A Occupational Safety & Health

Asbestos is a generic term used to refer to a group of mineral forms that share a unique set of physical properties. Today, the six mineral structures now identified by OSHA and by the mineralogical definition as ‘‘asbestos’’ are those currently regulated in the United States and those that all industries governed by OSHA must keep within permissible exposure limits set out by the agency’s regulations. The authors of this article say NIOSH seeks to revise the definition of asbestos to eliminate the distinction between the asbestiform and the nonasbestiform varieties of the relevant minerals. They say there is a lack of scientific evidence of a significant risk from exposure to the non-asbestiform varieties and argue that expanding the definition of asbestos would be severely economically damaging.