J. Vucinic, S. Kovacevic and S. Kirin.

Sigurnost, Vol. 49, No. 2, 2007, pp. 137-144.

Asbestos properties and its advantages in relation to other supplement raw materials are presented. Effects on human health when coming in contact with asbestos are analyzed and specific guidelines and decisions concerning its use are given. Despite excellent characteristics, multiple use and relatively low price, its harmfulness has brought about recommendations to stop the production of asbestos worldwide. Many developed countries have stopped using asbestos because of its detrimental effects to human health. Persons inflicted with asbestosis and other incurable diseases caused by asbestos demand high damage claims from the governments of the countries manufacturing asbestos.

M. R. Becklake, E. Bagatin and J. A. Neder.

International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Vol. 11, No. 4, Apr 2007, pp. 356-369.

Asbestos is a descriptive term for a group of naturally occurring minerals known to mankind since ancient times. The main types of asbestos (chrysotile, and the amphiboles crocidolite and amosite) differ in chemical structure, biopersistence in human tissue and toxicity. Commercial exploitation, with little thought for environmental controls, increased over the twentieth century, particularly after World War II, to accommodate globalisation and the demands of the world's burgeoning cities. As its illhealth effects, both non-malignant (fibrosis of the lungs or asbestosis; pleural effusion, plaques and thickening) and malignant (mesothelioma, lung and other cancers), became evident, public pressure rose to control its use. The last decades of the last century saw decreases in exposure and rates of asbestosis in industrialised and in some less-industrialised countries, where pleural plaques and malignant mesothelioma are currently the most frequent manifestations of asbestos exposure. Longer follow-up of asbestos-exposed cohorts in mining and manufacturing has also strengthened the evidence of a fibre gradient in toxicity, with chrysotile exhibiting lower toxicity than the amphiboles, and amosite lower toxicity than crocidolite. The last decades of the twentieth century saw stabilisation and/or declines in mesothelioma rates in several industrialised countries. In less-industrialised countries, data on disease are sparse, exposure generally high and rates may peak in the future. Management of asbestos-related disease in the workplace requires collaboration between workers and unions (responsible for monitoring workplace dust levels, to which they must have access) and companies (responsible for engineering controls), reinforced by appropriate government regulations and by community support.

Matthew Lorber, Herman Gibb, Lester Grant, Joseph Pinto, Joachim Pleil and David Cleverly.

Risk analysis: an official publication of the Society for.Risk Analysis, Vol. 27, No. 5, Oct 2007, pp. 1203-1221.

In the days following the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers on September 11, 2001 (9/11), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated numerous air monitoring activities to better understand the ongoing impact of emissions from that disaster. Using these data, EPA conducted an inhalation exposure and human health risk assessment to the general population. This assessment does not address exposures and potential impacts that could have occurred to rescue workers, firefighters, and other site workers, nor does it address exposures that could have occurred in the indoor environment. Contaminants evaluated include particulate matter (PM), metals, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, asbestos, volatile organic compounds, particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, silica, and synthetic vitreous fibers (SVFs). This evaluation yielded three principal findings. (1) Persons exposed to extremely high levels of ambient PM and its components, SVFs, and other contaminants during the collapse of the WTC towers, and for several hours afterward, were likely to be at risk for acute and potentially chronic respiratory effects. (2) Available data suggest that contaminant concentrations within and near ground zero (GZ) remained significantly elevated above background levels for a few days after 9/11. Because only limited data on these critical few days were available, exposures and potential health impacts could not be evaluated with certainty for this time period. (3) Except for inhalation exposures that may have occurred on 9/11 and a few days afterward, the ambient air concentration data suggest that persons in the general population were unlikely to suffer short-term or long-term adverse health effects caused by inhalation exposures. While this analysis by EPA evaluated the potential for health impacts based on measured air concentrations, epidemiological studies conducted by organizations other than EPA have attempted to identify actual impacts. Such studies have identified respiratory effects in worker and general populations, and developmental effects in newborns whose mothers were near GZ on 9/11 or shortly thereafter. While researchers are not able to identify specific times and even exactly which contaminants are the cause of these effects, they have nonetheless concluded that exposure to WTC contaminants (and/or maternal stress, in the case of developmental effects) resulted in these effects, and have identified the time period including 9/11 itself and the days and few weeks afterward as a period of most concern based on high concentrations of key pollutants in the air and dust.

