P38. Environmental and occupational exposures to inorganic dust: from local sources to global issue

Asbestos Containing Materials (ACMs) and Naturally Occurring Asbestos (NOA), silica, and industrially relevant particulates are only a part - yet important - of the sources of hazardous materials affecting the world's population in carrying out all daily activities. The released inorganic dusts (i.e, mineral particles and fibres) due to natural and anthropogenic processes, their targets and the effects on humans and environment as a whole are currently of great interest to the scientific community. The assessment of the risk posed by a site contaminated with hazardous particles and fibres requires a multiscale and interdisciplinary approach, encompassing mineralogy, geology, chemistry, epidemiology, and environmental medicine. This session welcomes novel and outstanding contributions on environmental, occupational, and non-conventional exposures to inorganic dust, including asbestos, asbestos-like minerals, silica, silicates, volcanic ashes, dusts from construction sites, and more in general composite dust. The sources of release and transport media (air, water, soils and rocks), the physico-chemical assessment of particles and fibres properties relevant to toxicity, targets and effects as well as monitoring and mitigation strategies are perfectly in the topic of this session.