Naturally-Occurring Asbestos - Air Monitoring

The overall average concentration from this monitoring effort was 0.0008 s/cc. To put these levels in perspective to other asbestos monitoring studies the ARB has conducted, please see the table below.

It is important to understand that these results are individual measurements at specific locations at the high school and do not represent what the average or typical asbestos exposures may be in any broad area (e.g. El Dorado County). Additionally, the estimated potential cancer risks provided assume that a population would be continuously breathing those levels over a lifetime (about 70 years). This should not be interpreted to mean that it is necessary to be exposed to asbestos for 70 years in order to contract asbestos-related cancer. Rather, the potential cancer risk is a high-end estimate of the number of cases in a population of a million people exposed over a lifetime. Since we do not have approved methodologies or health values for estimating potential cancer risks from the short-term exposures measured at the high school, the use of lifetime potential risks estimates shown in table below provides an easy-to-understand basis when comparing results from various monitoring studies.

1. Risk estimates are consistent with the Cal/EPA Office of Environmental Health Hazard Air Toxics Hot Spots Program Guidance Manual for Preparation of Health Risk Assessments (August 2003) and ARB Recommended Interim Risk Management Policy for Inhalation-Based Residential Cancer Risk. The potential cancer risks are for comparison purposes only. All results have been rounded.
2. The result are for mesothelioma and have been rounded.