The residual presence of critical components (e.g. Asbestos Containing Materials – ACMs) still represents one of the main criticalities for the Occupational Safety and Health – OS&H in many large public facilities (Lee and Van Orden, 2007).

Since the areas characterized by ACMs in good conditions are the most crucial to manage, due to the presence of the Hazard Factor in dormant conditions, an effective assessment and management of the related risk is pivotal. The Italian regulation (D.M. 06/09/94) provides general information on the approach for the analysis, stating the possibility to adopt two criteria: 1. examination of the artefacts condition, to detect possible deteriorations resulting in airborne fibers release, 2. indoor airborne fibers concentration measurements. The same Decree specifies that the airborne measurements alone cannot be a valid criterion to detect the possible fibers release from the pre-identified ACMs deterioration .

The paper discusses the actual contribution that airborne asbestos measurements can provide to the Risk Management, in particular in the identification of incipient deteriorations of ACMs. The research work was performed by implementing a special measuring strategy, in a real scenario, to increase the method sensitivity and collect data useful to relate the indoor pollution to the ACMs deterioration.

The residual presence of critical components (e.g. Asbestos Containing Materials – ACMs) still represents one of the main criticalities for the Occupational Safety and Health – OS&H in many large public facilities (Lee and Van Orden, 2007).

Since the areas characterized by ACMs in good conditions are the most crucial to manage, due to the presence of the Hazard Factor in dormant conditions, an effective assessment and management of the related risk is pivotal. The Italian regulation (D.M. 06/09/94) provides general information on the approach for the analysis, stating the possibility to adopt two criteria: 1. examination of the artefacts condition, to detect possible deteriorations resulting in airborne fibers release, 2. indoor airborne fibers concentration measurements. The same Decree specifies that the airborne measurements alone cannot be a valid criterion to detect the possible fibers release from the pre-identified ACMs deterioration .

The paper discusses the actual contribution that airborne asbestos measurements can provide to the Risk Management, in particular in the identification of incipient deteriorations of ACMs. The research work was performed by implementing a special measuring strategy, in a real scenario, to increase the method sensitivity and collect data useful to relate the indoor pollution to the ACMs deterioration.