Occurrence of asbestos in soils: State of the art

Abstract

In the last decades, it has been widely demonstrated the risk to human health related to asbestos fibres exposure. Many studies have mainly focused on the mineralogical and geochemical characterization of ophiolites (i.e., serpentinite and metabasite rocks) since they are the main lithotypes associated with Naturally Occurring Asbestos (NOA). Nevertheless, derivative soil from these rocks inherits the mineralogical and geochemical composition of bed rock and may contain hazardous fibres, thus making its examination necessary as well. This paper provides a summary of asbestos-containing soils investigation worldwide with the purpose of providing an overview of the data obtained so far. To this aim, the most relevant available literature, testifying the presence of fibrous minerals in soils have been considered. This allowed the global territory mapping in order to depict the distribution of natural asbestos in soils worldwide.