Environmental Airborne Asbestos Pollution and Pleural Plaques in Corsica

Abstract

In addition to the unworked chrysotile mine of Canari, numerous asbestos outcrops of both the serpentine and amphibole types are scattered in schistous layers throughout North Eastern Corsica, whereas the North Western area is granitic. A survey of 1721 chest radiographs of Corsican patients revealed an unexpectedly high percentage of bilateral pleural plaques. The frequency of these plaques was significantly higher in patients born in North Eastern Corsica, who had no connection with occupational asbestos exposure, than in a control group of patients born in the North West. To investigate the hypothesis that a close relationship exists between the occurrence of pleural plaques and environmental asbestos exposure according to birthplace, an air monitoring study was performed to compare the airborne asbestos pollution in four villages of North Eastern Corsica with that of four villages in the North West. Despite the low mean level of airborne asbestos pollution, the differences between the air sample measurements made in the North Eastern and North Western areas respectively correlated well with the differences between patients from these areas, as reflected by the numbers of pleural plaques revealed by the radiographic survey.