201 Occupational exposure of workers manufacturing chrysotile asbestos cement products: a case study in Kyrgyzstan

Introduction An increasing number of countries are banning the production and use of asbestos because of the 1986 Basel Convention and its reconsideration in 2022. Nevertheless, some countries, including central Asian ones (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), are still miners and consumers of asbestos. The main objective of the study is to assess the occupational exposure to asbestos of workers engaged in the production facility of asbestos-cement products in Kyrgyzstan. Methodology Samples were collected through personal sampling, by drawing a measured volume of air through a membrane filter, which was subsequently examined with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Individual fibres in a randomly selected area of the filter were then counted at a magnification of 2000× following ISO 14966:2019 criteria. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) was used to classify the fibres according to their chemical composition. Monitored workers (n = 18) were divided into three “Similar Exposure Groups” (SEGs; SEG-1: asbestos loading; SEG-2; asbestos-cement mixing; SEG-3: cutting of asbestos-cement sheets) according to EN 689 standard. Results Investigated workers resulted to be exposed to chrysotile fibres. Preliminary results (to be validated) outlined extremely high exposures for SEG-1 (average values > 2000 ff/L) and SEG-3 (average values > 4000 ff/L) and lower - but still relevant – exposure values for SEG-2 (average values > 500 ff/L). Conclusions The results obtained in this case study help document potentially critical situations of occupational exposure to asbestos that can still occur nowadays in low and middle-income countries where asbestos is still mined and processed.