Integrated automated asbestos fibre-counting and digital certification technology

石棉是一项重大的职业和公共健康风险，无论是在发达地区(石棉材料可能会在建筑物中受到干扰)，还是在开采、加工和使用没有减少迹象的发展中地区。英国正在经历的这种流行病将在未来30年内在全球范围内复制，目前每年有25万人死亡，而且还在上升。当扰动的石棉分解成极细的、看不见的纤维时，它会大量分解：一次呼吸可能很容易含有1万纤维；无意中与石棉接触几个小时可能会导致一生的剂量。然而，控制空气中的纤维是非常容易的--但前提是你知道它的存在。因此，对这种看不见的纤维进行风险管理的一个关键步骤是空气监测--提醒工人注意它的存在，并帮助了解存在的风险水平。全世界监测石棉纤维的最常见技术来自20世纪60年代。它速度慢，不敏感，而且--因为它依赖于专业的显微镜用户的近距离输入--昂贵得令人望而却步。因此，世界各地的监管机构无法规定将其用于除最高风险情况外的任何情况。这种测试方法也容易出现无意中的偏见，但考虑到进行大量测试的商业冲突环境，欺诈和腐败也是该行业和监管机构面临的一项不言而喻的可信度挑战。人们曾多次尝试将手动方法自动化，但没有一次能与人类分析师的表现相提并论。我们已经开发出一种技术，已经证明有潜力达到并超过人类分析师公认的监管绩效标准。我们现在正在寻求将其整合到一个集成的空气采样/分析设备中。这将是廉洁的，比现有技术更便宜、更可靠地向非专业用户提供安全、接近实时的数据。这有可能扰乱现有市场，并极大地扩大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，无法维持支持现有方法的质量控制系统。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”但高度诚信的能力，帮助他们实施和监测简单的风险控制，这对于避免石棉死亡流行病的全球传播至关重要。

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.