From the Navy Base to the Neighborhood: Reconstructing Historical Asbestos Exposure
By Paul E. Rosenfeld, M.S., Ph.D., Principal Environmental Chemist, RoseyFields LLC, Santa Monica, California
A career that began with asbestos remediation, not litigation
Before founding RoseyFields LLC, Dr. Paul E. Rosenfeld, M.S., Ph.D. served as a Remedial Project Manager for the U.S. Navy’s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Program on Treasure Island, where he oversaw asbestos remediation in soils and friable building materials, directed environmental testing and cleanup activities, and conducted air monitoring to protect workers and nearby communities. That hands-on remediation background underlies his current litigation practice reconstructing historical asbestos exposure.
Why asbestos exposure reconstruction differs from most other contaminants
Unlike a chemical plume that dissipates, asbestos fibers released decades ago into building materials, soil, or serpentine road dust can remain a persistent exposure source indefinitely, meaning a historical asbestos investigation frequently addresses ongoing rather than purely retrospective conditions.
Serpentine geology as a naturally occurring exposure source
In addition to manufactured asbestos-containing products, naturally occurring asbestos in serpentine rock formations, common in parts of California and elsewhere, can become airborne through road construction, grading, and vehicle traffic on unpaved surfaces; Dr. Rosenfeld has modeled asbestos emissions from serpentine road dust and reconstructed resulting exposures for residents and schoolchildren near affected roadways.
The foundational occupational epidemiology
The scientific link between asbestos exposure and disease traces substantially to Irving Selikoff’s landmark cohort studies of insulation workers, which documented markedly elevated rates of asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma among heavily exposed workers, establishing the epidemiological foundation still cited in asbestos litigation today (Selikoff et al., 1964).
The regulatory framework governing asbestos
Asbestos is regulated under multiple federal frameworks: OSHA’s asbestos standards for general industry and construction establish occupational permissible exposure limits, EPA’s National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants govern asbestos-related demolition and renovation work practices, and the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act requires school building inspection and management (OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.1001 and 1926.1101; US EPA, 40 CFR Part 61 Subpart M).
Fiber type and disease risk are not uniform
Asbestos is not a single mineral; amphibole fiber types, including amosite and crocidolite, have been associated with substantially higher mesothelioma risk per unit of exposure than the more commonly used chrysotile fiber, making fiber-type identification an important component of a scientifically rigorous exposure reconstruction rather than treating all asbestos-containing material as toxicologically equivalent.
Reconstructing historical airborne fiber concentrations
Because historical air monitoring for asbestos fiber concentrations rarely exists for residential or community exposure scenarios, reconstruction typically relies on published emission factors for the specific activity involved, disturbance of asbestos-containing material, vehicle traffic on contaminated roads, building demolition, combined with historical land use and activity-pattern data for the specific plaintiff.
IARC’s classification and the absence of an identified safe threshold
IARC classifies all forms of asbestos as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1), and unlike many chemical carcinogens, no exposure threshold below which mesothelioma risk is considered absent has been established, a scientific reality that shapes how low-level or intermittent asbestos exposure claims are evaluated (IARC, Arsenic, Metals, Fibres, and Dusts, Vol 100C).
Take-home and para-occupational exposure as a distinct pathway
Beyond direct occupational or environmental exposure, asbestos fibers carried home on a worker’s clothing, skin, or hair have been documented to cause disease in household members who never worked at the source facility, a take-home exposure pathway requiring its own reconstruction of the worker’s job duties, fiber-generating activities, and laundering practices.
Why community-scale asbestos investigations remain relevant today
Legacy asbestos-containing building materials remain present in schools, older residential housing, and commercial buildings nationwide, and naturally occurring asbestos continues to be identified in previously undeveloped land now subject to construction, meaning historical and ongoing asbestos exposure reconstruction remains a continuing, rather than purely historical, practice area. More information on Dr. Rosenfeld’s asbestos exposure assessment work is available through RoseyFields.com.
References
1. Selikoff IJ, Churg J, Hammond EC. Asbestos exposure and neoplasia. JAMA. 1964;188:22-26.
2. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Asbestos. 29 CFR § 1910.1001 (general industry); 29 CFR § 1926.1101 (construction).
3. US Environmental Protection Agency. National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Asbestos. 40 CFR Part 61, Subpart M.
4. Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), 15 USC §§ 2641-2656; 40 CFR Part 763.
5. IARC Working Group on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. Arsenic, Metals, Fibres, and Dusts. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, Vol 100C. Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer; 2012.
6. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Toxicological Profile for Asbestos. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2001.
7. US Environmental Protection Agency. Naturally Occurring Asbestos. Washington, DC: US EPA.
8. California Air Resources Board. Airborne Toxic Control Measure for Construction, Grading, Quarrying, and Surface Mining Operations (Naturally Occurring Asbestos). Sacramento, CA: CARB.
9. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response. 29 CFR § 1910.120.
10. Nicholson WJ, Perkel G, Selikoff IJ. Occupational exposure to asbestos: population at risk and projected mortality—1980-2030. Am J Ind Med. 1982;3(3):259-311.
11. Camus M, Siemiatycki J, Meek B. Nonoccupational exposure to chrysotile asbestos and the risk of lung cancer. N Engl J Med. 1998;338(22):1565-1571.
12. US Environmental Protection Agency. Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund: Asbestos. Washington, DC: US EPA.
13. Rosenfeld PE. RoseyFields LLC: Asbestos Exposure Assessment. Santa Monica, CA: RoseyFields LLC; 2026.
14. US Environmental Protection Agency. Revisions to the Guideline on Air Quality Models. 40 CFR Part 51, Appendix W. Fed Regist. 2017;82(10):5182-5235.