J. L. Spees, D. A. Pociask, D. E. Sullivan, et al.

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Vol. 176, No. 4, 15 Aug 2007, pp. 385-394.

Rationale: Bone marrow-derived cells have been shown to engraft during lung fibrosis. However, it is not known if similar cells engraft consequent to inhalation of asbestos fibers that cause pulmonary fibrosis, or if the cells proliferate and differentiate at sites of injury. Objective: We examined whether bone marrow-derived cells participate in the pulmonary fibrosis that is produced by exposure to chrysotile asbestos fibers. Method: Adult female rats were lethally irradiated and rescued by bone marrow transplant from male transgenic rats ubiquitously expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP). Three weeks later, the rats were exposed to an asbestos aerosol for 5 hours on three consecutive days. Controls were bone marrow-transplanted but not exposed to asbestos. Measurements and Main Results: One day and 2.5 weeks after exposure, significant numbers of CFP-labeled male cells had preferentially migrated to the bronchiolar-alveolar duct bifurcations, the specific anatomic site at which asbestos produces the initial fibrogenic lesions. GFP-positive cells were present at the lesions as monocytes and macrophages, fibroblasts, and myofibroblasts or smooth muscle cells. Staining with antibodies to PCNA demonstrated that some of the engrafted cells were proliferating in the lesions and along the bronchioles. Negative results for TUNEL at the lesions confirmed that both PCNA-positive endogenous pulmonary cells and bone marrow-derived cells were proliferating rather than undergoing apoptosis, necrosis, or DNA repair. Conclusions: Bone marrow-derived cells migrated into developing fibrogenic lesions, differentiated into multiple cell types, and persisted for at least 2.5 weeks after the animals were exposed to aerosolized chrysotile asbestos fibers.

Misty J. Hein, Leslie T. Stayner, Everett Lehman and John M. Dement.

Occupational and environmental medicine, Vol. 64, No. 9, Sep 2007, pp. 616-625.

OBJECTIVES: This report provides an update of the mortality experience of a cohort of South Carolina asbestos textile workers. METHODS: A cohort of 3072 workers exposed to chrysotile in a South Carolina asbestos textile plant (1916-77) was followed up for mortality through 2001. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were computed using US and South Carolina mortality rates. A job exposure matrix provided calendar time dependent estimates of chrysotile exposure concentrations. Poisson regression models were fitted for lung cancer and asbestosis. Covariates considered included sex, race, age, calendar time, birth cohort and time since first exposure. Cumulative exposure lags of 5 and 10 years were considered by disregarding exposure in the most recent 5 and 10 years, respectively. RESULTS: A majority of the cohort was deceased (64%) and 702 of the 1961 deaths occurred since the previous update. Mortality was elevated based on US referent rates for a priori causes of interest including all causes combined (SMR 1.33, 95% CI 1.28 to 1.39); all cancers (SMR 1.27, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.39); oesophageal cancer (SMR 1.87, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.99); lung cancer (SMR 1.95, 95% CI 1.68 to 2.24); ischaemic heart disease (SMR 1.20, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.32); and pneumoconiosis and other respiratory diseases (SMR 4.81, 95% CI 3.84 to 5.94). Mortality remained elevated for these causes when South Carolina referent rates were used. Three cases of mesothelioma were observed among cohort members. Exposure-response modelling for lung cancer, using a linear relative risk model, produced a slope coefficient of 0.0198 (fibre-years/ml) (standard error 0.00496), when cumulative exposure was lagged 10 years. Poisson regression modelling confirmed significant positive relations between estimated chrysotile exposure and lung cancer and asbestosis mortality observed in previous updates of this cohort. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the findings from previous investigations of excess mortality from lung cancer and asbestosis and a strong exposure-response relation between estimated exposure to chrysotile and mortality from lung cancer and asbestosis.

