Development of a stripping method for surfaces covered by coatings and paints containing asbestos and PAHs

Status:

completed 04/2010

Aims:

- Further development of a method employing a suitable kind of paste to encapsulate stripping of surfaces covered by coats of paint containing asbestos and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)
- Providing a safe and easy to handle method to the affected workforce.
- Provement of the feasibility of the method in a scientific manner in order to get it approved according to relevant health and safety standards.

Activities/Methods:

WP 1: Formulation of assessment criteria and development of an assessment procedure to evaluate the method
WP 2: Identification of suitable paste-like substances
WP 3: Development of a test bench to analyse the method on a laboratory scale
WP 4: Tests on the test bench
WP 5: Field tests under real conditions
WP 6: Approval of the method

Results:

In most of the field tests, no asbestos fibres were emitted; only in a few experiments, fibres were detected on nuclear pore filters. However, in those cases the number of fibres was always clearly below 15,000 fibres per m³ of air. The measurements required by BGI 664, which were carried out by the IGF (BG RCI, Institut für Gefahrstoff- Forschung), confirmed the results of the laboratory and field phases. By now the procedure was presented to the working group "Exposure to Asbestos during Demolition, Decontamination, and Maintenance Work", and a proposal for inclusion has been filed and allowed. The working instructions and the method description will soon be published as part of BGI 664. Thus, the project's aim to develop a new, simple, and economic method with low exposure was entirely achieved. The system has already been put into practice to bind different sorts of dust during an asbestos-free surface treatment to protect the workers. This allows the assumption that the developed working method will be put into practice after the completion of the authorization process.

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