Search Results (14)

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral renowned for its exceptional tensile strength, chemical resistance, and low thermal and electrical conductivity. Due to these properties, it has been widely used in various industries. However, asbestos exposure is strongly linked to severe health conditions, including lung cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis. Although over 70 countries have banned asbestos-containing materials, significant health risks persist due to ongoing use and poor management practices in many regions. To mitigate these risks, robust occupational health measures are essential. These include safe removal protocols, comprehensive worker training, proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE), regular exposure monitoring, rigorous compliance checks, and severe penalties for non-compliance. Moreover, effective asbestos waste management and the development of advanced disposal technologies are essential to reducing risks. Public awareness campaigns, regulatory enforcement, and a global ban on asbestos production, use, and export are also necessary, particularly in countries where asbestos is still in use. Lessons from asbestos management in Australia and New Zealand provide valuable insights for nations currently dealing with asbestos issues. This paper reviews current practices in asbestos surveying, removal, and disposal, comparing them to the stringent regulatory frameworks in Australia and New Zealand. It highlights strategies that can be adopted globally to ensure safer management and complete elimination of asbestos. Full article

Exposure to asbestos fibres causes asbestosis, mesothelioma and several other cancers, which together are commonly referred to as asbestos-related diseases (ARDs). The use of asbestos increased rapidly in Australia and overseas throughout the 1900s, but knowledge about the health effects of exposure and subsequent controls came about more gradually. In Australia today, an estimated 4000 people still die annually from ARDs. While most of these deaths are due to past occupational exposures, there is ongoing concern about the many potential sources of asbestos exposure remaining in homes and the broader built environment as a legacy of past use. Current evidence indicates that Australians will continue to be exposed to legacy asbestos occupationally and non-occupationally, and continue to develop ARDs, without targeted action to prevent it. Evidence of ongoing exposure highlights the importance of better understanding how and why such exposures might still occur, and how they can be effectively prevented or controlled, with the aim of preventing the disease in the future. A better characterisation of this risk is also necessary to enable effective risk management and appropriate risk communication that is relevant to the current Australian context. This article explores the past, present and future of ARDs in Australia, considers the risk of a new wave of ARDs from legacy asbestos, and identifies where further study is required so that sustainable policies and practices can be developed to prevent a future wave of diseases. Full article

Asbestos (all forms, including chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite, tremolite, actinolite, and anthophyllite) is carcinogenic to humans and causally associated with mesothelioma and cancer of the lung, larynx, and ovary. It is one of the carcinogens most diffuse in the world, in workplaces, but also in the environment and is responsible for a very high global cancer burden. A large number of countries, mostly with high-income economies, has banned the use of asbestos which, however, is still widespread in low- and middle-income countries. It remains, thus, one of the most common occupational and environmental carcinogens worldwide. Italy issued an asbestos ban in 1992, following the dramatic observation of a large increase in mortality from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases in exposed workers and also in subjects with non-occupational exposure. A mesothelioma registry was also organized and still monitors the occurrence of mesothelioma cases, conducting a case-by-case evaluation of asbestos exposure. In this report, we describe two Italian communities, Casale Monferrato and Broni, that faced an epidemic of mesothelioma resulting from the production of asbestos cement and the diffuse environmental exposure; we present the activity and results of the Italian mesothelioma registry (ReNaM), describe the risk-communication activities at the local and national level with a focus on international cooperation and also describe the interaction between mesothelioma registration and medical services specialized in mesothelioma diagnosis and treatment in an area at high risk of mesothelioma. Finally, we assess the potential application of the solutions and methods already developed in Italy in a city in Colombia with high mesothelioma incidence associated with the production of asbestos-cement materials and the presence of diffuse environmental asbestos pollution. Full article

The PRIMATE study is an Italian translational research project, which aims to identify personalized biomarkers associated with clinical characteristics of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). For this purpose, characteristics of MPM patients with different degrees of asbestos exposure will be compared to identify somatic mutations, germline polymorphism, and blood inflammatory biomarkers. In this framework, we assessed exposure to asbestos for 562 cases of MPM extracted from the Lombardy region Mesothelioma Registry (RML), for which a complete interview based on a standardized national questionnaire and histopathological specimens were available. Exposure assessment was performed: (1) through experts' evaluation (considered as the gold standard for the purpose of this study), according to the guidelines of the Italian National Mesothelioma Registry (ReNaM) and (2) using a job-exposure matrix (SYN-JEM) to obtain qualitative (ever/never) and quantitative estimates of occupational asbestos exposure (cumulative exposure expressed in fibers per mL (f/mL)). The performance of SYN-JEM was evaluated against the experts' evaluation. According to experts' evaluation, occupational asbestos exposure was recognized in 73.6% of men and 23.6% of women; furthermore, 29 men (7.8%) and 70 women (36.9%) had non-occupational exposure to asbestos. When applying SYN-JEM, 225 men (60.5%) and 25 women (13.2%) were classified as occupationally exposed, with a median cumulative exposure higher for men (1.7 f/mL-years) than for women (1.2 f/mL-years). The concordance between the two methods (Cohen’s kappa) for occupational exposure assessment was 0.46 overall (0.41 in men, and 0.07 in women). Sensitivity was higher in men (0.73) than in women (0.18), while specificity was higher in women (0.88) than in men (0.74). Overall, both methods can be used to reconstruct past occupational exposure to asbestos, each with its own advantages and limitations. Full article

