fund to dissolve, remove asbestos slate which was used in each buildings. Therefore, to solve these problems, database-building and necessity of management strategies have been continually arisen. So this study was performed. Its application value is very high in terms of its political, economic. Asbestos Cement Slates database could build to collect national registered building data and then using GIS, asbestos cement Slates distribution map were constructed in each province's cities and counties of the country. And this map by Application, construction was to visualize by application, construction of year. Through these results, information of Asbestos Cement Slates could visually inform to policy makers, asbestos dismantling and management contractor, and civilian and it would alleviate the gap of knowledge information. This is expected to be utilized by medium and long-term and effective plan for demolition and dismantling of asbestos cement Slates.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.451-462
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• 2011

Asbestos or its applications have been used for long times and for various purposes in our life because of their merits, namely fire resistance, electric insulation and chemical resistance capacity etc. Despite of theses many merits, one of the problems of asbestos is shown toxicity according to its fiber type. So we need data to solve about this problem. In this paper, we study on the technical method of asbestos waste treatment and on the trends of asbestos researches and developments by the analysis of its patents and DWPI database materials. As a result, the asbestos-waste treatment data in the its related patents is used 267 cases to analyze. These data are divided into 86(32.5%) cases of solid waste disposal(B09B). 41(16.6%) cases of separation(B01D) and 27(10.2%) of lime, magnesia, slag, cement and their composites(C04B).

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.201-208
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• 2011

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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.18-27
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• 2020

Objectives: For testing asbestos stabilizer products which are used for the maintenance and management of asbestos-containing materials, durability assessment should accompany the evaluation of basic properties and performance. Therefore, in this study we designed a testing method and constructed a database of durability performance, thereby providing basic data for reliability studies of asbestos stabilizer. Methods: Since the ceiling materials targeted in this study are interior materials, test conditions of 95% relative humidity and 60℃ temperature were designed in consideration of the effect of high relative humidity in summer and seasonal indoor temperatures. Plate-shaped specimens treated with asbestos stabilizers were maintained in a thermo-hygrostat for 5, 10, and 20 days, and then the asbestos scattering prevention rate was measured by air erosion testing. Results: The scattering concentration tended to increase with time under the single humidity condition, and exceeded the indoor air quality standard of 0.01 f/cc, during the 20 days of maintenance. On the other hand, there was little change according to the temperature condition. In the case of a complex condition with temperature and humidity, the results were similar to the humidity test, but the scattering concentration increased more sharply at 20 days. Conclusions: The main deterioration factor that affects the durability of asbestos stabilizer is humidity, and the deterioration is caused by a mechanism in which the stabilizer coated on the surface is re-dissolved by moisture and evaporates or the coating layer is peeled off, which is accelerated by high temperatures.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.302-307
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• 2022

Background: In Brazil, asbestos was intensively used from the 1960s until its ban in 2017. Mesothelioma, asbestosis, and pleural plaques are typical asbestos-related diseases (ARD-T). To create an ARD-T national database, death records from 1996-2017 were retrieved from several health information systems (HIS). Methods: All national HIS containing coded diagnoses (ICD-10) and death information were obtained. Linkage was performed to create a single database of ARD-T death records, either as underlying or contributory causes, in adults aged 30 years and older. Results: A total of 3,057 ARD-T death records were found, 2,405 (76.4%) of which being malignant mesotheliomas (MM). Pleural MM (n = 1,006; 41.8%) and unspecified MM (n = 792; 32.9%) prevailed. Male to female MM ratio (M:F) was 1.4:1, and higher ratios were found for non-malignant ARD-T: 3.5:1 for asbestosis and 2.4:1 for pleural plaques. Male crude annual mesothelioma mortality (CM_mm ×1,000,000) was 0.98 in 1996 and 2.26 in 2017, a 131.1% increment, while for females it was 1.04 and 1.25, a 20.2% increase, correspondingly. The small number of deaths with asbestosis and pleural plaques records precluded conclusive interpretations. Conclusions: Even with the linkage of several HIS, ARD-T in death records remained in low numbers. MM mortality in men was higher and showed a rapid increase and, along with non-malignant ARD-T, higher M:F ratios suggested a predominant pattern of work-related exposure. The monitoring of workplace and environmental asbestos exposure needs to be improved, as well as the workers surveillance, following the recent Brazilian ban.