Asbestos-related diseases continue to result in approximately 120,000 deaths every year in the United States and worldwide. Although extensive research has been conducted on health effects of occupational exposures to asbestos, many issues related to environmental asbestos exposures remain unresolved. For example, environmental asbestos exposures associated with a former mine in Libby, Montana, have resulted in high rates of nonoccupational asbestos-related disease. Additionally, other areas with naturally occurring asbestos deposits near communities in the United States and overseas are undergoing investigations to assess exposures and potential health risks. Some of the latest public health, epidemiological, and basic research findings were presented at a workshop on asbestos at the 2014 annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology in Phoenix, Arizona. The following focus areas were discussed: a) mechanisms resulting in fibrosis and/or tumor development; b) relative toxicity of different forms of asbestos and other hazardous elongated mineral particles (EMPs); c) proper dose metrics (e.g., mass, fiber number, or surface area of fibers) when interpreting asbestos toxicity; d) asbestos exposure to susceptible populations; and e) using toxicological findings for risk assessment and remediation efforts. The workshop also featured asbestos research supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Better protection of individuals from asbestos-related health effects will require stimulation of new multidisciplinary research to further our understanding of what constitutes hazardous exposures and risk factors associated with toxicity of asbestos and other hazardous EMPs (e.g., nanomaterials).
1Division of Extramural Research and Training, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA; 2Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 3Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho, USA; 4Environmental Public Health Division, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA; 5Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Vermont, College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont, USA; 6Office of the Director, NIEHS, NIH, DHHS, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; 7Environmental Public Health Division, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, U.S. EPA, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
Recommended Citation:
Danielle J. Carlin,1 Theodore C. Larson,2 Jean C. Pfau,et al. Current Research and Opportunities to Address Environmental Asbestos Exposures[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2015-01-01,Volume 123(Issue 8):A194