A. Xu, X. Huang, Y. -C Lien, L. Bao, Z. Yu and T. K. Hei.

Chemical research in toxicology, Vol. 20, No. 5, 21 May 2007, pp. 724-733.

Asbestos fibers are carcinogenic to both humans and experimental animals. The continued discoveries of exposure routes whereby the general public is exposed to asbestos suggest a long-term, low-dose exposure for a large number of people. However, the mechanisms by which asbestos induces malignancy are not entirely understood. In previous studies, we have shown that asbestos is an effective gene and chromosomal mutagen when assayed using the highly sensitive A sub(L) mutation assay and that the mutagenicity is mediated by reactive oxygen species. The objective of the present study is to determine the origin of these radical species, particularly reactive nitrogen species, in fiber mutagenesis. Using the radical probe 5',6'-chloromethyl-2',7'-dihydroxyphenoxazine diacetate to trap reactive radical species, we showed that crocidolite increased the levels of oxyradicals in cytoplasts, in the absence of the nucleus, in a dose-dependent manner, which was reduced significantly by cotreatment with the radical scavenger dimethyl sulfoxide. Treatment of enucleated cells with crocidolite asbestos followed by rescue fusion using karyoplasts from control cells resulted in significant mutant induction, indicating that the nuclear-cytoplasmic interaction is necessary for fiber mutagenesis. Using the fluorescent probe 2,3-diaminonaphthotriazole, crocidolite fibers were shown to induce a dose-dependent increase of nitric oxide production, which was suppressed significantly by concurrent treatment with the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, N super(G)-methyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA). Similarly, there was a dose-dependent decrease in the mutation yield induced by crocidolites in the presence of graded doses of L-NMMA. These data showed that extranuclear targets play an essential role in the initiation of oxidative damage that mediates fiber mutagenesis in mammalian cells.

D. L. Laskin, V. R. Sunil, R. J. Laumbach and H. M. Kipen.

Methods in Pharmacology and Toxicology, 83-112. 2007, pp. 83-112.

Exposure to airborne particles and gases including silica, asbestos, diesel exhaust, and ozone is associated with significant risk of pulmonary and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Increasing evidence suggests that macrophages and inflammatory mediators released, including cytokines, play a role in the pathogenic process. In response to lung injury, alveolar macrophages become activated and release increased quantities of cytokines such as TNF- alpha , IL-1, IL-6, and IL-10, as well as chemokines and growth factors such as TGF- beta and PDGF. Although these mediators are released to protect the host and initiate wound repair, when generated in excessive amounts or at inappropriate times or places, they can damage host tissue and exacerbate or perpetuate injury. In this chapter, the role of inflammatory cytokines and growth factors released by macrophages in xenobiotic-induced pulmonary toxicity is reviewed. Potential mechanisms mediating expression of cytokine genes and the implications to human health are also discussed.

David J. Blake, Celeste M. Bolin, David P. Cox, Fernando Cardozo-Pelaez and Jean C. Pfau.

Toxicological Sciences, Vol. 99, No. 1, Sep 2007, pp. 277-288.

