Cite this article as: Ahmed Khan A, Ahmed Nafees A, Fatmi Z. Asbestos risk assessment in Pakistan: current scenario and way forward. Int J Occup Environ Med 2013;4:50-51. Asbestos is used widely in various manufacturing industries in Pakistan despite the adverse health affects associated with it. Around 70% of the global consumption of asbestos is from Asian countries like China, India, Thailan...

The adverse pulmonary effects of asbestos are well accepted in scientific circles. However, the extrapulmonary consequences of asbestos exposure are not as clearly defined. In this review the potential for asbestos to produce diseases of the peritoneum, immune, gastrointestinal (GIT), and reproductive systems are explored as evidenced in published, peer-reviewed literature. Several hundred epid...

The uncoated and coated fibre load in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid was assessed using light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and x ray microanalysis in 15 subjects with previous, unprotected exposure to asbestos, including three with clinical and radiological evidence of asbestosis, and in 13 urban dwelling control subjects with no known occupational exposure to asbestos. The mea...

detection of trace metals in the cell-free BAL fluid, showing high concentrations of tungsten (W), tantalum (Ta) and cobalt (Co) in hard metal lung disease [163]. The quantification of asbestos bodies is best done by filtration of 5-15 ml fresh BAL fluid, cells included, onto millipore filters, and counting the number of asbestos bodies [179]. Uncoated asbestos fibres can only be counted by ele...

Experimental animal studies comparing asbestos and non-asbestos varieties of tremolite indicate tremolite asbestos is markedly more carcinogenic. By direct analogy, the differences in carcinogenicity between tremolite asbestos and non-asbestos prismatic tremolite should be the same for the other types of amphibole that also crystallize in the asbestos and non-asbestos habits. The earliest of th...

Asbestos has been incorporated into friction products since the early 1900s. Epidemiological studies have been equivocal in their analysis of the incidence of disease among mechanics servicing brakes. Decomposition of asbestos occurs during the normal usage of the brake due to thermal decomposition into forsterite, although not all asbestos is so converted. Short fibers, below 5 microm in lengt...

Considerable human-derived data the health consequences of asbestos exposure are available. Usually, less information is available from laboratory models of asbestos-related health effects. Animal data mirror the experience in man, and cellular studies help in to understand the mechanistic changes related to asbestos. Although it is clearly carcinogenic, asbestos has shown much variability when...

Mesothelioma is considered a signal tumor for asbestos exposure and typically occurs decades after first exposure to asbestos. Tissue analysis often indicates past exposure to mixed types of asbestos. This report describes the case of a 58-year-old man who developed mesothelioma after reported exposure to crocidolite from asbestos-containing gaskets beginning at age 16 during three summers duri...

OBJECTIVES The relation between lifetime cumulative exposure to asbestos, pathological grade of pulmonary fibrosis, and lung burden of asbestos at death, was explored in a necropsy population of former workers in a chrysotile asbestos textile plant in South Carolina. METHODS Estimates of cumulative, mean, and peak exposures to asbestos were available for 54 workers. Necropsy records and lung ...

Both cigarette smoke (CS) and asbestos cause lung inflammation and lung cancer, and at high asbestos exposure levels, populations exposed to both of these carcinogens display a synergistic increase in the development of lung cancer. The mechanisms through which these two toxic agents interact to promote lung tumorigenesis are poorly understood. Here, we begin to dissect the inflammatory signals...