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Experimental Asbestosis
Published in Joan Gil, Models of Lung Disease, 2020
The methods and techniques developed for the study of asbestos have been adapted for the investigation of the biological effects of other mineral fibers. These have included synthetic mineral fibers both vitreous and crystalline, derived from glass, slag, volcanic rock, and ceramic materials, and the fibrous clay minerals: palygorskite, sepiolite, and anthophyllite. Most interesting so far, of these investigations has been the recognition of the zeolite fibre erionite as the cause of the devastating incidence of mesotheliomas in the Urgup region of Cappadocia in central Turkey. It has been possible to confirm by experimental study the sinister effects of exposure to the finer erionite fibers. This is the only dust in which we have been able to produce a 100% tumor incidence using both the inhalation and implantation techniques.
The many causes of mesothelioma
Published in Dorsett D. Smith, The Health Effects of Asbestos, 2015
Erionite, a fibrous zeolite, is the most mesotheliogenic, noncommercial fiber yet discovered. Natural zeolites are used in animal feed, pet litter, odor control, water purification, fertilizer, oil absorbent, and many other uses. Erionite may contaminate commercial deposits of zeolites mined in Arizona, Idaho, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, and Mexico. How many of these zeolite products are contaminated with erionite is unclear at this time, but the potential is quite large. Erionite exposure was thought initially to be a problem limited to Turkey (Baris YI, Sahin AA, Ozesmi M et al. An outbreak of plural mesothelioma and chronic fibrosing pleurisy in the village of Karain/Urgup in Anatolia. Thorax 1978;33:181–92), but it is present in most of the Western United States and Mexico, and has been implicated in mesothelioma causation in Dunn County, North Dakota. (Michele C et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2011;108:13618–23; Kliment CR, Clemens K, Oury TD. North American erionite-associated mesothelioma with pleural plaques and pulmonary fibrosis: A case report. Int J Clin Exp Pathol 2009;2(4):407–10; Ortega-Guerrero MA, Carrasco-Núñez G, Barrágan-Campos H, Ortega MR. High incidence of lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma linked to erionite fibre exposure in a rural community in Central Mexico. Occup Environ Med 2015;72(3):216–8; Dogan AU, Dogan M, Hoskins JA. Erionite series minerals: Mineralogical and carcinogenic properties. Environ Geochem Health 2008;30(4):367–81; Carbone M, Yang H. Molecular pathways: Targeting mechanisms of asbestos and erionite carcinogenesis in mesothelioma. Clin Cancer Res 2012;18(3):598–604; Carbone M, Ly BH, Dodson RF et al. Malignant mesothelioma: Facts, myths, and hypotheses. J Cell Physiol 2012;227(1):44–58; Van Gosen BS, Blitz TA, Plumlee GS et al. Geologic occurrences of erionite in the United States: An emerging national public health concern for respiratory disease. Environ Geochem Health 2013;35(4):419–30.)
Mesothelioma mortality within two radiation monitored occupational cohorts
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2022
Michael T. Mumma, Jennifer L. Sirko, John D. Boice, William J. Blot
Suspected non-asbestos risk factors for malignant mesothelioma include ionizing radiation (high-dose radiotherapy and Thorotrast (i.e. radioactive thorium dioxide that emits alpha particles)), viral infections (e.g. SV40), genetic predisposition (e.g. germline mutations of the BRCA1-associated protein 1), chronic pleural inflammation, and erionite (a naturally occurring fibrous material similar to asbestos). These factors may act alone or as co-factors together with asbestos or with ‘naturally occurring asbestos-like material’ such as erionite, to cause mesothelioma (Crew et al. 2005; Carbone et al. 2012, 2016; Attanoos et al. 2018). Animal experiments have shown the co-carcinogenic properties of high-dose radiation with asbestos (Warren et al. 1981). The polyomavirus simian virus 40 (SV40) has been reported to induce mesothelioma and to be a co-factor for asbestos carcinogenesis in experimental animals; however, the evidence for a causal relationship between SV40 and mesothelioma in humans is lacking (Carbone et al. 2012). Chronic inflammation appears to promote the occurrence of asbestos-related mesothelioma (Carbone and Yang 2017). Mesothelioma may thus be a multifactorial disease and not all non-asbestos causes may have been identified nor have all co-factor mechanisms.
Empirical model of mesothelioma potency factors for different mineral fibers based on their chemical composition and dimensionality
Published in Inhalation Toxicology, 2019
Andrey Korchevskiy, James O. Rasmuson, Eric J. Rasmuson
Asbestos toxicological mechanisms and fiber-type cancer potencies remain one of the most controversial topics of modern epidemiology, toxicology, and industrial hygiene (Mossman et al. 2011; Moolgavkar et al. 2017). IARC recognizes all asbestos mineral types as human carcinogens, and it is clear that apparently all asbestos mineral types can increase risk of lung cancer (IARC 2012). However, various asbestos minerals demonstrate different propensities to cause both lung cancer and mesothelioma. For example, mesothelioma mortality in human cohorts exposed to chrysotile asbestos is significantly lower than in cohorts exposed to amphibole asbestos—crocidolite, amosite, tremolite, and others. Moreover, it is clear now that asbestos toxicity should not be considered in isolation, but in the wider context of the carcinogenic potential of elongate mineral particles expressing asbestiform habits, not necessarily corresponding to the commercial or regulatory definition of asbestos. For example, it is important to consider the ability of erionite fibers to produce adverse health effects similar to asbestos, even though erionite is a zeolite, and not an amphibole mineral. The goal of this article is to demonstrate that potency factors of various elongate mineral particles to produce mesothelioma can be effectively modeled based on fiber physicochemical characteristics.
The health effects of short fiber chrysotile and amphibole asbestos
Published in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 2022
Wagner et al. (1984, 1985) and Wagner (1988) reported on inhalation and intrapleural inoculation studies of long and short erionite and crocidolite asbestos. The short fiber samples were milled to be <5 µm, with the majority <3 µm in length. The inhalation exposure concentration for the erionite was 10 mg/m3, mean gravimetric respirable dust concentration. None of the short fiber samples administered either by inhalation produced tumors following 12 months of exposure and a further 12 months of observation. By intrapleural inoculation, with long fiber crocidolite, there were over 90% tumors, while with short crocidolite, there was a single tumor. No tumors occurred in animals exposed to short erionite.