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Asbestos in the ambient air from rural, urban, residential, baseball and mining areas in South Korea

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Abstract

Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate that has been widely used as electrical insulator and heat-resistant material in buildings, yet inhalation of asbestos fibers can lead to serious lung diseases such as asbestosis and cancer. Practically no research has been conducted on the size distribution and morphological characteristics of airborne asbestos, and airborne asbestos concentrations in South Korea are unknown. Here we studied type, concentration, size, morphology and composition of asbestos fibers in the ambient air of several regions in South Korea. Asbestos concentrations were analyzed in 7 urban areas, 7 rural areas including agricultural and fishing areas, 17 mines and their surrounding areas, 7 residential areas constructed with asbestos-containing stones near rivers, 2 baseball fields and 2 background sites. Results show that the highest air asbestos concentrations were 0.00161 for residential areas and 0.00122 for baseball fields according to phase-contrast microscopy, and 0.00057 for asbestos mines and 0.00055 for baseball fields, according to transmission electron microscopy. Asbestos types included chrysotile, tremolite, and actinolite. Chrysotile fibers measured 5.24–35.5 µm in length with aspect ratios of 12.6–202.6; tremolite fibers measured 6.07–40.2 µm in length with aspect ratios of 5.7–81.2; and actinolite fibers measured 5.01–28.5 µm in length with aspect ratios of 3.2–108.9. Chrysotile was distributed in bundles or single fibers, whereas tremolite and actinolite exhibited fibrous, acicular, and cleavage forms.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Institute of Environment Research (NIER), funded by the Ministry of Environment of Korea (MOE) of the Republic of Korea (grant number NIER RP2011-1355).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indoor Environment and Noise Research Division, National Institute of Environmental Research, 42 Hwankyeong-Ro, Seo-gu, Incheon, 22689, Republic of Korea

    Hyun-Sung Jung, Yangseok Cho & Jong-Chun Lee

  2. Department of Public Health, Graduate School, The Catholic University of Korea, 222 Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 137-701, Republic of Korea

    Hyun-Sung Jung & Jinyoung Jang

  3. The Korean Association of Internal Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jinyoung Jang

  4. Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 222 Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 137-701, Republic of Korea

    Hyunwook Kim

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Hyun-Sung Jung, Hyunwook Kim were involved in conceptualization and methodology; Hyun-Sung Jung, Jinyoung Jang, Yangseok Cho contributed to formal analysis and investigation; Hyun-Sung Jung was involved in writing – original draft preparation; Hyun-Sung Jung, Jinyoung Jang, Jong-Chun Lee, Hyunwook Kim contributed to writing—review and editing; Jong-Chun Lee was involved in funding acquisition; Jong-Chun Lee, Hyunwook Kim contributed to supervision.

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Jung, HS., Jang, J., Cho, Y. et al. Asbestos in the ambient air from rural, urban, residential, baseball and mining areas in South Korea. Environ Chem Lett 19, 3487–3495 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-021-01226-7

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