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Asbestos is a well-known health hazard.
The European Directive on the classification and labelling of dangerous products could not be applied to asbestos because there was no method to reliably measure low asbestos contents in such materials. Pooling and evaluating existing techniques from across the EU provided the first step towards finding a suitable test. By developing a simplified procedure, based on optical microscopy, the project team produced an improved method for identification. This inexpensive test can be used wherever asbestos is a hazard. Sadly its glory days did not last.