Naturally Occurring Asbestos: The Perception of Rocks in the Mountains of New Caledonia

Assessment of Serpentine Group Minerals in Soils: A Case Study from the Village of San Severino Lucano (Basilicata, Southern Italy)

“…On the basis of the effects of asbestos on biological systems, several authors ascribe the asbestos-fibers toxicity to the synergetic effect of fiber size, bio-persistence and chemical composition [10][11][12][13]; this latter is related to the high capability of asbestos minerals to host a large number of toxic elements; for this reason, due to interactions between lung fluids and inhaled atmospheric dust [14,15], some researchers claimed that asbestos fibers may play a passive role in producing diseases as carriers of heavy metals that may be then released into the environment [16]. In general, many factors such as natural weathering processes (e.g., erosion) and human activities (e.g., excavation, road construction, agricultural activities) contribute to NOA release in the environment [13,17], enhancing hazard of people who live near to NOA deposits around the world [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].In the present study we focused on the Basilicata region (Italy) [26], where an increased number of lung disease cases were related to the environmental exposure to asbestos [27][28][29]. The village and its surroundings represent an excellent example of hazardous and not occupational exposure of population to asbestos, because of the geographic isolation and its distance from other main sources of asbestos for instance.Recently, a work by Punturo et al [30] dealt with the characterization by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRPD) and Scanning and Electron Microscopy (SEM) of the soils of San Severino Lucano, reporting their potential for hazardous exposure of population, because of their heavy metal content.…”

“…On the basis of the effects of asbestos on biological systems, several authors ascribe the asbestos-fibers toxicity to the synergetic effect of fiber size, bio-persistence and chemical composition [10][11][12][13]; this latter is related to the high capability of asbestos minerals to host a large number of toxic elements; for this reason, due to interactions between lung fluids and inhaled atmospheric dust [14,15], some researchers claimed that asbestos fibers may play a passive role in producing diseases as carriers of heavy metals that may be then released into the environment [16]. In general, many factors such as natural weathering processes (e.g., erosion) and human activities (e.g., excavation, road construction, agricultural activities) contribute to NOA release in the environment [13,17], enhancing hazard of people who live near to NOA deposits around the world [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].…”