The community members of Libby, MT, have experienced significant asbestos exposure and developed numerous asbestos-related diseases including fibrosis and lung cancer due to an asbestos-contaminated vermiculite mine near the community. The form of asbestos in the contaminated vermiculite has been characterized in the amphibole family of fibers. However, the pathogenic effects of these fibers have not been previously characterized. The purpose of this study is to determine the cellular consequences of Libby amphibole exposure in macrophages compared to another well-characterized amphibole fiber; crocidolite asbestos. Our results indicate that Libby asbestos fibers are internalized by macrophages and localize to the cytoplasm and cytoplasmic vacuoles similar to crocidolite fibers. Libby asbestos fiber internalization generates a significant increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) as determined by dichlorofluorescein diacetate and dihydroethidine fluorescence indicating that the superoxide anion is the major contributing ROS generated by Libby asbestos. Elevated superoxide levels in macrophages exposed to Libby asbestos coincide with a significant suppression of total superoxide dismutase activity. Both Libby and crocidolite asbestos generate oxidative stress in exposed macrophages by decreasing intracellular glutathione levels. Interestingly crocidolite asbestos, but not Libby asbestos, induces significant DNA damage in macrophages. This study provides evidence that the difference in the level of DNA damage observed between Libby and crocidolite asbestos may be a combined consequence of the distinct chemical compositions of each fiber as well as the activation of separate cellular pathways during asbestos exposure.

H. Doenmez-Altuntas, M. Baran, F. S. Oymak, et al.

International journal of environmental health research, Vol. 17, No. 1, Feb 2007, pp. 45-51.

Exposure to asbestos minerals has been associated with a wide variety of adverse health effects including lung cancer, pleural mesothelioma, and cancer of other organs. Many of the regions of Turkey have asbestos deposits. People in Doganli village - one of these regions - have been environmentally exposed to chrysotile asbestos since they were born. In this study the effects of asbestos on micronucleus (MN) frequencies of inhabitants exposed to chrysotile asbestos have been examined. Thirty subjects who had been environmentally exposed to chrysotile asbestos and living in Doganli village, and 25 controls were studied to assess the MN frequency. The control group was selected from healthy individuals with no exposure to asbestos and living in similar geographic conditions to Doganli village. Peripheral blood samples were collected from each subject and cultured for MN assay. Cytochalasin-B was added to lymphocyte cultures for evaluation of MN in binucleated (BN) cells. The differences between those exposed to chrysotile asbestos and controls were not statistically significant in terms of BN cells with MN (p > 0.05). There was not a significant relationship between MN frequencies and age, sex, smoking, both in chrysotile asbestos-exposed subjects and in controls (p > 0.05). Although the detection of calcified pleural plaques found in the inhabitants has indicated environmental exposure to chrysotile asbestos, our results show that chrysotile asbestos was not an inducer of MN in subjects exposed to chrysotile asbestos.

P. A. Sullivan.

Environmental health perspectives, Vol. 115, No. 4, Apr 2007, pp. 579-585.

BACKGROUND: Vermiculite from the mine near Libby, Montana, is contaminated with tremolite asbestos and other amphibole fibers (winchite and richterite). Asbestos-contaminated Libby vermiculite was used in loose-fill attic insulation that remains in millions of homes in the United States, Canada, and other countries. OBJECTIVE: This report describes asbestos-related occupational respiratory disease mortality among workers who mined, milled, and processed the Libby vermiculite. METHODS: This historical cohort mortality study uses life table analysis methods to compare the age-adjusted mortality experience through 2001 of 1,672 Libby workers to that of white men in the U.S. population. RESULTS: Libby workers were significantly more likely to die from asbestosis [standardized mortality ratio (SMR) = 165.8; 95% confidence interval (CI), 103.9-251.1], lung cancer (SMR = 1.7; 95% CI, 1.4-2.1), cancer of the pleura (SMR = 23.3; 95% CI, 6.3-59.5), and mesothelioma. Mortality from asbestosis and lung cancer increased with increasing duration and cumulative exposure to airborne tremolite asbestos and other amphibole fibers. CONCLUSIONS: The observed dose-related increases in asbestosis and lung cancer mortality highlight the need for better understanding and control of exposures that may occur when homeowners or construction workers (including plumbers, cable installers, electricians, telephone repair personnel, and insulators) disturb loose-fill attic insulation made with asbestos-contaminated vermiculite from libby, Montana.

