April 1–7 Is National Asbestos Awareness Week In March 2012 the U.S. Senate for the second year in a row approved Resolution 389, declaring the first week of April to be National Asbestos Awareness Week. Sponsored by Max Baucus (D–MT), the goal of the measure is to increase public awareness of the prevalence of asbestos-related diseases and the dangers of asbestos exposure. The National Toxicol...

BACKGROUND All forms of asbestos are now banned in 52 countries. Safer products have replaced many materials that once were made with it. Nonetheless, many countries still use, import, and export asbestos and asbestos-containing products, and in those that have banned other forms of asbestos, the so-called "controlled use" of chrysotile asbestos is often exempted from the ban. In fact, chrysoti...

The community members of Libby, MT, have experienced significant asbestos exposure and developed numerous asbestos-related diseases including fibrosis and lung cancer due to an asbestos-contaminated vermiculite mine near the community. The form of asbestos in the contaminated vermiculite has been characterized in the amphibole family of fibers. However, the pathogenic effects of these fibers ha...

Asbestos is a generic term for a group of six naturally-occurring, fibrous silicate minerals that have been widely used in commercial products. These minerals are more commonly found in nonfibrous forms that are not asbestos. Asbestos minerals fall into two groups or classes, serpentine asbestos and amphibole asbestos. Chrysotile, a serpentine asbestos, possesses relatively long and flexible cr...

Given the interest in defining biomarkers of asbestos exposure and to provide insights into asbestos-related and cell-specific mechanisms of neoplasia, the identification of gene alterations in asbestos-related cancers can help to a better understanding of exposure risk. To understand the aetiology of asbestos-induced malignancies and to increase our knowledge of mesothelial carcinogenesis, we ...

Objective: To assess characteristics of asbestos exposure in respiratory cancer patients in Lithuania. Methods. Information on occupational exposure to asbestos was collected by personal interviews and occupational characteristics were evaluated among 183 lung cancer and mesothelioma patients with cumulative asbestos exposure ≥0.01 fibre years hospitalized at the Institute of Oncology, Vilnius....

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Occupationally induced lung cancer and mesothelioma have long been attributed to asbestos and moreover, several epidemiological studies have indicated a co-carcinogenic effect of cigarette smoking on the incidence of lung cancer in asbestos workers. The aim of the present study was to investigate the co-carcinogenic effects of asbestos and other carcinogens with emphasis placed on determining t...

Since the ban on use of asbestos due to its carcinogenic properties, removal cement, representing major asbestos-containing waste, has proven be a challenge in most industrial countries. Asbestos-containing products are mainly disposed landfills and have remained untreated. Bioremediation involving bacteria previously reported ability Pseudomonas aeruginosa release iron from flocking waste thro...