© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Occupational Hygiene Society. Original Article Asbestos Exposure of Chrysotile Miners and Millers in Balangero, Italy Stefano Silvestri 1,2 , Daniela Ferrante 2, *, Andrea Giovannini 3 , Francesco Grassi 3 , Stefania Carofalo 3 , Rita Ferrara 3 , Corrado Magnani 2,5 and Dario Mirabelli 4,5, 1 Cancer Research and Prevention Institute (ISPRO), Via Cosimo il Vecchio 2, 50139 Firenze, Italy (Now retired); 2 Department of Translational Medicine, Unit of Medical Statistics and Cancer Epidemiology, CPO Piemonte and University of Piemonte Orientale, Via Solaroli 17, 28100 Novara, Italy; 3 Public Prosecution Office, Turin Court, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 130, 10138 Turin, Italy; 4 Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, Department of Medical Sciences, CPO-Piemonte and University of Turin, Via Santena 7, 10126 Turin, Italy; 5 Interdepartmental Centre G. Scansetti for Studies on Asbestos and other Toxic Particulates, University of Turin, via Pietro Giuria 9, 10125 Turin, Italy *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: (+39) 0321 3733112; e-mail: daniela.ferrante@med.uniupo.it Submitted 25 February 2019; revised 17 December 2019; editorial decision 12 April 2020; revised version accepted 16 April 2020. Abstract The largest chrysotile mine in Western Europe was active in Balangero (Italy) from 1917 to 1990. We quantitatively assessed exposure to asbestos in the framework of a cohort study on mortality of Balangero miners and millers. Using documents fled at the Italian State Archive we reconstructed the job-histories of cohort members. The concentration of asbestos fbres by work-area was derived from industrial hygiene surveys since 1968 and monitoring programs since 1975. Earlier exposures had been estimated based on the experimental reconstruction of past working conditions. In the mine concentrations of about 20 fbres per millilitre (f/ml) were initially present, decreasing to 5 in the mid-1950s and to <1 in late 1970s. In milling areas higher levels were present and did not fall below 1 f/ml until the mid-1980s. Cumulative exposure of cohort members, as the sum over their job-history of their year- and area-specifc exposures, were <10 fbre/millilitre years (f/ml-y) in 18% of workers, 10–100 in 32%, 100–1000 in 37%, and >1000 in 13%. Compared with recently published estimates for the Russian chrysotile mine in Asbest, fbre concentrations in Balangero were higher during the 1950s and 1960s. Such difference may be partly accounted for by diffculties in converting dust measurements to fbre concentrations in the Russian study and the need to rely on the experi- mental reconstruction of exposures before 1968 in our study. Keywords: asbestos mining; chrysotile; cumulative exposure; exposure assessment Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 2020, 64, No. 6, 636–644 doi: 10.1093/annweh/wxaa045 Advance Access publication 2 May 2020 Original Article Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/annweh/article/64/6/636/5828016 by guest on 07 July 2022