Bureau of Quality Assurance
| National Center for Workplace Health Promotion
| Department of Environmental Epidemiology
| Department of Work Physiology and Ergonomics
| Research Laboratory for Medicine and Veterinary Products in the GMP Quality System
| Department of Molecular Genetics and Epigenetics
| Department of Biological and Environmental Monitoring
| Department of Chemical Safety
| Department of Radiological Protection
| Department of Physical Hazards
| Department of Occupational Diseases and Environmental Health
| Audiology and Phoniatrics Clinic
|
|
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| Reference Center for Asbestos Exposure and Health Risk Assessment
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Report on the activities of the Centre for the 2004–2010 period | Environmental asbestos exposure and asbestos pollution in Poland | The "Amiantus" Project | Occupational exposure, medical care | Asbestos-related occupational diseases
NEONILA SZESZENIA-DABROWSKA
Environmental Asbestos Exposure in Poland
Import, production and trading of asbestos and asbestos-containing products has been banned in Poland since 1997 (1). The parliamentary act prohibiting the use of asbestos products has solved the problem of the occupational exposure of the workers employed in the materials processing industry and prevented use and storage of the products. But the problem of enormous quantities of asbestos and asbestos-cement products in the communal environment remains to be solved yet.
In discussing the problems of the environmental exposure to asbestos, attention should be paid to asbestos characteristics that contribute to the specificity of asbestos as the environmental contamination, and also to the specificity of the biological activity of asbestos fibres, as both affect the procedures used to reduce health hazard and the methods of handling materials containing asbestos. The specific characteristics of the environmental pollution with the asbestos may be listed as follows:
− unlimited life (asbestos fibres are practically indestructible)
− elementary fibres are released from asbestos-containing materials in the course of degradation of the latter (asbestos-cement, various insulation products)
− a considerable scatter of sources of asbestos dust released to air from products containing asbestos
− variable concentration of asbestos fibres in the ambient air, depending on many factors.
Environmental exposure to asbestos dust increases the risk of lung cancer; it may also cause mesotheloma and non-malignant lesions in the pleura. The specificity of the biological activity of the asbestos, very essential for the determination of the health hazard to the population comprises the following aspects:
1) accumulation of respirable asbestos fibres inhaled from the ambient air in the lungs during the whole individual’s lifetime
2) very long latency period of the disease (20–40 years)
3) the disease may develop after cessation of the exposure
4) the development of mesotheliomas associated with the environmental exposure after short-term exposures to high concentration or prolonged contact with low concentrations of asbestos fibres.
The specificity of the biological activity of the asbestos on the human organism, along with characteristic of asbestos environmental pollution cause that it is very difficult to assess the risk of asbestos-related cancer development in the population. Health risk assessment is based on the determination of the health hazard from the level of the concentration and the duration of the exposure, i.e. determination of the cumulated dose of the fibres. Due to the considerable variability of the concentrations of asbestos fibres in the atmosphere, „indirect” measures of the environmental asbestos pollution are employed:
− quantity of imported asbestos and materials containing asbestos
− the use of raw asbestos in asbestos-processing plants
− yearly the use of raw asbestos per inhabitant
− quantity and the condition of asbestos-containing products in the country
− quantity of asbestos and asbestos-contaminated wastes.
To read more click here
Report on the activities of the Centre for the 2004–2010 period | Environmental asbestos exposure and asbestos pollution in Poland | The "Amiantus" Project | Occupational exposure, medical care | Asbestos-related occupational diseases
Material partly was presented on:
European Asbestos Conference:
Policy, Status & Human Rights
European Parliament, Brussels,
22–23 September 2005
European Asbestos Conference:
Policy, Status & Human Rights
European Parliament, Brussels,
22–23 September 2005
NEONILA SZESZENIA-DABROWSKA
Environmental Asbestos Exposure in Poland
Import, production and trading of asbestos and asbestos-containing products has been banned in Poland since 1997 (1). The parliamentary act prohibiting the use of asbestos products has solved the problem of the occupational exposure of the workers employed in the materials processing industry and prevented use and storage of the products. But the problem of enormous quantities of asbestos and asbestos-cement products in the communal environment remains to be solved yet.
In discussing the problems of the environmental exposure to asbestos, attention should be paid to asbestos characteristics that contribute to the specificity of asbestos as the environmental contamination, and also to the specificity of the biological activity of asbestos fibres, as both affect the procedures used to reduce health hazard and the methods of handling materials containing asbestos. The specific characteristics of the environmental pollution with the asbestos may be listed as follows:
− unlimited life (asbestos fibres are practically indestructible)
− elementary fibres are released from asbestos-containing materials in the course of degradation of the latter (asbestos-cement, various insulation products)
− a considerable scatter of sources of asbestos dust released to air from products containing asbestos
− variable concentration of asbestos fibres in the ambient air, depending on many factors.
Environmental exposure to asbestos dust increases the risk of lung cancer; it may also cause mesotheloma and non-malignant lesions in the pleura. The specificity of the biological activity of the asbestos, very essential for the determination of the health hazard to the population comprises the following aspects:
1) accumulation of respirable asbestos fibres inhaled from the ambient air in the lungs during the whole individual’s lifetime
2) very long latency period of the disease (20–40 years)
3) the disease may develop after cessation of the exposure
4) the development of mesotheliomas associated with the environmental exposure after short-term exposures to high concentration or prolonged contact with low concentrations of asbestos fibres.
The specificity of the biological activity of the asbestos on the human organism, along with characteristic of asbestos environmental pollution cause that it is very difficult to assess the risk of asbestos-related cancer development in the population. Health risk assessment is based on the determination of the health hazard from the level of the concentration and the duration of the exposure, i.e. determination of the cumulated dose of the fibres. Due to the considerable variability of the concentrations of asbestos fibres in the atmosphere, „indirect” measures of the environmental asbestos pollution are employed:
− quantity of imported asbestos and materials containing asbestos
− the use of raw asbestos in asbestos-processing plants
− yearly the use of raw asbestos per inhabitant
− quantity and the condition of asbestos-containing products in the country
− quantity of asbestos and asbestos-contaminated wastes.
To read more click here
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