Posters

In the last decades, there has been increasing interest in natural occurrences of asbestos and asbestiform minerals as a source of possible environmental risk. A crucial theme of interest related to environmental pollution is the enhanced mobilization of asbestos or asbestiform minerals affecting soils and rocks, due to human activities (e.g., road construction, excavation, mining) in comparison with natural weathering processes. Moreover, when weathering affects basic and ultrabasic rocks, some naturally occurring potentially harmful elements (e.g., Cr, Ni, Co, V) become enriched in waters and soils. The session deals with the state of the art knowledge of processes that involve the rock story, from natural outcrops to the quarry’s products as building materials, with implications due to airborne mineral fibres. Also on proper characterization of stones, such as serpentinite, to avoid conflicts when opening or re-opening quarries and using these kind of rocks in construction and/or restoration. Moreover, we are particularly interested in contributions presenting novel and classical approaches for asbestos recycling and outcrop mapping, together with possible solutions for reducing or remove asbestos exposure.