The finding of "asbestos" bodies in the lungs of some city dwellers would suggest that these people have, at some time, inhaled either asbestos dust or fibrous dust particles, which resemble asbestos dust. Reports from cities such as Cape Town (South Africa), Miami, Pittsburgh, Montreal, and Milan (Italy), and from a wider survey (Finland) suggested that anywhere from 30% to 70% of the people have had this experience. This range would appear to reflect variations in the technique and diligence used in searching for the iron-containing telltale bodies rather than variations in actual prevalence, since by use of a tissue-digestion technique, nearly all lungs (97%) examined by Utidjian and his co-workers were found to contain one or more ferruginous bodies.1
Depending on what significance one attaches to the nearly universal presence of ferruginous bodies in the lungs of city dwellers, considerable alarm may be generated. Implications may range from