EHS Alaska, Inc.

World Asbestos Conference 2009

1-3 October

Taormina - Italy

Continuing his active participation in the ASTM Johnson Asbestos Conferences, Robert A. French, P.E. and President of EHS-Alaska, Inc., attended the World Asbestos Conference in Taormina, Italy.  Not coincidentally, the Conference was held about 30 miles away from a site where a new form of amphibole asbestos was found, the first that was associated with volcanic rocks. 

Abnormally high instances of Mesothelioma in a small town on the lower slopes of Mt. Etna caught the attention of epidemiologists as the villagers apparently had no exposures to asbestos.  While only 6 types of asbestos have been extracted commercially (and thus are the types that are regulated by OSHA and EPA), there are hundreds of forms of amphiboles, some that are asbestiform in shape and size, and are likely to cause diseases like Mesothelioma. Similar to Libby, Montana, (where hundreds of people were apparently killed by forms of amphiboles found in the Vermiculite that was mined in Libby), Geologists in Italy found long, skinny asbestiform amphibole fibers in the local rock quarry. 

The worldwide perspective on asbestos is interesting, as some countries have gone with a complete ban on asbestos in products, and others, like the United States, continue to allow the use and installation of asbestos in many common building products, while others have little restrictions at all.

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