The research frontier on mineral fibres is progressively shifting from the industrial to the geo-environmental domain. Elongated Mineral Particles (EMP) and Naturally Occurring Asbestos (NOA) gained increasing attention due to their consequences on human health, workplace safety and environmental pollution. NOA, initially considered a concern only in ultramafic and meta-ultramafic rocks, have been actually found in metabasites, metagranitoids and other metamorphic rocks, as well as in ophiolite-derived sediments. NOA may represent a risk when mobilized by natural weathering or human activities. The evaluation of NOA content in natural matrices has become an essential point in geo-environmental risk analysis. However, the lack of guidelines negatively affects the risk analysis and causes concern and negative perception in the general population. Shared approaches to the management of NOA risk, containing shared definitions of EMP/NOA, toxicological evaluation of non-asbestos fibres, hazard quantification strategies, and geoengineering mitigation procedures, are therefore hardly required. To tackle these challenges and build a comprehensive knowledge of the NOA issue, a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing mineralogy, geology, environmental chemistry, epidemiology and medicine, is highly envisaged.

To answer these points, this session welcomes contributions and case studies on the following aspects:

• Mineralogy and petrography of NOA and fibrous minerals, including definition and regulatory aspects;

• Hazard evaluation of non-asbestos mineral fibres;

• NOA risk assessment in natural environment (soil/rocks, air and water);

• NOA risk management, protection strategies for workers, environment, and population.