A method has been developed to identify asbestos-bearing samples. This technique, using scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM/TEM) coupled with X-ray fluorescent spectroscopy (XFS), X-ray elemental spectral analysis (EDS/EDAX), and X-ray diffractometry (XRD), supplements the traditional use of dispersion staining and polarized-light optical microscopy. The traditional method is subject to a statistical variance associated with analyzing a small volume of sample and projecting the results to the entire volume of the sample which in many cases is non homogeneous. [1] The simultaneous use of the aforementioned analyses in the new method improves the quantitative identification of highly heterogeneous unknowns.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the essential steps of the identification process that will serve as the basis in the development of an automated particle/fiber recognition program. Five commercially pure asbestos samples of actinolite, amosite, chrysotile, crocidolite, and tremolite, and four common ‘household’ samples were examined.