Selective Detection of Asbestos in Indoor Air

Chrysotile, most part of widely used asbestos in building materials, is a serious cocern in indoor air can cause lung related cancers in a long period of time.

Even its  harmfulness is well known, there is still no simple detection technology or monitoring system until now.

We performed several experiments to test the feasiblity of optic based detection of asbestos in a short time and at economic cost.

Asbestos samples were prepared by pretreating asbetos containing gloves and chrysotile from natural soils. Pretreated samples were characterized by PCM (Phase Contrast Microscopy) and PLM (Polarized Light Microscopy) methods as done before as general.

It was found that each sample contained approximately 15 % of chrysotile for sample from natural soil and 80 % of chrysotile for sample from asbestos glove, respectively.

Refractive index liquids (refractive indices= 1.55) were utilized to dye selectively chrysotile. Colorimeter and hyperspectral imaging sensor were tested to characterize chrysotile samples in varying concentrations according to dyeing w/wo refractive index liquids.

From the analysis, there was a preferred chrominance value and color in wavelength to detect chrysotile selectively and its preference was enhanced by dyeing with refractive index liquids.

We suggest that optic based asbetos detection can be one of promising technology in developing the real time asbestos monitoring system in the future.