Fuss & O’Neill was contracted to perform environmental monitoring during a pilot dust remediation project at seven sites in southwestern Connecticut.

Environmental monitoring was conducted to document potential employee exposure during a typical air circuit breaker maintenance procedure (clean, lube, and adjust) and to document concentrations of airborne particulate matter during the process. At each of the seven facilities, the pilot remediation project focused on one breaker and its associated cabinet. To determine potential employee exposure and the effectiveness of engineering controls, air sampling for airborne asbestos was performed for comparison with the OSHA Time-weighted Average Permissible Exposure Limit and the 30-minute Excursion Limit.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the cleaning, Transmission Electron Microscopy Microvacuum Sampling was conducted to determine the concentration of asbestos fibers in settled dust at four time periods: prior to cleaning(baseline), following cleaning, after a series of 10 operations and a half-hour settling period, and after an additional approximately 24-hour settling period.