Ambient monitoring of asbestos in selected Italian living areas.

This paper presents the results of an intensive monitoring activity of the particulate, fall-out and soil of selected living areas in Italy with the aim to detect the asbestos concentration in air and subsequent risk of exposure for the population in ambient living environments, and to assess the nature of the other mineral phases composing the particulate matrix. Some areas were sorted out because of the presence of asbestos containing materials on site whereas others were used as blank spots in the attempt to detect the background environmental concentration of asbestos in air. Because the concentration of asbestos in ambient environments is presumably very low, and it is well known that conventional low-medium flow sampling systems with filters of small diameter (25mm) may collect only a very small fraction of particulate over a short period, for the first time here, an intense monitoring activity was conducted with a high flow sampling system.