Identifying Asbestos-Containing Materials in Homes: Design and Development of the ACM Check Mobile Phone App

Abstract

Background Asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) can still be found in many homes in Australia and other countries. ACMs present a health risk when they are damaged or disturbed, such as during do-it-yourself home renovations. However, community members lack knowledge and awareness about asbestos identification and its safe management in residential settings. Objective The objective of our study was to describe the process of developing a mobile phone app, ACM Check, that incorporates a questionnaire designed to identify and assess ACMs located in residential settings. Methods A multidisciplinary team was involved in the formative development and creation of the mobile phone app. The formative development process comprised 6 steps: defining the scope of the app; conducting a comprehensive desktop review by searching online literature databases, as well as a wider online search for gray literature; drafting and revising the content, questionnaire, conditional branching rules, and scoring algorithms; obtaining expert input; manually pretesting the questionnaire; and formulating a final content document to be provided to the software development company. We then constructed ACM Check on the iOS platform for use in a validation study, and then updated the app, replicated it on Android, and released it to the public. Results The ACM Check app identifies potential ACMs, prioritizes the materials based on their condition and likelihood of disturbance, and generates a summary report for each house assessed. Conclusions ACM Check is an initiative to raise community members’ awareness of asbestos in the residential environment and also serves as a data collection tool for epidemiologic research. It can potentially be modified for implementation in other countries or used as the basis for the assessment of other occupational or environmental hazards.

Using a Mobile Phone App to Identify and Assess Remaining Stocks of In Situ Asbestos in Australian Residential Settings

“…EHOs may be attending or screening more 'at-risk' properties than the average community member due to the nature of their job. In addition, our pilot study showed that ACM Check users tended towards overestimating the priority of ACMs in and around their home (i.e., they frequently rated materials as being in poorer condition or having a higher potential for disturbance than did the environmental consultant) [19]. As such, it is unlikely that these results are underestimating the priority levels of the ACMs screened in this sample.…”

“…All data collection occurred through the mobile app, ACM Check, between 13 June 2017 and 14 September 2019. A detailed description of the design and development of ACM Check has been published elsewhere [19]. In short, the app contains a questionnaire that guides users through a visual inspection of 14 key locations inside and outside of a residential building.…”

“…For those reasons we developed [19], tested [20], and released a specifically designed mobile phone application ("app"), ACM Check, which guides users through a visual inspection of the interior and exterior of the home in order to identify certain types of ACM remaining in situ. This app has two main purposes: (1) to increase the user's awareness and knowledge of potential ACMs present in the residential environment so that appropriate safety precautions can be used when dealing with the material; and (2) to collect data from consenting users regarding the type and condition of in situ ACM still found in Australian residential settings.…”

A Data-Driven Approach to Assess the Risk of Encountering Hazardous Materials in the Building Stock Based on Environmental Inventories

“…Similarly, statistics were also employed in study inspection reports and online demolition databases to quantify the amounts and abatement costs for asbestos-containing materials in abandoned residential dwellings by Franzblau et al [6]. Govorko et al [2,16] developed a mobile application to investigate the types and the conditions of asbestos-containing materials in residential settings.…”

Accuracy of a mobile app to identify suspect asbestos-containing material in Australian residential settings

“…Australia was the highest consumer of asbestos on a per capita basis during the mid-20 th century, (10) and it is likely that almost all Australian households built prior to 1990 contain some form of asbestos. (11) As such, it is important to raise people's awareness and knowledge of where ACMs can be located in the residential environment in order to prevent inadvertent asbestos exposure arising from these sources. However, asbestos cement products are notoriously difficult to identify and many home-owners have a low level of confidence when it comes to identifying ACMs in and around the home.…”