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify the epidemiologic characteristics and prognostic factors for malignant pleural mesothelioma in Korea, which are currently insufficient. The data were derived from malignant mesothelioma patients who registered under the Asbestos Injury Relief Act; Methods: A total of 728 patients received compensation from the Asbestos Injury Relief Act due to malignant mesothelioma between 2011 and 2015. Of these, 313 patients (43.0%) with malignant pleural mesothelioma were included in the study. The study variables were sex (male, female), age at diagnosis (<59, 60–69, ≥70), smoking history (yes, no), surgery (yes, no), chemotherapy (yes, no), occupational exposure to asbestos (yes, no), and histological subtype (epithelioid, nonepithelioid); Results: Median survival of mesothelioma was 8.0 months (95% confidence interval: 6.2 to 9.8). The 1-year, 2-year, and 5-year survival rates (%) were 43.5%, 23.6%, and 12.5%, respectively. In multivariate analysis of Cox’s proportional hazards model; sex, age, smoking history, occupational asbestos exposure, and histological subtype were not significant prognostic factors, but surgery and chemotherapy combined was a significant predictor; Conclusions: Although the representativeness of these data is limited, our study estimates the epidemiologic characteristics of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Non-occupational exposure had a similar prognosis to occupational asbestos exposure, and there was no sex difference. In addition, it was found that receiving a combination of surgery and chemotherapy affects the survival rate, but there is a limitation in that factors such as performance status, comorbidities, and stage that contribute to survival are not considered. Full article

The asbestos victim relief schemes were introduced to resolve the issue of victims of asbestos-related diseases not receiving compensation through conventional legal orders. This article seeks to derive the differences and commonalities of various asbestos victim relief schemes available outside of the conventional occupational compensation system along with a systematic understanding and to propose plans for improvement through a comparative study. After the degree of asbestos exposure, the population, and the period of implementation were corrected, the recognized claims of the total of conventional occupational compensation schemes and the asbestos victim relief schemes could be ranked in the order of South Korea (KOR) (1867, total), France (FRA) (1571), Japan (JPN) (966), KOR (847, asbestosis grade 2,3 excluded), the United Kingdom (GBR) (670), and the Netherlands (NLD) (95). The average amount of compensation per person, in the case of mesothelioma, was higher in the order of FRA (4.60 times), KOR (1.46 times), GBR (1.03 times), and NLD (0.73 times) of the median income per year. The differences between countries were largely caused by the purpose of institutional design and influenced by the level of qualification, the existence of an expiration date, type of disease, type of benefit, level of judgment criteria, the existence of a procedure for appeals, and recognition rate (GBR: 102%, FRA: 84%, NLD: 81%, JPN: 76%, KOR: 73%, and BEL: 54%). Based on this analysis, suggestions could be made regarding the expansion of disease types, benefit types, and the overall review of judgment criteria. Full article

This paper describes follow-up for a cohort of 4530 residents living in the asbestos manufacturing community of Ambler, PA, U.S. in 1930. Using re-identified census data, cause and date of death data obtained from the genealogic website Ancestry.com, along with geospatial analysis, we explored relationships among demographic characteristics, occupational, paraoccupational and environmental asbestos exposures. We identified death data for 2430/4530 individuals. Exposure differed significantly according to race, gender, age, and recency of immigration to the U.S. Notably, there was a significant difference in the availability of year of death information for non-white vs. white individuals (odds ratio (OR) = 0.62 p-value < 0.001), females (OR = 0.53, p-value < 0.001), first-generation immigrants (OR = 0.67, p-value = 0.001), second-generation immigrants (OR = 0.31, p-value < 0.001) vs. non-immigrants, individuals aged less than 20 (OR = 0.31 p-value < 0.001) and individuals aged 20 to 59 (OR = 0.63, p-value < 0.001) vs. older individuals. Similarly, the cause of death was less often available for non-white individuals (OR = 0.42, p-value <0.001), first-generation immigrants and (OR = 0.71, p-value = 0.009), second-generation immigrants (OR = 0.49, p-value < 0.001), individuals aged less than 20 (OR = 0.028 p-value < 0.001), and individuals aged 20 to 59 (OR = 0.26, p-value < 0.001). These results identified ascertainment bias that is important to consider in analyses that investigate occupational, para-occupational and environmental asbestos exposure as risk factors for mortality in this historic cohort. While this study attempts to describe methods for assessing itemized asbestos exposure profiles for a community in 1930 using Ancestry.com and other publicly accessible databases, it also highlights how historic cohort studies likely underestimate the impact of asbestos exposure on vulnerable populations. Future work will aim to assess mortality patterns in this cohort. Full article

