IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308 _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Volume: 03 Special Issue: 11 | NCAMESHE - 2014 | Jun-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 76 EXPOSURE HAZARD ANALYSIS IN CEMENT FIBER SHEET MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY M. Rajesh Kumar 1 , K. N. Karthick 2 , T. Dheenathayalan 3 , K. Visagavel 4 1 PG Scholar, Industrial Safety Engineering, Knowledge Institute of Technology, Salem, India 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Knowledge Institute of Technology, Salem, India. 3 Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Knowledge Institute of Technology, Salem, India 4 Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Knowledge Institute of Technology, Salem, India Abstract Asbestos a collective name given to six type of naturally occurring fiber, well known human carcinogen. Undesirable health effects of asbestos lead to prohibition in most of developed countries but still some developing countries tend to use it in various commercial form. The objective of this study is to estimate the occupational asbestos exposure level and to predict the health risk if the level of exposure exceeds the recommended standard limit. One of the asbestos cement (AC) sheet manufacturing industry is selected to conduct study similar to general cross-sectional study. The main operation of the industry is to manufacture AC sheet in continuous basic that mean production is done round the clock. Both personal sample and static sample were collected in regular operational day by following BIS 11450:2006 as standard procedure for collecting air samples and fiber counting. Location for sampling were selected by considering staff suggestion and by visual observation made around the occupancy area. From twenty-four collected samples twenty-two were sampled, the personal sample taken from wet ball mill area shown 0.0690 fiber per cubic centimetre (f/cc) which was highest among overall collected sample and lowest concentration 0.0195 f/cc was found from personal testing fiber sheet. From the obtained fiber concentration result it shows that asbestos exposure at occupational area were maintained within the permissible limit also no history of asbestos related diseases (ARD) was found among employees which hypothesis the progressive safety system in working environment. Unless until the use of asbestos is completely prohibited, a finest control system should be followed to avoid the occurrence of ARD from both occupational and public zone. Key Words: Asbestos, fiber concentration, occupational asbestos exposure and sampling. --------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. INTRODUCTION Asbestos is universally recognized as human carcinogenic that can result in chronic disease such as mesothelioma, lung cancer, chromosomal alteration and [1]-[5]. Asbestos are mainly categorised as two type’s amphiboles ( Actinolite, Amosite, Anthophyllite, Crocidolite, tremolite) and serpentine (Chrysotile) [2], [6], [7]. This fiber can be found as natural rock in certain parts of the world, among world countries Russia and Canada are the largest exporters[6] of asbestos fiber especially chrysotile, commercially termed as white fiber. Chrysotile can be found in many different commercial products that include cement products, automobile brake lining [6]. There were few studies which show non-significant [8], [9] health effect of chrysotile fiber but numerous show significant association with asbestos related diseases. Although all types of asbestos are health hazardous this white fiber is proved as less hazardous than its other types [10]. But in recent years chrysotile fiber has become a threat to human health. Various studies has been done in aspect of risk assessment, occupational exposure and mortality rate determination which are now used as tool to create awareness and this current study follows same way. Each country has set of protocol to assess the occupational exposure level, in India Bureau of Indian standard (BIS) 11450 is used to assess the airborne asbestos fibre concentration in work environment by light microscopy [11]. Because of higher mortality rate and by evidence of ARD [12] from occupational and non-occupational asbestos exposure many countries had banned the use of asbestos. By economic consideration some countries still manufacture and uses asbestos based product [13], in those industry it is mandatory to assess the level of exposure and to maintain safe working condition. This study will help to reveal the actual asbestos exposure level in an AC sheet manufacturing industry. 2. METHOD AND MATERIALS 2.1 Manufacturing Process A cement fiber sheet manufacturing industry was selected to carry out this study. Here the AC sheet are produced by following well known Hatscheck process which is carried out in wet condition. The raw material for the process involves cement, fly ash, chrysotile asbestos fiber and water. Each raw material are separately mixed with water to form unique slurry then they are stored in separate silo on