Characterization of amphibole fibres linked to mesothelioma in the area of Biancavilla, Eastern Sicily, Italy

Abstract

An epidemiological and environmental study of the area around Biancavilla (CT, Italy) was prompted by a significant incidence of malignant pleural mesothelioma, which was not related to a specific occupational activity. An environmental dispersion of fibres was found and attributed to local quarry activities, whose extracted volcanic products also contained fibrous amphiboles and had been used extensively in the local building industry, especially in the period 1960-1970. Abundant yellowish and grey-whitish asbestiform amphiboles with strongly asymmetric morphology were identified in this study, intimately associated with albitic feldspar, hematite and very minor orthopyroxene. These minerals fill the pores of the altered volcanic host rock (metasomatized benmoreitic lavas and pyroclastic rocks). The Rietveld method allowed a quantitative mineralogical analysis of the mineral mixture (24% amphiboles-asbestos, 73% feldspar and 3% hematite). The crystal size and morphology of the grey-whitish amphibole fibres do not allow quantitative microprobe analyses; semi-quantitative EDS-SEM analyses of a prismatic mineral known to be fluoroedenite and the unknown fibrous crystals studied here suggest that they are the same mineral, although the fibres are generally depleted in Ca and Mg. The F content is the same in both occurrences. Unit-cell parameters of the fibres are: a = 9.815(1), b = 17.992(3), c = 5.2733(6) Angstrom, beta = 104.547(9)degrees, V = 901.4(3) Angstrom(3), and the refractive indices are in the range 1.60-1.63. Optical, chemical and Rietveld analyses of the fibres confirm their similarity with the yellow prismatic fluoro-edenite previously analysed. Biancavilla is the first occurrence of amphibole fibres in a volcanic context (the Etnean volcanic complex). These fibres have a very anomalous composition (high Na-A, Al-IV and F-O3 contents) in comparison to other known oncogenic minerals

Crystal chemical and structural characterization of fibrous tremolite from Susa Valley, Italy, with comments on potential harmful effects on human health

“…A remarkably good agreement is observed between site scattering derived from Rietveld refinement and those from chemical data, largest differences being smaller than 1.5%. This is fully consistent with the findings of previous works on fibrous amphiboles (Gianfagna et al 2003(Gianfagna et al , 2007. Site partitioning, beside the constraints indicated by Mössbauer spectroscopy, allocates 70% of the M1+M3 Fe 2+ at M1 and 30% at M3, to fulfill the requirement of only a slightly increased s.s. at M3 with respect to that of a Mg atom.…”

Methodologies for Determining the Sources, Characteristics, Distribution, and Abundance of Asbestiform and Nonasbestiform Amphibole and Serpentine in Ambient Air and Water

“…Epidemiological evidence and responses to asbestos in animal experiments have been recently reviewed by Lippmann (2014). Elevated occurrences of asbestosassociated disease are also reported from exposure to dusts containing other asbestiform amphibole and serpentine minerals not mined as asbestos, including the asbestiform varieties of the amphiboles winchite, richterite, and fluoroedenite (McDonald et al, 1986;Amandus and Wheeler, 1987;Gianfagna et al, 2003;Comba et al, 2003;Wylie and Verkouteren, 2000;Meeker et al, 2003;Sullivan, 2007) and an unusual asbestiform habit of the serpentine mineral antigorite (Keeling et al, 2008).…”

Evaluating asbestos fibre concentration in metaophiolites: a case study from the Voltri Massif and Sestri–Voltaggio Zone (Liguria, NW Italy)

“…The literature focussed on the genesis and characterisation of fibrous minerals and on their pathological interaction with the biosphere is rather rich and as a result, an ever increasing number of minerals and lithologies is now believed to represent a potential danger (as for amphiboles, see the review by Gunter et al 2007). Antigorite, balangeroite, carlosturanite, diopside, olivine, Ti-clinohumite, brugnatellite, brucite, fluoroedenite and zeolites are some of the minerals that can occur with fibrous habitus and are supposed to produce pathological interactions with lung cells even if they are not yet regulated by law (Compagnoni et al 1980;Compagnoni and Fiora 1983;Bariş et al 1988;Belluso et al 1995;Gianfagna et al 2003;Groppo et al 2005;Compagnoni and Groppo 2006;Compagnoni 2007, Gunter et al 2007).…”