Integrated automated asbestos fibre-counting and digital certification technology

石棉在发达地区（材料可能在建筑物中受到干扰）和在开采、加工和使用没有减少迹象的发展中地区都构成重大的职业和公共健康风险。英国正在经历的这场流行病将在未来30年内在全球范围内复制，目前每年有25万人死亡，而且这个数字还在上升。当受到干扰的石棉分解成极其微小的、看不见的纤维时，它会大量分解：一次呼吸可能很容易含有1万个纤维；在不知情的情况下与石棉接触几个小时可能会导致一辈子的剂量。然而，控制空气中的纤维非常容易——但前提是你知道它的存在。对于这种看不见的纤维，一个关键的风险管理步骤是空气监测——提醒工人它的存在，并帮助了解所呈现的风险水平。世界范围内监测石棉纤维最常用的技术来自20世纪60年代。它是缓慢和不敏感的，因为它依赖于一个专业的显微镜用户的密切输入，是非常昂贵的。正因为如此，世界各地的监管机构除了在最高风险的情况下，无法规定它的使用。这种测试方法也容易产生不知情的偏见，但考虑到许多测试是在商业冲突的环境中进行的，它还容易产生欺诈和腐败，这对行业和监管机构来说是一个不言而喻的可信度挑战。已经有许多尝试将人工方法自动化，但没有一个能与人类分析师的表现相匹配。我们已经开发了一种技术，该技术已被证明具有匹配并超过人类分析师公认的监管绩效标准的潜力。我们现在希望将其整合到一个集成的空气采样/分析设备中。这将是不可破坏的，向非专业用户提供安全、接近实时的数据，比现有技术更便宜、更可靠。这有可能扰乱现有市场，并大大扩展空气监测作为风险管理工具的作用。仍在使用石棉的发展中地区缺乏健康和安全基础设施来维持质量控制系统，以支持现有方法。这项技术将为工人、雇主、监管机构和当地社区提供一种廉价、“定点射击”但高度完整的能力，帮助他们实施和监控简单的风险控制措施，以避免石棉死亡率在全球蔓延。

Asbestos presents a major occupational and public health risk, both in developed regions (where the material can be disturbed in buildings), and in developing regions where extraction, processing and use shows no sign of abating. The epidemic that the UK in particular is experiencing is set to be replicated globally over the next 30 years, with 250,000 deaths per annum currently, and rising.When disturbed asbestos breaks down into extremely fine-sized, invisible fibres, and it does so in huge numbers: one breath may easily contain 10,000 fibres; a few hours unwitting work with asbestos may result in a lifetime's dosage. Controlling the airborne fibre is however very easy - but only if you know it is present. A key risk management step for such an invisible fibre then, is air monitoring - to alert the worker to its presence and to help understand the level of risk presented.The most common technique for monitoring asbestos fibres worldwide comes from the 1960s. It is slow and insensitive and - because it relies on close input of an expert microscopist user - is prohibitively expensive. As such regulators around the world are unable to stipulate its use for any but the most high-risk situations. The test method is also prone to unwitting bias , but also - given the commercially-conflicted environment in which much testing is undertaken - fraud and corruption, an unspoken credibility challenge for the industry and regulator.There have been many attempts to automate the manual method but none have matched the performance of the human analyst. We have developed a technology that has demonstrated potential to match and exceed the accepted regulatory performance standards of the human analyst. We are now looking to incorporate this into an integrated air sampling/analysis device. This will be incorruptible, delivering secure, near real-time data to the non-specialist user more cheaply and reliably than the existing technique. This has the potential to disrupt the existing markets and extend the role of air monitoring as a risk management tool significantly. Developing regions still using asbestos lack the health & safety infrastructure to maintain the quality control systems to support the existing method. This technology will place a cheap, "point&shoot" but high-integrity capability into the hands of workers, employers, regulators and local communities to help them implement and monitor the simple risk controls essential to avoid the global spread of an asbestos mortality epidemic.