An 81-year-old woman was dying from histologically confirmed pulmonary fibrosis without having had any asbestos exposure in the workplace. The lung dust fibre analysis showed significantly increased "asbestos bodies" (AB) (2,640 AB per gram of wet lung tissue) and asbestos fibre concentrations (8,600,000 amphibole fibres of all lengths and 540,000 amphibole fibres with a length ≥5 μm per gram o...

Asbestos has been declared a proven human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization. Since 1983, the European Union has enforced health protection directions in this field, which have been the basis for legal acts of Member States. The Estonian Republic is a country where asbestos and asbestos-c...

BACKGROUND It has been suggested that asbestos exposure affects lung function, even in the absence of asbestos-related pulmonary interstitial or pleural changes or emphysema. METHODS We analyzed associations between well-known asbestos-related risk factors, such as individual cumulative asbestos exposure, and key lung function parameters in formerly asbestos-exposed power industry workers (N ...

The predominant asbestos fibre type used in the production of asbestos cement is chrysotile. The use of asbestos in relation to fibre type in a Norwegian asbestos cement plant during 1942-80 was 91.7% chrysotile, 3.1% amosite, 4.1% crocidolite, and 1.1% anthophyllite respectively. Electron microscopy and x ray microanalysis of lung tissue samples of asbestos cement workers who had died of malig...

Asbestos fibers are an important cause of lung fibrosis; however, the biological mechanisms are incompletely understood. The lung epithelium serves an important barrier function in the lung, and disrupting the epithelial barrier can contribute to lung fibrosis. Lung epithelial permeability is increased in patients with asbestosis, and asbestos fibers increase permeability across cultured human ...

BACKGROUND Retroperitoneal fibrosis (RPF) is a rare fibroinflammatory disease that leads to hydronephrosis and renal failure. In a case-control study, we have recently shown that asbestos exposure was the most important risk factor for RPF in the Finnish population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation of asbestos exposure to radiologically confirmed lung and pleural fibrosis amon...

Asbestos, particle, and air bubble counting generally supports qualitative asbestos analysis, using such procedures as dispersion staining. Operators conventionally check and count asbestos fibers visually using a microscope – a difficult, time-consuming process. The microscopic observation robot we are automating to support qualitative asbestos analysis images fibers and saves them automatical...

Asbestos-related health risks have been evaluated on the basis of past experience, when occupational exposures were much higher; while the linear no-threshold (LNT) approach has usually been applied. However, applicability of the LNT dose-response pattern to low levels of asbestos exposure has never been proven. Asbestos-related research has been influenced by vested interests and biases. Furth...

Mesothelial cells, the progenitor cell of the asbestos-induced tumor mesothelioma, are particularly sensitive to the toxic effects of asbestos, although the molecular mechanisms by which asbestos induces injury in mesothelial cells are not known. We asked whether asbestos induced apoptosis in mesothelial cells and whether reactive oxygen species were important. Pleural mesothelial cells (rabbit...

OBJECTIVE Asbestos is an established human carcinogen and has been identified at 16 of 26 Jamaican hospitals surveyed. We sought to determine if hospital employees are exposed and if current asbestos exposure in Jamaican hospitals differed by job category. METHOD At two of the largest hospitals with more than 10 permanent maintenance workers and where over 67% of bulk samples analysed contain...