[Emerging pleuropulmonary diseases associated with asbestos inhalation].

Asbestos is a generic term applied to a group of fibrous minerals found in nature. Because of their particular physical and chemical characteristics, these materials have been used by humans since antiquity. Around 456 BC, Herodotus wrote about the use of asbestos clothing in cremation ceremonies. Plutarch (46-120 BC) described the lamp wicks of the vestal virgins as vegetable fibre mixed with an indestructible material called asbestos.1 During the nineteenth century, the commercial exploitation of asbestos mines began in Russia, Italy, Canada, and South Africa. Later, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the Second World War, demand for asbestos grew and its uses multiplied spectacularly. During this period, asbestos played a decisive role in the development of numerous industrial sectors, and its heat resistant characteristics prevented many deaths. However, soon afterwards its harmful affect on human health began to be noticed. The term “asbestosis” first appeared in print in 1927 in reference to the pulmonary fibrosis caused by the inhalation of asbestos dust,2 and in 1935 this illness was associated with the presence of lung cancer.3 In 1960, it was suggested that asbestos was the cause of mesothelioma.4 Many studies carried out since then have confirmed the relationship of asbestos exposure with asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma (Table 1). In spite of these observations, asbestos use continued to increase. In 1964, the New York Academy of Sciences organized a conference to warn the public about the dangers of exposure to asbestos and to advocate limiting its use, but these initiatives were slowed by pressure from the industrial lobby.5,6 By 1980, world asbestos production had reached 5 000 000 tons annually (Figure 1). The subsequent decline in the use of this material has been gradual, and its use was not regulated until many years later, so that experts estimate that the number of workers in the European Union exposed to asbestos between 1990 and 1993 was around 1 200 000.7 It was not until 1982 that the first legislation governing asbestos came into force in Spain. A Ministerial Order of July 31 of that year prohibited the use of asbestos in aerosol form, and subsequent regulations have limited its use and sale (Ministerial Order of January 7, 1987, Royal Decree 1406/1989). In December of the present year European REVIEW ARTICLE