Asbestos in toys: an exemplary case.

CONCLUSIONS: Asbestos fibers in DAS may have caused exposure to production workers and a variety of users, including artists, teachers, and children. Over 13 years, about 55 million packs of DAS were produced and sold. The number of users is difficult to estimate but may have been in the order of millions. In Italy, a specific question on the use of DAS has been included in a routinely used mesothelioma questionnaire. As DAS was exported to other countries, our findings suggest that mesothelioma patients should be asked about their past use of DAS, in particular individuals not reporting a clear past asbestos exposure. Additionally, this discovery shows the incompleteness of records on asbestos uses and suggests to test items, including toys, imported from countries where asbestos is not f...

from MedWorm: Mesothelioma http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=159025109&cid=c_409_48_f&fid=36248&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fpubmed%2F26659652%3Fdopt%3DAbstract