Industry Recommends Reduction of Airborne Glass Fibers

Industry Scientists Recommend Drastically Lower Exposure Limit for Durable Fiberglass*

A group of scientists from Owens Corning Fiberglass recently published a quantitative risk assessment for the theoretical lifetime cancer risk from the manufacture and use of relatively durable synthetic glass fibers. They estimated levels of exposure to respirable fibers or fiber-like structures of E-glass and C-glass, (assuming a working lifetime exposure), that pose a theoretical lifetime cancer risk of less than 1 per 100,000. They concluded that controlling durable fiber exposures to an 8-hour Time-Weighted Average of 0.05 fibers/cm3 will assure that the additional (theoretical) lifetime risk from working lifetime exposures to these durable fibers is kept below the 1 per 100,000 level.

Left: Is a picture of fiberglass insulation dissolving. Owens Corning states that insulation fiberglass dissolves in the lungs in days or months. An important question remains. What are the health impacts for workers who are exposed every day? Other glass and ceramic fibers that are more durable pose significant risk because they do not dissolve in the lungs. Such fibers can be found in kiln and oven insulation, plastic composites, high tech polyurethane impregnated fabrics. Study your MSDS sheets and take precaution against exposure to airborne fibers.

* William E. Fayerweather, Walter Eastes, Francesco Cereghini, John G. Hadley, QUANTITATIVE RISK ASSESSMENT OF DURABLE GLASS FIBERS, Inhalation Toxicology , Volume 14, Number 6/June 01, 002 ,553 - 568

UAW Commentary

This paper concludes that exposure to these types of synthetic mineral fibers (SMF’s) be controlled to a level less than half that permitted for asbestos exposure.

The UAW Health and Safety Department has long recommended that all mineral fibers, including asbestos, be treated with the same precautions, and that laboratory studies suggested that SMF’s could be as potent as asbestos, fiber per fiber.

NIOSH recommends a limit of 3 fibers/ml for fibrous glass, American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) lists a number of limits depending on fiber type, while OSHA has no limit at all.

We are not prepared to suggest a safe exposure limit.

However, we recommend that air samples be collected for operations using any fibrous mineral material, including fiberglass, which generate visible dust in the air or on clothing, or fallout dust in the vicinity.

Samples should be collected and analyzed by the same methods used for asbestos, and analyzed with the same sensitivity.

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Industry Recommends Reduction of Airborne Glass Fibers

2003
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