Scarlett H P, Delzell E, Sathiakumar N, Oestenstad R K, Postlethwait E
Department of Community Health and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Kingston 7, Jamaica, West Indies.
West Indian Med J. 2010 Dec;59(6):668-73.
Asbestos is an established human carcinogen and has been identified at 16 of 26 Jamaican hospitals surveyed. We sought to determine if hospital employees are exposed and if current asbestos exposure in Jamaican hospitals differed by job category.
At two of the largest hospitals with more than 10 permanent maintenance workers and where over 67% of bulk samples analysed contained asbestos, three groups of employees selected by stratified random sampling participated in a personal air sampling study for asbestos. One hundred and thirty-two personal air samples and 32 area samples were collected and analysed for asbestos fibres utilizing phase contrast microscopy (PCM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).
Twenty-four (14.6%) air samples had fibre counts above the limit of detection (LOD) for the analytical method (PCM), ranging from 0.002 f/cc to 0.013 f/cc. The fibres met the dimensional characteristics of asbestos fibres. There was no difference in the median fibre concentration to which the groups of employees were exposed. Further testing of samples which had fibre counts above the LOD using TEM confirmed that the fibres were not asbestos.
Despite not finding asbestos fibres in the air samples, most of the asbestos containing building material (ACBM) found in the hospitals was friable and in a poor condition indicative of fibre release. We recommend an ongoing monitoring programme for airborne asbestos fibres in hospitals until an abatement programme can be undertaken by the regulatory agencies in the country.
石棉是一种已确定的人类致癌物，在接受调查的26家牙买加医院中的16家已检测到石棉。我们试图确定医院员工是否接触石棉，以及牙买加医院当前的石棉接触情况是否因工作类别而异。
在两家拥有超过10名长期维修工人且分析的大部分散装样品中含有石棉的最大医院中，通过分层随机抽样选择的三组员工参与了石棉个人空气采样研究。采集了132份个人空气样本和32份区域样本，并使用相差显微镜（PCM）和透射电子显微镜（TEM）分析石棉纤维。
24份（14.6%）空气样本的纤维计数高于分析方法（PCM）的检测限（LOD），范围为0.002根/立方厘米至0.013根/立方厘米。这些纤维符合石棉纤维的尺寸特征。员工接触的纤维浓度中位数没有差异。使用TEM对纤维计数高于LOD的样本进行进一步测试，证实这些纤维不是石棉。
尽管在空气样本中未发现石棉纤维，但医院中发现的大多数含石棉建筑材料（ACBM）易碎且状况不佳，表明有纤维释放。我们建议在该国监管机构实施减排计划之前，对医院空气中的石棉纤维进行持续监测。
