ABSTRACT

Building inspections for hazardous materials which generate particles in settled dust have procedures similar to those used for asbestos in settled dust. This chapter discusses the uses asbestos-containing material's (ACM) in buildings to illustrate these procedures. Building owners routinely deal with operating and maintaining their facilities, asbestos notwithstanding, but the phrase has been adopted to mean procedures and work practices specifically designed to safely operate and maintain facilities with ACM's. The traditional building inspection, therefore, is based primarily on non-instrumental means. The method of collection for dust samples should be determined based on the surface being sampled and the objective of the sampling. Forensic evidence tins are used to answer the question of how fast asbestos dust may be accumulating on a surface relative to one or more sources of release. Research simulating maintenance and custodial activities shows that the presence of AC dust can result in elevated levels of airborne fibers when the dust is improperly or inadvertently disturbed.