Pulmonary Ferruginous Bodies in City Dwellers

Abstract

Chrysotile, which comprises more than 90% of the asbestos used in this country, has a characteristic electron diffraction pattern because of its unique, hollow, tubular, crystalline structure, as seen under the electron microscope.

On the basis of the electron diffraction pattern, chrysotile was decisively excluded as a constituent of the cores of all 28 ferruginous bodies isolated from lungs of urban dwellers not occupationally exposed to asbestos.

This exclusion is considered highly significant because if the ferruginous bodies in the above city dwellers had been caused by the inhalation of asbestos dusts, then some of the cores should logically be composed of chrysotile.