This report considers the sources of asbestos environmental contamination. Marketing information, available monitoring data, and engineering assumptions were used to estimate asbestos emissions. Chrysotile is the more common commercial mineral form of asbestos, although others such as crocidolite, amosite, and anthophyllite are also commercially important. Asbestos is used in thousands of products including friction materials (brakes and clutches), asbestos-cement pipe and sheet, roofing, paper, flooring, insulation, packing and gaskets, textiles, coating and paints, and plastics. The available information would not allow for any quantitative estimates and rarely was an ambient level attributable to a particular source. Exceptions were crushed serpentinite rock containing asbestos that was used to pave roads and driveways, demolition of buildings containing asbestos construction material, and automotive brake linings adjacent to toll plazas where cars brake to a stop. Municipal incineration may also be a potential source of significant asbestos fiber emission to ambient air. Release of asbestos fibers from A/C pipe used for drinking water appears to be minor, except where the water is very aggressive.
"TR 77-515." Prepared by Syracuse Research Corp., Center for Chemical Hazard Assessment, Syracuse N.Y., under contract no. 68-01-3224, task III, SCR no. L1273-08. Issued Aug. 1978. Includes bibliographical references.