Mineral Fibres: Crystal Chemistry, Chemical-Physical Properties, Biological Interaction and Toxicity

The 2017 EMU (European Mineralogical Union) School

The school will cover different multidisciplinary aspects related to the study of natural fibres and is thus aimed at students with a background in Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Material Science, Medicine, Physics who strive for working in the field of mineral fibre and asbestos and want to acquire both a strong background in this specific area of environmental protection and a multidisciplinary open vision of the asbestos related problems.

The following topics will be covered:

• Crystal structure and crystallography, occurrence of mineral fibres, and natural occurring asbestos
• experimental methods for the investigation of mineral fibres: optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, vibrational spectroscopy, iron spectroscopy and synchrotron radiation based techniques
• Surface and bio-chemical properties of mineral fibres
• Illustration of asbestos related diseases and bio-chemical mechanism inducing toxicity effects in the human body
• In vitro and in vivo tests to assess cyto/genotoxicity and carcinogenicity of mineral fibre
• Dissolution and biodurability of mineral fibres
• Epidemiological studies of asbestos related diseases
• Genetic factors, mutations and toxicity of mineral fibres

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