The world production of asbestos has been declining dramatically in recent years, particularly in Europe and the United States. However, increases have occurred in Asian nations and chrysotile is the dominant fiber used. Important uses are in cement products, wallboards, friction products and textiles. From studies in the United States and Great Britain, chrysotile has been shown to increase th...

The paper provides measurements of asbestos fiber levels in water sources from the area of the Bazhenovskoye chrysotile asbestos deposit. All study water samples contained asbestos fibers at concentrations one to three orders below the values standardized in the USA (7 x 10(6) fibers/liter). All the identified fibers belonged to chrysotile asbestos and no amphibole asbestos, such as tremolite a...

We analyzed samples of antigorite, lizardite and fibrous chrysotile, three representative minerals of the serpentine group, to determine their chemical and structural properties, and their FT-Raman spectra. The low-frequency region of the spectrum (1200– 200 cm–1), which corresponds to the lattice-vibration modes, was then analyzed, and the observed bands attributed, on the basis of our results...

There is a chrysotile mine in the central mountains of Cyprus but no other appreciable source of industrial asbestos. Hence the island was thought to offer ideal conditions to seek pure chrysotile induced mesothelioma. The first reported case was a village woman whose lung tissue contained amphibole asbestos fibres, which were later identified as tremolite. This began a search for the origin of...

Asbestos may be naturally present in rocks and soils. In some cases, there is the possibility of releasing asbestos fibres into the atmosphere from the rock or soil, subsequently exposing workers and the general population, which can lead to an increased risk of developing asbestos-related diseases. In the present study, air contaminated with asbestos fibres released from serpentinites was inve...

Sanding joint compounds is a dusty activity and exposures are not well characterized. Until the mid 1970s, asbestos-containing joint compounds were used by some people such that sanding could emit dust and asbestos fibers. We estimated the distribution of 8-h TWA concentrations and cumulative exposures to respirable dusts and chrysotile asbestos fibers for four worker groups: (1) drywall specia...