Asbestos in water

Asbestos that may be present in water for human use, according to the World Health Organization, does not constitute a health hazard if swallowed.

Guidelines of the American Environmetal Protection Agency (EPA) consider the possibility that asbestos in water may contribute to increase the background level of airborne fibres and therefore the risk related to possible inhalation. These indications recommend not to exceed the value of 7 million fibers/liter.

The presence of asbestos in water may be due to asbestos cement pipes used in the past:

• in case of bad maintenance and broken pipes, also due to the effect of “aggressive” water, which tends to attack and solubilize minerals;
• due to the handling of old pipes for network maintenance works.

Periodical monitoring of asbestos in water in these situation can be a useful preventive measure.

Mérieux NutriSciences is present in 4 locations with state-of-the-art asbestos laboratories ready to perform qualitative and quantitative analytical analyses for airborne, massive and water samples containing asbestos: MOCF, MOLP, DRX, FT-IR, SEM, TEM.

The use of TEM in the case of water analysis is often decisive, as the fibers in this matrix the most of the times are very thin and not distinguishable with SEM resolution. TEM is able to distinguish fibers with a diameter less than 0.1 µm and a length less than 1 µm.