W. G. Ernst.

International Geology Review, Vol. 48, No. 3, Mar 2006, pp. 191-208.

The biosphere has maintained a dynamic equilibrium with the terrestrial environment for more than 3.5 billion years. Except for radiant energy from the Sun, all Earth materials necessary for life are derived chiefly from the near-surface portions of the land, sea, and air. Where biospheric usage is less than the supply and/or the rate of replenishment, continued population growth and resource consumption are possible. In cases where the rate of recharge of a life-sustaining Earth material is finite, usage ultimately may reach a stage in which the demand equals but on average cannot exceed the overall supply. However, most natural mineral resources are present in finite abundance, and for such commodities, present excessive human consumption reduces future availability, and thus the ultimate planetary carrying capacity for civilization. Intensive utilization of Earth materials has enhanced the quality of life, especially in the Developed Nations. Nevertheless, natural background levels, and Earth processes such as volcanic eruptions, as well as anthropogenic activities involving extraction, refining, and manufacturing of mineral resources have led to deleterious side effects in terms of environmental degradation and public health hazards. Among the dangers are bioaccessible airborne dusts and gases, soluble chemical pollutants in agricultural, industrial, and residential waters, and toxic chemical species in foods and manufactured products. At appropriate levels of assimilation, many Earth materials are necessary for life, but underdoses and overdoses have mild to extremely serious consequences for human health and for aging. This review briefly describes several natural resource health hazards, but does not treat the adverse effects of fossil fuel usage, mine and agricultural pollution, and environmental pathogens.

Steve M. Dearwent, M. Moiz Mumtaz, Gail Godfrey, Thomas Sinks and Henry Falk.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 1076, 439-448. Sep 2006, pp. 439-448.

Since 1995, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has evaluated environmental contaminants and human health risks at nearly 3000 sites. Hazardous substances at these sites include newly emerging problems as well as historically identified threats. ATSDR classifies sites according to the degree of hazard they represent to the public. Less than 1% of the sites investigated are considered urgent public health hazards where chemical or physical hazards are at levels that could cause an immediate threat to life or health. Approximately 20% of sites have a potential for long-term human exposures above acceptable risk levels. At almost 40% of sites, hazardous substances do not represent a public health hazard. Completed exposure pathways for contaminants in air, water, and soil have been reported at approximately 30% of evaluated sites. The most common contaminants of concern at these sites include heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, and polychlorinated biphenyls. This article reviews ATSDR's ongoing work by examining the historic hazard of lead, the contemporary hazard of asbestos, and the emerging issue of perchlorate contamination.

M. Greenberg.

Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Vol. 47, No. 2, Feb 2005, pp. 137-144.

Canadian chrysotile (white asbestos) could be a paradigm for those agents that are successfully exploited commercially long after they have been found to be lethal. Mining started in the late 1870s, and reports of disability and death followed in Britain (1898), in France (1906), and Italy (1908), but it was not until 1955 that Canada acknowledged asbestosis in its asbestos miners and millers. Even when shortly after asbestos was shown to be carcinogenic, Canadian Public Relations experts assisted by their scientists exculpated chrysotile by deeming other agents to have been causal. The PR techniques that have been successfully used in the defense of chrysotile are reviewed, to forewarn scientists involved in formulating public health policy for similar agents, as to the tricks that will be played on them.

Jayne Michaud, Bradley S. Van Gosen and Michael T. Hatcher.

Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, Vol. 37, No. 7, Oct 2005, pp. 540.

