Abstract
We performed a study to determine lung asbestos tissue content in persons residing in the area around the town of Asbestos, Quebec. Our hypothesis was that lung fibre levels in persons living in this area but never employed in the mines or mills should be intermediate between occupational and baseline (reference) levels. Using tissue digestion techniques in a single autopsy population, we performed light microscopic asbestos body counts for age-matched male environmental and referent cases ( N = 17, each group) and light and electron microscopic analyses for 23 occupationally exposed men. Significant differences ( p < 0.01) were noted between median asbestos body concentrations (environmental 480 AB/gram; referents 80 AB/gram; occupational 13,800 AB/gram). Analysis of a small series of environmentally exposed females and referents showed similar results. Fibre types identified using electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectrophotometry in occupational cases were tremolite 39%, chrysotile 36%, crocidolite 11%, others 14%. Most (74%) of the Asbestos occupational cases had crocidolite and/or amosite fibres in lung samples.
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