US EPA

7473160 

Journal Article 

Rock wool pneumoconiosis 

Ciaccia, A; Pusinanti, F; Beltrami, A; Fasano, E 

1978 

49 

5 

305-333 

Italian 

Some cases of interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, located in a group of insulating workers during a radiological research carried out at a big industrial plant in Ferrara, are reported here. The processing requires the use of insulating material consisting of fibre-glass (rock wool). Exposure to the inhalation of the fibre of this aluminium silicate, which is, from the point of view of the chemical and the physical structure, much alike to a particular type of amphibole asbestos, composed of calcium and iron double silicates, may be the cause of the appearance of a diffused interstitial pulmonary fibrosis markedly involving pleura. The authors suppose that such diffused interstitial pulmonary fibrosis may be classified as a real nosological entity. They are fibrogenic evolving pneumoconiosis, quite similar to abestosis which are in direct etiophatogenic relation to the exposure to the specific risk of workers inhalating fibre-glass. The clinical pictures, radiological feature, functional respiratory alterations and finally the typical anatomo-pathological substrata of this disease, are reported here. 

asbestos; glass fiber; diagnosis; epidemiology; etiology; fibrosing alveolitis; geographic distribution; histology; insulation worker; major clinical study; pneumoconiosis; respiratory system