Crocidolite seems to exert its toxic effects mostly as a result of its biodurability, ROS and cytokine production and DNA damage. The three mineral fibres apparently act by different toxicity mechanisms. To gain new insights into the different toxicity mechanisms of carcinogenic mineral fibres, the acute effects of fibrous erionite, crocidolite and chrysotile in the three phenotypes obtained by THP-1 monocyte differentiation were investigated. To date, no comparative data have been obtained on the inflammatory response induced by different carcinogenic mineral fibres in the three main macrophage phenotypes: M0 (non-activated), M1 (pro-inflammatory) and M2 (alternatively activated). Through this study, we want to focus on soluble minerals, such as epsomite, which can be present in both natural and anthropic environments and have never been considered from the point of view of their potential hazard.Īlveolar macrophages are the first line of defence against detrimental inhaled stimuli. Chemical analysis reveals significant amounts of toxic elements (As, Co, Fe, Mn, Ni, Sr, Ti, Zn) and surprisingly high contents of radioactive isotopes (²¹⁰Po and ²²⁸Th) in epsomite crystals, making the inhalation of these fibres potentially hazardous to human health. The morphological and morphometric results showed that most of the fibres are of inhalable size (Dae 5.09 μm) and can be potentially adsorbed from all parts of the respiratory tract. In this study, the water-soluble natural epsomite fibres from Perticara Mine (Italy) were investigated using SEM-EDS, XRPD, ICP-AES and alpha spectrometry measurements which were combined and integrated to characterise the fibres’ morphology, crystal chemistry and mineralogy. From a toxicological point of view, particulates and fibres with high solubility in water and/or in biological environments have not been considered in detail and the knowledge to date in this area is very scarce.

Solid interface crystalmaker