The USGS is currently mapping the locations of historic asbestos mines, historic asbestos prospects, and natural asbestos occurrences in the United States. These asbestos occurrences range from rocks that contain small amounts of the asbestos minerals as natural impurities to large asbestos ore bodies that were once mined for commercial and industrial uses. If naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) is disturbed and fibers are released into the air, then there is a potential risk to human health. As land that contains NOA is excavated and developed, the risk for environmental exposures increases. Airborne asbestos could become a health hazard in areas identified to contain NOA-bearing rock, especially where these rocks are exposed to natural weathering and human activities (excavation of natural outcroppings). The USGS map and database will allow State and local governments and the public at large to be aware of the distribution of known asbestos deposits and take appropriate precautionary measures if and when necessary. When publishing and releasing information about natural asbestos it is important to understand how this information will be used and received by stakeholders. The ultimate goal of communicating the hazards associated with natural asbestos is to prevent dispersion of NOA into the environment through human activities, and thus help prevent or greatly reduce human exposure and potential asbestos-related disease. Miscommunication can lead to unnecessary alarm at one extreme to possible minimization of the potential hazards at the other. This presentation will describe an interagency communication and education strategy for dealing with naturally occurring asbestos on a National level. We will discuss the overarching messages and content that target audiences need to understand in order to manage natural asbestos and protect public health. The authors' lessons learned thus far will be shared with the audience.

E. B. Ilgren.

Indoor and Built Environment, Vol. 13, No. 5, Sep 2004, pp. 357-373.

Significant results from one of the largest asbestos inhalation studies ever done were never published. Over the last 10 years, some of these have been found and reported in a series of papers in this journal. The "missing" data from the study were largely concerned with the potential chronic effects of short fibre chrysotile but also dealt with the alleged ability of a single, high dose exposure to long fibre chrysotile to produce a risk of disease for life (so-called "irreversibility"). Given its ubiquity and the notion held by the US Government and Plaintiff that all forms of asbestos are equally potent in even the smallest doses, the where-withal to scientifically "exonerate" short fibre chrysotile as a human health hazard would have very major regulatory, socio-economic and legal implications. The US Government was aware that the issues of fibre length and irreversibility had to be scientifically resolved and so funded the study. California Coalinga chrysotile was used as the "standard" short fibre material for the chronic inhalation assay: initially a 12-month exposure to fibre and then lifetime follow up. The "irreversibility" question was tested with a long fibre chrysotile from the Canadian Jeffrey mine: an initial high dose 1-hour to 1-day exposure and then 2-year follow-up. This report summarises how some of these missing data were found and discusses their relevance.

Wayne G. Powell and Jean Grassman.

Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, Vol. 36, No. 5, Nov 2004, pp. 126.

We are in the process of developing a truly inter-disciplinary course as part of the majors program in both the departments of Health and Nutrition Sciences and Geology at Brooklyn College. The goals of "Geology and Human Health" are to have students appreciate the important links between the disciplines, and to internalize reasoning processes inherent to each other's specialty. Accordingly, content of the course is limited to a set of key examples that demonstrate important concepts. Three elemental toxicants will be studied: Hg and As are metals that are toxic in low doses, but differ greatly in regard to their main sources in the environment, and their mode of transport and accumulation. In contrast iodine is an element that is essential to human health and deficiencies arise where the immediate environment has naturally low concentrations. Investigation of occupational and environmental occurrence of illnesses such as asbestosis, mesothelioma, and silicosis serves to introduce the health effects of various mineral particulate. Scientific studies of asbestos minerals and their toxicity will be contrasted with laws surrounding these materials in order to introduce the concept of risk analysis, and public perception of risk. Discussion of removal/remediation alternatives will serve both to reinforce understanding of geological mechanisms of mobilization and transport, as well as provide concrete examples of interdisciplinary studies leading to environmental improvement. Potential health effects of global warming due to changes in pathogen vectors will be the capstone topic. This topic demonstrates that both disciplines, geology and public health, are needed to evaluate the likelihood of catastrophe, and to formulate decisions aimed at preventing foreseeable health problems. Half of the course contact time will involve problem-solving within mixed groups of health and geology students. Multi-week, open-ended exercises will have students investigate concepts related to exposure, monitoring, toxicant dispersion, risk assessment, and action decisions, and will lead to better understanding of the difference between causation and correlation, the necessity of basing decisions on incomplete data sets, and that all actions (or inactions) have consequences.

