Asbestos and Other Hazardous Fibrous Minerals: Potential Exposure Pathways and Associated Health Risks

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos and Other Hazardous Fibrous Minerals: Potential Exposure Pathways and Associated Health Risks, by T.A. Berry, E. Belluso, R. Vigliaturo, et al (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022).

The study

• Authors: T.A. Berry, E. Belluso, R. Vigliaturo, R. Gieré, E.A. Emmett, J.R. Testa, G. Steinhorn, S.L. Wallis
• Journal: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Published: 2022;19(7)
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 26 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

There are six elongate mineral particles (EMPs) corresponding to specific dimensional and morphological criteria, known as asbestos. Responsible for health issues including asbestosis, and malignant mesothelioma, asbestos has been well researched. Despite this, significant exposure continues to occur throughout the world, potentially affecting 125 million people in the workplace and causing thousands of deaths annually from exposure in homes. However, there are other EMPS, such as fibrous/asbestiform erionite, that are classified as carcinogens and have been linked to cancers in areas where it has been incorporated into local building materials or released into the environment through earthmoving activities. Erionite is a more potent carcinogen than asbestos but as it is seldom used for commercial purposes, exposure pathways have been less well studied. Despite the apparent similarities between asbestos and fibrous erionite, their health risks and exposure pathways are quite different. This article examines the hazards presented by EMPs with a particular focus on fibrous erionite. It includes a discussion of the global locations of erionite and similar hazardous minerals, a comparison of the multiple exposure pathways for asbestos and fibrous erionite, a brief discussion of the confusing nomenclature associated with EMPs, and considerations of increasing global mesothelioma cases.

In plain English

This article was a review of earlier published research, not a new study. The authors described how people are exposed to asbestos (at work, through take-home dust and home renovation, and from the environment) and to other elongate mineral particles. Their focus was fibrous erionite, a zeolite mineral. They reported that erionite has been identified on all seven continents and in more than 25 countries. Among the studies reviewed, one in Western Australia attributed 8.4% of mesothelioma cases in men and 35.7% in women in 2005 to 2008 to home renovation. A study in the Turkish village of Karain found mesothelioma only in people who had lived at least 20 years in erionite-contaminated houses. In an earlier rat experiment using intrapleural injection, 55–60% of rats given erionite from Oregon or Karain developed mesothelioma, compared with 15% given a New Zealand sample. The authors concluded that, because fibrous erionite has high carcinogenic potential compared with asbestos, even low concentrations might pose a significant risk, including in Auckland, New Zealand, where natural fibrous erionite has been found.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Narrative review of published literature. The article does not describe a systematic search method.
• Who was studied: No new population was studied. The review drew on published studies of asbestos and erionite exposure from many countries, including Turkey, Mexico, the USA, Italy, Iran, New Zealand, Australia and the UK.
• Exposure: Asbestos (chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite, tremolite asbestos, anthophyllite asbestos, actinolite asbestos) and other elongate mineral particles, especially fibrous erionite. Other minerals discussed include fibrous offretite and other fibrous zeolites, fluoro-edenite and antigorite. Exposure routes covered were occupational, para-occupational and domestic, and environmental (including earthmoving and building materials).
• Main results:
  • The review reported that erionite has been identified on all seven continents and in more than 25 countries since the 1960s.
  • Citing Olsen et al. (2011), Western Australia: from 2005 to 2008, 8.4% of mesothelioma cases in men and 35.7% in women were attributed to home renovation.
  • Citing Metintas et al. (2010), Karain, Turkey: mesothelioma occurred only in people who had lived at least 20 years in houses contaminated with fibrous erionite.
  • Citing Wagner (1982), rats given erionite by intrapleural injection: 55–60% developed mesothelioma with fibrous erionite from Oregon and Karain, compared with 15% with New Zealand fibrous erionite.
  • Citing Wagner (1982), rats exposed by inhalation: 57% developed mesothelioma with Oregon fibrous erionite, compared with 0% with New Zealand fibrous erionite.
  • Citing an earlier report on villages in Cappadocia, Turkey: pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma accounted for 50% of deaths over a 17-year period during the 1970s–1980s.
  • Citing a study of landscaping and ground-maintenance activities in Wyoming, USA: airborne fibrous erionite concentrations ranged from not detected to 0.36 fibres per cubic centimetre.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that, because fibrous erionite has high carcinogenic potential compared with asbestos, even low concentrations might pose a significant risk. They noted that natural fibrous erionite in Auckland, New Zealand may present a risk when disturbed, and called for erionite-containing areas near populated locations to be explored.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis, Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: elongate mineral particles (EMPs), Malignant Mesothelioma, Asbestiform, erionite, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Rapporteur's Report Session 6: risk assessment of asbestos and other fibrous mineral particulates — R.P. Nolan, A.M. Langer (2008)
• Trace elements in hazardous mineral fibres — A. Bloise, D. Barca, et al. (2016)
• Increased expression of epidermal growth factor receptor in rat pleural mesothelial cells correlates with carcinogenicity of mineral fibres — S.P. Faux, C.E. Houghton, et al. (2000)
• Stability of mineral fibres in contact with human cell cultures. An in situ μXANES, μXRD and XRF iron mapping study — S. Pollastri, A.F. Gualtieri, et al. (2016)
• New insights into the toxicity of mineral fibres: A combined in situ synchrotron μ-XRD and HR-TEM study of chrysotile, crocidolite, and erionite fibres found in the tissues of Sprague-Dawley rats — A.F. Gualtieri, N. Bursi Gandolfi, et al. (2017)
• Geologic occurrences of erionite in the United States: an emerging national public health concern for respiratory disease — B.S. Van Gosen, T.A. Blitz, et al. (2013)

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