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Ann. occup. Hyg., Vol. 46, No. suppl_1, pp. 121-124, 2002
© 2002 British Occupational Hygiene Society
Published by Oxford University Press

Mineralogy and Morphology of Fibres Determined by Transmission Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy in Steam Tunnels

A. Dufresne* and C. Infante-Rivard

Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University 3450 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2A7

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: andre.dufresne{at}mcgill.ca

The objective of this study was to determine the mineralogy and morphology of airborne fibres in steam tunnels by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) when fibre densities determined by phase contrast optical microscopy (PCOM) ranged from 5 to 100 fibres/mm2. The median diameter of chrysotile structures was 0.11 µm, 0.44 µm for amphibole and 0.33 µm for cleavage fragments. The median length of chrysotile structures was 7.7 µm, 12.7 µm for amphibole and 8.7 µm for cleavage fragments. Our results showed that there was poor correlation between PCOM and TEM fibre counts. This is probably explained by the fact that a notable number of chrysotile structures (~50%) detected by TEM had a diameter <0.25 µm, which is the limit of resolution of a PCOM, and therefore were not seen by the PCOM technique.

asbestos • TEM analysis • PCOM analysis • steam tunnel


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