Jacek Niklinski, Wieslawa Niklinska, Elzbieta Chyczewska, et al.

Lung cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Vol. 45 Suppl 1, No. , Aug 2004, pp. S7-S15.

Asbestos has been recognised as a potential health hazard since the 1940s. Of the two major species of asbestos; white asbestos (chrysotile) and blue asbestos (crocidolite), both of which are hazardous. The workers at extraction facilities are at the greatest risk of exposure to asbestos and, therefore, the development of asbestos-related diseases, commonly mesothelioma. However, other individuals at a high risk of exposure include asbestos-cement workers, insulation workers and ship-yard workers. Environmental exposure to asbestos can occur as a result of living in areas either characterised by natural outcrops of asbestos or asbestos-related materials, or those close to asbestos-producing or -using plants. Unfortunately, man-made fibre alternatives to asbestos, such as rock and slag-wool and glass wool, have also been shown to have a detrimental effect on human health. A characteristic of mesothelioma is that there is a long latency period (20-30 years) before the signs and symptoms of the disease become apparent. In addition, diagnosis of the disease can be difficult. The use of biological markers, such as tissue polypeptide antigen, may play a useful role in the early detection of the disease in individuals at risk.

Mickey E. Gunter and Anne E. Taunton.

Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, Vol. 36, No. 5, Nov 2004, pp. 125-126.

We are bombarded daily from the media about health risks associated with countless things, many of which are geologically based (e.g., asbestos in the air or arsenic in the water). How do we ascertain the validity of these claims? More importantly, how do we teach students to do this? As scientists, we should be able to evaluate risks and make informed decisions, yet many geologists chose not to attend the Boston GSA meeting in Fall 2001 for fear of terrorism, while the odds of something happening to them was infinitesimally small. Also, many of us have removed asbestos from our mineral collections in fear that a brief exposure might induce a deadly disease. So our own perception of risk often, unfortunately, outweighs our rational decision-making process. Examples will be given how to critically evaluate risk, understand the difference between risk and risk perception, and to teach these to students. One method to determine risks from geological sources is to perform an epidemiology study and combine it with knowledge of geological exposures. For instance, epidemiologic studies of asbestos miners led us to understand that certain types of asbestos were more harmful than others. But how do we perform these studies, and how can we teach them to students? Government agencies compile mortality data yearly; these data are available in a series of books called Vital Statistics of the US (to 1993, and thereafter available on the web at www.cdc.gov). Three examples will be given where death rates for different diseases were complied on a county basis within a state and then attempts were made to correlate these death rates with some geological factor. The examples are: 1) breast cancer related to local rock type in California, 2) lung cancer and asbestos in Montana, and 3) respirable quartz and lung cancer in Idaho. These exercises can be completed within several hours of library or web-based data collection and analysis. As you and the students will find, many questions will arise once the data are complied, and it is these questions that will lead to development of critical thinking skills. Lastly, it might seem strange for a mineralogist to perform an epidemiology study or discuss risk, but how many non-mineralogists discuss minerals?

P. C. Chrostowski, S. A. Foster and E. L. Anderson.

Risk Analysis, Vol. 11, No. 3, 1991, pp. 465-481.

Upperbound lifetime excess cancer risks were calculated for activities associated with asbestos abatement using a risk assessment framework developed for EPA's Superfund program. It was found that removals were associated with cancer risks to workers which were often greater than the commonly accepted cancer risk of 1 x 10 super(-6), although lower than occupational exposure limits associated with risks of 1 x 10 super(-3). Removals had little effect in reducing risk to school populations. Risks to teachers and students in school buildings containing asbestos were approximately the same as risks associated with exposure to ambient asbestos by the general public and were below the levels typically of concern to regulatory agencies. During abatement, however, there were increased risks to both workers and nearby individuals.