Wroble, J., T. Frederick, A. Frame, and D. Vallero.
PLoS ONE 12(7):e0180210(2017)

Asbestos occurs naturally at the Sumas Mountain site. Landslides there annually deposit asbestos-containing rubble into the Swift Creek and Sumas River. A study was conducted there to compare three soil analytical methods and two soil sampling methods to determine which method or combination of methods would yield more reliable soil asbestos data than other methods. Samples were collected using both traditional discrete (grab) samples and incremental sampling methodology (ISM). Analyses were conducted using polarized light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods, or a combination of the two. Data showed that the fluidized bed asbestos segregator followed by TEM analysis could detect asbestos at locations that were not detected using other analytical methods; however, this method exhibited high relative standard deviations, indicating the results might be more variable than other soil asbestos methods. Analytical results for metals showed that measured concentrations in ISM samples were less variable than in discrete samples. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180210