Understanding the health risk of fibres, through toxicology research

Through financial support from the Asbestos Research Council and the Colt Foundation, IOM carried out a 20-year program of ground-breaking research into understanding the toxicology of asbestos and other fibres.

The research uncovered the most important parameters relating to the toxicity were length, diameter and solubility. This discovery enabled decisions to be made about the relative safety of different types of fibres, improved measurement methods and enabled safer fibres to be developed.

Over the program period, IOM contributed more than 100 scientific papers on the subject.