Workers’ risks in asbestos contaminated natural sites

Abstract

NOA is the acronym of Natural Occurring Asbestos and indicates the natural geological occurrence of asbestos fibrous minerals found in association with geological deposits such as rock, sediment, or soil that, undisturbed, may have little to no impact on the environment and human health.

In Italy, several Local Authorities, enterprises and Universities dealt with the problem of natural asbestos. Indeed, despite In Italy the use of asbestos has been banned since 1992; activity such as excavation, transport and processing of asbestos potentially containing rocks are allowed and disciplined by ministerial decree 14/5/96. Therefore, asbestos exposure for workers and population are still possible during these activities.

The present paper reports two study cases of natural asbestos occurrences,  which testify that, when National, Local Authorities and enterprises work in combination, operative models to take care of human and workers’ health may be formed and applied. These effective models should be standardized and spread to be used in other similar working situations.

At the same time, Authors highlighted that national guidelines should be issued to standardized surveys and implement national NOA database, as a support for consultants.