An epidemiological study in an Anatolian village environmentally exposed to tremolite asbestos.

Nonmalignant pleural lesions due to environmental exposure to asbestos: a field-based, cross-sectional study

“…Natural deposits of soil mixtures containing asbestos have been reported in many countries, among them Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Japan, China and New Caledonia [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Villagers in these mainly agricultural regions can be exposed to asbestos fibres when working in the fields or when using the soil for various purposes, such as white-washing or plastering walls (white stucco), and insulating or waterproofing floors and roofs.…”

“…Villagers in these mainly agricultural regions can be exposed to asbestos fibres when working in the fields or when using the soil for various purposes, such as white-washing or plastering walls (white stucco), and insulating or waterproofing floors and roofs. The soil has even been used as baby powder and in pottery [2,4,5].…”

“…Pleural lesions, parenchymal lesions and malignant mesothelioma frequently occur in these villagers [1,2,[4][5][6]. The annual malignant mesothelioma incidence rates have been calculated to be 114.8 per 100,000?yr -1 for males and 159.8 for females in these Turkish rural regions.…”

Environmental Malignant Mesothelioma in Southern Anatolia: A Study of Fifty Cases

“…As shown in Figure 1, among Turkish immigrants living in some other countries have been well documented (4)(5)(6)(7)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18). In Central Anatolian villages, mineralogic analyses performed on lung tissue samples as well as street samples revealed large amounts of zeolite (erionite) fibers, whereas in Karain village, these were mixed with small amounts of tremolite and chrysotile fibers.…”

Minerals, Fibrosis, and the Lung

“…Hence a much higher lung burden for chrysotile than for amosite or crocidolite is implied in the induction of mesothelioma (122). Tremolite may be blamed for nonmalignant pleural disease and pulmonary fibrosis (123) as well as for neoplasia (124). Inhaled by rats, tremolite led to pulmonary fibrosis and lung carcinoma with an occasional mesothelioma (125).…”