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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Toxicol.
Sec. Nanotoxicology
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ftox.2025.1568513
This article is part of the Research TopicMineral Particles and Fibers and Human Health Risks: State-of-the-Art in Characterization, Analysis, Tissue Analytics, Exposure Thresholds for Risk, Epidemiology, and Risk Assessment for Science-Based Regulation and Disease Prevention and Implications for Occupational Health and SafetyView all 9 articles
Critical values for dimensional parameters of mesotheliomagenic mineral fibers: Evidence from the dimensions and rigidity of MWCNT
Provisionally accepted- 1University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States
- 2Chemistry & Industrial Hygiene, Inc., Lakewood, California, United States
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MWCNT (multi-walled carbon nanotubes) used in 72 animal instillation or inhalation studies were classified by average length, average width, Young's modulus, Rigidity Index (RI), and potency for mesothelioma in animals. The RI is based on the Euler buckling theory. MWCNT that induce mesothelioma have average lengths > 2 µm and widths > 37 nm, and average RI > 0.05 (µm 2 x GPa x 10 4 ). Many noncarcinogenic MWCNT materials have RI < 0.05 and lack biological rigidity. In comparison, Elongate Mineral Particle (EMP) populations with one exception have RI > 0.05. Mineral particles likely to have RI < 0.05 include chrysotile fibrils with lengths > 5 µm, amosite and crocidolite fibers with widths < 60 nm, and sheet silicate fibers with widths < 200 nm. The product of percent EMPA, average RI, and biosolubility among silicates correlates with known mesothelioma potency. The derived models reproduce published values of RM with high statistical significance (P<0.05). Average RI, length, and width are critical parameters for mesotheliomagenicity for both MWCNT and EMPA mineral fiber.
Keywords: mesothelioma1, carbon nanotubes2, rigidity3, EMP4, EMPA5, asbestos6, cleavage fragments7
Received: 10 Feb 2025; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wylie and Korchevskiy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ann G. Wylie, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, United States
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