Asbestos
Dr Jeremy Jones and Dr Frank Gaillard et al.
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals exploited commercially for their desirable physical properties, particularly their resistance to heat and burning. They all form thin elongated fibrous crystals, and can be manufactured into many forms. Asbestos can be divided into two large groups:
- serpentine : wave-like inshape
- chrysotile
- amphibole : needle-like in shape
- amosite
- crocidolite (blue asbestos)
- tremolite
- anthophyllite
- actinolite
It is the amphiboles that are responsible for the majority of asbestos related diseases 3.
Inhaled asbestos particles lodge in the lung and can penetrate to the pleura and even peritoneum. In the lung parenchyma the needle-like asbestos fibres illicit a chronic low level inflammatory reaction with neutrophils and macrophages releasing compounds that damage lung parenchyma and eventually lead to asbestosis 3.
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