Epidemiological Study on Asbestos Related Occupational Health Problems Among Asbestos Industry Workers in Sri Lanka

We conducted an epidemiological study on Asbestos industry workers in Sri Lanka with the aim to determine the impact of occupational asbestos exposure on their health. For this first pilot study, one of the asbestos roofing sheets producing factories in Sri Lanka was selected, which had two production plants. The breathing air was sampled , from each selected site for 30 minutes using an air sampler and the dry dust samples were also collected for analysis. Two hundred sixty-four workers were medically screened. As negligible numbers of fibres observed in breathing air in the workplace, most pulmonary disorders observed cannot directly correlate to Asbestos exposure. However, the presence of fibres in deposition samples and the presence of dust in breathing air can influence the pulmonary health of the factory employees.