Digging deep into asbestos fibres in soil

Brownfield sites are frequently contaminated with asbestos from old buildings and industrial plants. This can lead to the release of fibres into the air during redevelopment.

IOM conducted research to establish a correlation between the concentration of airborne fibres released and the percentage of asbestos in the soil.

Based on this, IOM developed a method to estimate possible risks of exposure based on soil sample analysis. This is now widely used as a standard method, providing quantitative analysis, to assess the levels of asbestos contamination in soil and to establish safe levels and appropriate mitigation measures.