Marble Waste Dump Yard in Rajasthan, India Revealed as a Potential Asbestos Exposure Hazard

Our plain-English summary of Marble Waste Dump Yard in Rajasthan, India Revealed as a Potential Asbestos Exposure Hazard, by R. Singh, S. Fitzgerald, R. Dada, et al (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2025).

The study

• Authors: R. Singh, S. Fitzgerald, R. Dada, A.L. Frank
• Journal: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Published: 2025;22(2)
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Asbestos is a fibrous variety of certain minerals, some of which occur naturally as an accessory to a wide variety of mineral resources. Although asbestos itself has been historically mined for various useful properties, the negative health effects of asbestos dust have greatly diminished it as a useful earth material, as many countries have banned the use of these fibrous minerals based on those health concerns. Resulting regulations of asbestos have focused primarily on intentionally mined material used in product manufacturing, such as building materials made with beneficiated asbestos and their derivative exposures, e.g., airborne asbestos in schools with asbestos-containing materials. The hazards of asbestos as unintended byproducts have not been as extensively considered, although this "contamination" has been repeatedly observed in common earth materials including talc, vermiculite, sand, and gravel. This study reveals such contamination of ornamental and dimension stone commonly referred to as "marble". Asbestos types that can be associated with certain Indian marble reserves include asbestiform tremolite, actinolite, anthophyllite, and chrysotile asbestos. This case reveals such contamination in a marble reserve in Rajsamand, Rajasthan. At this location, marble dust in slurry is disposed at waste collection points, unfortunately including a location now open to the public that has become a tourist destination. Using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) in this study, dust from this location revealed abundant tremolite asbestos fibres in the disaggregated dust. This poses potential health risks to the workers, bystanders, and tourists that may be exposed to this recognized carcinogen, a known cause of mesothelioma, lung cancer, and other asbestos-related diseases.

In plain English

This study tested dust from a marble slurry waste dump near Mokhampura, Kelwa, in the Rajsamand District of Rajasthan, India. The site has also become a tourist spot. The authors analysed one dust sample, collected from the open ground in December 2023, using polarized light microscopy (PLM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). PLM did not conclusively detect asbestos fibres, but particles with optical features consistent with the mineral tremolite were seen. TEM found tremolite particles abundantly spread through the dust, mostly under 10 microns. A substantial share were fibres that the authors judged countable as asbestos structures under the AHERA counting rules and, by size, inhalable. Tremolite asbestos was calculated at 11,800,000 structures per gram for structures longer than 5.0 micrometres and 37,100,000 per gram for all countable structures. Counting all tremolite particle sizes and shapes gave 103,000,000 per gram. The authors concluded that this plausibly demonstrates that the marble industry poses an occupational and environmental hazard to workers, local inhabitants and the general public by exposing them to asbestos dust.

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: Laboratory analysis of a single environmental dust sample (PLM and TEM, following US EPA bulk method and AHERA counting rules)
• Who was studied: Marble slurry waste dust from a designated waste deposit site near Mokhampura, Kelwa, Rajsamand District, Rajasthan, India, which has also become a tourist spot; one sample, collected December 2023. No people were studied.
• Exposure: Tremolite asbestos present in dried marble slurry waste dust
• Main results:
  • PLM (light microscopy) did not conclusively detect asbestos fibres in the dust sample, but optical characteristics consistent with tremolite were observed
  • By TEM, most tremolite particles in the sample were under 10 microns, with a substantial portion identifiable as fibres countable as asbestos structures
  • Under the AHERA protocol, these structures were considered countable and, by size, inhalable
  • Tremolite asbestos concentration in the dust sample: 11,800,000 structures per gram for structures longer than 5.0 µm; 37,100,000 structures per gram for all AHERA-countable structures
  • Including all tremolite particle sizes and shapes, the tremolite structure count in the dust sample was 103,000,000 structures per gram
  • By the authors' calculation, ten milligrams of the tested dust would contain about 37,000 countable tremolite structures
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that finding tremolite asbestos in the dust plausibly demonstrates that the marble industry poses an occupational and environmental hazard to workers, local inhabitants and the general public by exposing them to asbestos dust

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Exposure, Asbestos-Containing Material (ACM), Talc, vermiculite, Asbestiform Tremolite, Actinolite, Anthophyllite, Chrysotile.

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