More than 40 years of evaluation have consistently confirmed the carcinogenicity of asbestos in all of its forms. This notwithstanding, according to recent figures, the annual world production of asbestos is approximatively 2,000,000 tons. Currently, about 90% of world asbestos comes from four countries: Russia, China, Brazil and Kazakhstan; and the wide use of asbestos worldwide represents a g...

A cross-sectional medical survey including collection of three consecutive sputum samples was carried out among 270 retired workers of a textile and friction materials factory, in order to investigate the relationship between asbestos body identification and asbestos exposure. The individual cumulative asbestos exposure, determined by means of a plant-specific job-exposure matrix based on asbes...

BACKGROUND Restrictive patterns of pulmonary function abnormalities associated with asbestos exposure are well described. Studies are less consistent, however, regarding the association of asbestos inhalation with airway dysfunction and obstructive impairment. METHODS We compared pulmonary function test results between 277 chrysotile exposed workers (22% non-smokers) and 177 unexposed control...

Background and history: Italy was the main asbestos producer and one of the greatest consumers in 20th century Europe until the asbestos ban was introduced in 1992. Asbestos exposure affected the population in a wide range of working environments, namely mining and marketing of asbestos, asbestos cement production, shipyards and textile industries. This also determined a widespread environmenta...

OBJECTIVES Environmental exposure of the general population to asbestos in Poland is mainly due to degradation of very popular asbestos-cement products and the resultant release of the elementary asbestos fibres into the ambient air. Assessments of environmental pollution by asbestos were based on the volume of the raw material used, amount of manufactured asbestos products, and measuring the c...

The most effective way of reducing the global burden of asbestos-related diseases is through the implementation of asbestos bans and minimising occupational and non-occupational exposure to respirable asbestos fibres. Australia's asbestos consumption peaked in the 1970s with Australia widely thought to have had among the highest per-capita asbestos consumption level of any country. Australia's ...

This report focuses on identifying the important asbestos fibertype(s) in the etiology of the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma. In the last century all three of the commercial fiber types grunerite (amosite) asbestos, chrysotile asbestos and riebeckite (crocidolite) asbestoswere mined, milled and used to fabricate asbestos-containing products in South Afiica. The cases are a consecutive ser...

BACKGROUND Non-occupational exposure to asbestos has been of increasing interest, but residential exposure to asbestos often focuses on a few high-profile asbestos users. This study aimed to identify industrial sites producing asbestos goods in a given area and time period. METHODS A search of trade directories was carried out for industrial sites in West Yorkshire, England, where asbestos ma...

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) still has a dismal prognosis, and in the next 35 years it is calculated that about one-quarter of a million deaths will occur as a result of this disease in Western Europe [1]. History of asbestos exposure is reported in 70–80% of all cases of mesothelioma and lifetime risk for exposed individuals is up to 20% [2–4]. The two major species of asbestos, crocid...

[no abstract available]