The use of asbestos has been banned since 2009 in South Korea. However, there is still a risk of exposure to environmental asbestos originating from abandoned asbestos mines. We constructed a retrospective dynamic cohort using the National Health Insurance Database of South Korea. We determined the risk of developing asbestos-related diseases (ARDs) among residents living near asbestos mines compared with those living in the control area and the general population. The risks of asbestosis (adjusted hazards ratio [HR] 65.40, 95% CI = 35.02–122.12) and pleural plaques (adjusted HR 3.55, 95% CI = 1.96–6.41) were significantly increased among residents living near the asbestos mines compared with the control area. The risk of malignant mesothelioma was increased near asbestos mines compared with the control area; however, it was not significant (adjusted HR 1.83, 95% CI = 0.61–5.47). When a separate analysis according to sex was conducted, the risk of mesothelioma among male residents was statistically significant (adjusted HR 8.30, 95% CI = 1.04–66.63), and the standardized incidence ratio (SIR) was significantly increased (SIR 3.48, 95% CI = 1.50–6.85). The risk of ARDs was increased due to environmental asbestos exposure near abandoned asbestos mines in South Korea. Full article

Many insulating materials are used in construction, although few have been reported to cause non-malignant respiratory illnesses. We aimed to investigate associations between exposures to insulating materials and non-malignant respiratory illnesses in insulators. In this cross-sectional study, 990 insulators (45 ± 14 years) were screened from 2011–2017 in Alberta. All participants underwent pulmonary function tests and chest radiography. Demographics, work history, and history of chest infections were obtained through questionnaires. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was diagnosed according to established guidelines. Associations between exposures and respiratory illnesses were assessed by modified Poisson regression. Of those screened, 875 (88%) were males. 457 (46%) participants reported having ≥ 1 chest infection in the past 3 years, while 156 (16%) were diagnosed with COPD. In multivariate models, all materials (asbestos, calcium silicate, carbon fibers, fiberglass, and refractory ceramic fibers) except aerogels and mineral fibers were associated with recurrent chest infections (prevalence ratio [PR] range: 1.18–1.42). Only asbestos was associated with COPD (PR: 1.44; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01, 2.05). Therefore, occupational exposure to insulating materials was associated with non-malignant respiratory illnesses, specifically, recurrent chest infections and COPD. Longitudinal studies are urgently needed to assess the risk of exposure to these newly implemented insulation materials. Full article

Naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) is a generic term used to refer to both regulated and un-regulated fibrous minerals when encountered in natural geological deposits. These minerals represent a cause of health hazard, since they have been assessed as potential environmental pollutants that may occur both in rocks and derived soils. In the present work, we focused on the village of San Severino Lucano, located in the Basilicata region (southern Apennines); due to its geographic isolation from other main sources of asbestos, it represents an excellent example of hazardous and not occupational exposure of population. From the village and its surroundings, we collected eight serpentinite-derived soil samples and carried out Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Derivative Thermogravimetric (DTG) and Transmission Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (TEM-EDS), in order to perform a detailed characterization of serpentine varieties and other fibrous minerals. Investigation pointed out that chrysotile and asbestos tremolite occur in all of the samples. As for the fibrous but non-asbestos classified minerals, polygonal serpentine and fibrous antigorite were detected in a few samples. Results showed that the cultivation of soils developed upon serpentinite bedrocks were rich in harmful minerals, which if dispersed in the air can be a source of environmental pollution. Full article

