MONITORING OF AIRBORNE FIBERS DURING ASBESTOS REMEDIATION: THE CASE STUDY OF THE “ETERNIT” SITE IN THE BAGNOLI-COROGLIO AREA OF RELEVANT NATIONAL INTEREST

Abstract

As part of the broader implementation of the Environmental Remediation and Urban Regeneration Program
(PRARU) of the Bagnoli-Coroglio area of relevant national interest (Naples, Italy), one of the priority actions was the completion of the soil remediation interventions of the former Eternit site, focused on the safe removal of soil and materials containing asbestos still present in the area (approximately 25,700 tonnes of hazardous waste).
This area has an extension of approximately 157,000 m² where the production of products containing asbestos had been carried out from 1939 to 1985. In 1997, the first reclamation activities began, consisting of the decommissioning of industrial structures and continuing with the removal of buried materials. These activities were interrupted in 2014 and then resumed in 2020 until completion at the beginning of 2023.
The activities, completed to date, were run under the constant control of the territorially competent “ASL Napoli 1”, and with the implementation of a specific shared plan for monitoring airborne fibers both inside the construction site and outside in the surrounding areas.
In particular, environmental monitoring activities were performed before, during and post-operation on eight control units, three of which were located within the construction site and five in the surrounding areas at potentially sensitive targets, as well as personal sampling of the exposed operators.
The methods for identifying asbestos fibers were both phase contrast microscopy (MOCF) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
In both cases, the monitoring results never showed that the thresholds established by Italian legislation were exceeded, both in terms of total fibers and asbestiform fiber.