Category: International

Dr. Ingwei Huang, Ph.D. – Department of Business Economics Assumption University

The last 20 years or so have seen enormous advances in our knowledge and understanding of asbestos-related disease. Unfortunately, governments and regulatory agencies have largely ignored the findings. Lawyers and pressure groups vigorously resist them.

Heavy industrial exposure to asbestos causes lung cancer and mesothelioma, but it remains unknown whether much lower environmental exposure to asbestos also causes these cancers.

The use in the past, and to a lesser extent today, of chrysotile asbestos in automobile brake systems causes health concerns among professional mechanics.

The differences between chrysotile asbestos, a serpentine mineral, and amphibole asbestos have been debated extensively. Many studies have shown that chrysotile is cleared from the lung more rapidly than amphibole.

Chrysotile asbestos, a serpentin mineral, has been  shown to be notably different from amphibole asbestos  such as amosite, crocidolite, and tremolite in that chrysotile once inhaled is rapidly removed from the lung while the amphiboles persist. 

This research provides an important basis for substantiating both kinetically and pathologically the differences between chrysotile and amphiboles.

Data exist that show that chrysotile asbestos does not retain its mineral properties, or biological activity, at temperature far below the olivine transformation point. Temperatures hundreds of degrees below this point cause the mineral to lose structural water with accompanying crystal structure degradation.

In the aftermath of the September 11th atrocity, which destroyed New York City’s World Trade Center (WTC), questions have been raised conceming the risk of asbestos-related cancer from inhaling the dust.

This study aimed to quantify the potential intradomiciliary exposure to asbestos in five Brazilian capital cities and possible effects on the respiratory system.

This review provides a basis for substantiating both kinetically and pathologically the differences between chrysotile and amphibole asbestos.