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MM) is a highly aggressive tumor characterized by a poor prognosis. Although its carcinogenesis mechanism has not been strictly understood, about 80% of MM can be attributed to occupational and/or environmental exposure to asbestos fibers. The identification of non-invasive molecular markers for an early diagnosis of MM has been the subject of several studies aimed at diagnosing the disease at an early stage. The most studied biomarker is mesothelin, characterized by a good specificity, but it has low sensitivity, especially for non-epithelioid MM. Other protein markers are Fibulin-3 and osteopontin which have not, however, showed a superior diagnostic performance. Recently, interesting results have been reported for the HMGB1 protein in a small but limited series. An increase in channel proteins involved in water transport, aquaporins, have been identified as positive prognostic factors in MM, high levels of expression of aquaporins in tumor cells predict an increase in survival. MicroRNAs and protein panels are among the new indicators of interest. None of the markers available today are sufficiently reliable to be used in the surveillance of subjects exposed to asbestos or in the early detection of MM. Our aim is to give a detailed account of biomarkers available for MM. Full article

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 discontinuation of all forms of asbestos and asbestos-containing products and materials did not occur at a single point of time. Crocidolite consumption ceased in the late 1960s, followed by amosite consumption stopping in the mid 1980s. Despite significant government reports being published in 1990 and 1999, it was not until the end of 2003 that a complete ban on all forms of asbestos (crocidolite, amosite, and chrysotile) was introduced in Australia. The sustained efforts of trade unions and non-governmental organisations were essential in forcing the Australian government to finally implement the 2003 asbestos ban. Trade unions and non-government organisations continue to play a key role today in monitoring the government’s response to Australian asbestos-related disease epidemic. There are significant challenges that remain in Australia, despite a complete asbestos ban being implemented almost fifteen years ago. The Australian epidemic of asbestos-related disease has only now reached its peak. A total of 16,679 people were newly diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma between 1982 and 2016, with 84% of cases occurring in men. There has been a stabilisation of the age-standardised malignant mesothelioma incidence rate in the last 10 years. In 2016, the incidence rate per 100,000 was 2.5 using the Australian standard population and 1.3 using the Segi world standard population. Despite Australia’s complete asbestos ban being in place since 2003, public health efforts must continue to focus on preventing the devastating effects of avoidable asbestos-related diseases, including occupational and non-occupational groups who are potentially at risk from exposure to respirable asbestos fibres. Full article

The article investigates the issue of asbestos damages compensation in China. Today, China is a major player in the global market of asbestos production and consumption. Therefore, a large number of Chinese workers are employed in the asbestos industries and an even larger number of individuals are exposed to asbestos for non-occupational reasons. Although there is no official data on the numbers of asbestos-related diseases in China, it is estimated that a significant part of the population developed asbestos-related diseases and that there will be an augmentation of those diseases in the future. This article examines the Chinese legal provisions on the prevention, control, and compensation of asbestos related diseases; both in cases of environmental and occupational exposures, and analyzes if and when those provisions are applied. This research shows that although the laws and the regulations enacted by the Chinese government provide protection for those exposed to asbestos dust, and entitle them to some compensation or indemnity where those exposures caused damages, the implementation of those rules is actually very difficult, due to a variety of different reasons. Those reasons can vary from problems in the interpretation and implementation of the laws and regulations, to difficulties in the access to justice and in the adjudication by the courts, regarding occupational and environmental damages. In most of these cases, the consequences of these problems are a poor and inefficient protection of the victims of the asbestos exposures for the damages suffered. Full article

Reactive oxygen or nitrogen species (ROS, RNS) and oxidative stress in the respiratory system increase the production of mediators of pulmonary inflammation and initiate or promote mechanisms of carcinogenesis. The lungs are exposed daily to oxidants generated either endogenously or exogenously (air pollutants, cigarette smoke, etc.). Cells in aerobic organisms are protected against oxidative damage by enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant systems. Recent epidemiologic investigations have shown associations between increased incidence of respiratory diseases and lung cancer from exposure to low levels of various forms of respirable fibers and particulate matter (PM), at occupational or urban air polluting environments. Lung cancer increases substantially for tobacco smokers due to the synergistic effects in the generation of ROS, leading to oxidative stress and inflammation with high DNA damage potential. Physical and chemical characteristics of particles (size, transition metal content, speciation, stable free radicals, etc.) play an important role in oxidative stress. In turn, oxidative stress initiates the synthesis of mediators of pulmonary inflammation in lung epithelial cells and initiation of carcinogenic mechanisms. Inhalable quartz, metal powders, mineral asbestos fibers, ozone, soot from gasoline and diesel engines, tobacco smoke and PM from ambient air pollution (PM₁₀ and PM_2.5) are involved in various oxidative stress mechanisms. Pulmonary cancer initiation and promotion has been linked to a series of biochemical pathways of oxidative stress, DNA oxidative damage, macrophage stimulation, telomere shortening, modulation of gene expression and activation of transcription factors with important role in carcinogenesis. In this review we are presenting the role of ROS and oxidative stress in the production of mediators of pulmonary inflammation and mechanisms of carcinogenesis. Full article