Andrea Bloise, Claudia Richiutti, Rosalda Punturo, Dolores Pereira

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) host in asbestos elongate mineral particles is one of the factors which have been invoked to explain their toxicity/pathogenicity effects.
This study quantifies and compares these elements in terms of major, minor and trace element concentrations (Si, Mg, Ca, Al, Fe, Mn, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Be, V, As, Rb, Sb, Ba, Pb, Sr) in various types of asbestos using micro X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), in order to understand how they contribute to asbestos-related diseases. Chrysotile, tremolite asbestos and actinolite asbestos extracted from the Gimigliano-Mount Reventino Unit (Calabria Region, Southern Italy) were used for this study.
Among the investigated minerals high concentrations of Cr (171 ppm) and Be (2.9 ppm) were found in tremolite asbestos and chrysotile respectively. When calculating the pseudo-total concentrations of trace elements in the samples, the largest amounts were detected in tremolite asbestos, followed by actinolite asbestos and chrysotile. However, since other metals such as Mn and Fe (minor elements) are known to induce toxicity, and considering their input to the overall balance, actinolite contained the largest amount of PTEs and in this case chrysotile proved to be more toxic than tremolite asbestos. Furthermore, the potential leaching of PTEs, released by chrysotile, tremolite and actinolite asbestos-containing rocks, into the soil and water supply is also discussed. Since asbestos elongate mineral particles can be widespread in the environment (i.e. rocks, soil, water), it is essential to quantify the toxic elements present in asbestos elongate mineral particles in order to prevent asbestos-related diseases. The knowledge obtained from this study will provide us with a better understanding of asbestos-related lung cancer.