Improvement in the prevention of asbestos fibre release from ceiling materials by increasing the penetration of a silicate stabilizer through dilution

Abstract

The effect of diluting asbestos stabilizer on its performance of suppressing the asbestos fibre release has been investigated in terms of its penetrability into ceiling materials containing asbestos fibres. The performance of a silicate stabilizer was determined for cases where the ceiling material was damaged by external factors. The higher dilution rate of the stabilizer resulted in lower viscosities and hence greater penetration depths into asbestos ceiling materials. In addition, for cases in which the diluted stabilizer was sprayed several times onto the ceiling materials, the released asbestos fibre concentration was shown to be reduced by approximately 89% compared to the case of damaged ceiling material. Furthermore, this held true in cases where treated ceiling materials were damaged. The optimum condition, considering both performance and efficiency, is for a stabilizer with distilled water to be applied onto the damaged asbestos ceiling materials several times.