National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL), Department of Medicine, Epidemiology, Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, Lamezia Terme, Catanzaro, Italy.
National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL), Department of Medicine, Epidemiology, Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, via Fontana Candida 1, 00078 Monte Porzio Catone, Rome, Italy.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jan 15;856(Pt 1):159061. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159061. Epub 2022 Sep 29.
In Calabria (Southern Italy) naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) mainly occurs in the ophiolitic sequences cropping in the Mount Reventino area. The most common type of asbestos detected was the amphibole tremolite; fibrous antigorite and minor chrysotile were also found. The development of asbestos-related diseases depends on, among other things, the morphological characteristics of fibers, length and width, affecting the durability of asbestos fibers in the lung. In this work fifteen lung samples of sheep, goats and wild boars, grazing around the Mount Reventino area were collected and asbestos fibers analysed. Observed fibers (357), of which 97 % were tremolite and 3 % antigorite fibers, were grouped according to species, grazing area and age of the animals. The aim of this work was to highlight any differences among the groupings and to compare our size results with data in literature related to exposed populations. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) highlighted a positive correlation between tremolite fiber length and width and revealed groupings in terms of animal age. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed statistically significant differences between fiber mean widths in young and old animals. 63 % observed asbestiform fibers were longer than 5 μm and 7 % of the fibers were longer than 20 μm (critical fiber length connected to the frustrated phagocytosis by the macrophage). Fibers conforming to the Stanton Hypothesis size (predictor of the carcinogenic potency of fibers) were 1 %. Our size parameters of fibers detected in the animal lungs were in fairly good agreement with literature data for human asbestos exposure to tremolite. These results confirmed that an animal-sentinel system could be used to monitor the natural background of the airborne breathable fibers exposure. In addition, the size correlation of animal-human breathed fibers could be useful to study their potential toxicity. Additional data are necessary for improving the agreement with human exposure data.
在意大利南部的卡拉布里亚（Calabria），天然存在的石棉（NOA）主要存在于雷维entino 山地区出露的蛇绿岩序列中。检测到的最常见的石棉类型是角闪石透闪石；还发现了纤维状的镁橄榄石和少量的温石棉。石棉相关疾病的发展取决于纤维的形态特征，如长度和宽度等，这些特征影响石棉纤维在肺部的耐久性。在这项工作中，采集了来自雷维entino 地区周围放牧的绵羊、山羊和野猪的 15 个肺样本，并对石棉纤维进行了分析。观察到的纤维（357 根）中，97%为透闪石纤维，3%为镁橄榄石纤维，根据物种、放牧区和动物年龄对这些纤维进行了分组。这项工作的目的是强调分组之间的任何差异，并将我们的尺寸结果与与暴露人群相关的文献数据进行比较。主成分分析（PCA）突出了透闪石纤维长度和宽度之间的正相关关系，并根据动物年龄对分组进行了揭示。Kruskal-Wallis 检验显示，年轻和老年动物的纤维平均宽度之间存在统计学上的显著差异。观察到的 63%的石棉纤维长度大于 5μm，7%的纤维长度大于 20μm（与巨噬细胞吞噬作用受挫相关的临界纤维长度）。符合 Stanton 假说尺寸（纤维致癌潜力的预测因子）的纤维占 1%。我们在动物肺中检测到的纤维尺寸参数与文献中人类暴露于透闪石的纤维数据相当吻合。这些结果证实，动物监测系统可用于监测空气中可呼吸纤维暴露的自然背景。此外，动物-人类呼吸纤维的尺寸相关性可用于研究其潜在毒性。需要更多的数据来提高与人类暴露数据的一致性。
