The Potential of Hyperspectral Imaging in the SWIR Range for Detection of Asbestos Containing Materials

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that, for its characteristics in terms of heat resistance, tensile strength and insulating properties, was largely utilized in the past both in industrial and civil applications. A lot of studies demonstrated the high toxicity of this material. Today asbestos is well recognized as responsible of mesothelioma cancer. For this reason it was banned in more than 50 countries and strongly limited in use in many others. Asbestos can be found in a large number of urban and industrial sites since largely utilized in the 60’s and the 70’s in the building construction sector (i.e. roofing, partitions, pipes, insulation, coatings, etc.). According to the status of the asbestos containing materials, asbestos can be released in the atmosphere with production of very harmful airborne dust. To prevent such very dangerous effect, it is of primarily importance to perform a fast and reliable “on-site” detection of asbestos containing materials, both in term of physical-chemical characteristics and in terms of their mechanical status. Infrared spectroscopy and especially hyperspectral imaging (HSI) can significantly support the recognition of this class of hazardous products, also allowing the identification of the different asbestos fibers. The main advantage of this approach is not only linked to the possibility to identify the exposed asbestos fibers in a matrix, following a non-destructive analytical approach, but also to define their topological assessment, this latter aspect influencing asbestos fiber release. Furthermore, human risks linked to classical material physical sampling are dramatically reduced.