POTENTIAL FOR RECOGNITION OF AIRBORNE ASBESTOS FIBERS FROM SPATIAL LASER SCATTERING PROFILES

This Short Communication describes some preliminary results of researc h which seeks to develop a method by which individual airborne asbesto s fibres may be detected in real-time within a contaminated environmen t. The method proposes using an analysis of the spatial laser scatteri ng profile (i.e. the complex manner in which individual particles scat ter laser light), recorded from individual airborne particles, as a me ans of classifying the particles in terms of their morphological chara cteristics. Scattering profiles have been recorded from both crocidoli te and chrysotile fibres and these display differentiating features wh ich suggest that in certain cases it may be possible to discriminate e ach type of fibre from other airborne particulates. Examples of scatte ring profiles are presented and methods of automated pattern recogniti on, which are currently under development, are briefly discussed.