TY - JOUR T1 - Chronic effects of occupational exposure to mineral fibers and recurrent chest infections in insulators JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00095-2022 SP - 00095-2022 AU - Subhabrata Moitra AU - Ali Farshchi Tabrizi AU - Linda Henderson AU - Fadi Khadour AU - Mohamed Osman AU - Lyle Melenka AU - Paige Lacy Y1 - 2022/01/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2022/04/07/23120541.00095-2022.abstract N2 - Mineral fibers, which are types of commercially produced man-made vitreous fibers (MMVFs) with a woolly consistency, are industrially manufactured by passing air through molten glass, rock, or slag, and are commonly known as glass, slag, or rock wool. Although all these materials are grouped together as mineral fibers, there are differences in their composition and physical properties. Glass wool/fiberglass is made from borosilicate glass which is composed of sand, soda ash dolomite, limestone, ulexite, and anhydrite, while rock and slag wools are produced of naturally occurring igneous rock (basalt or dolomite rocks), and molten furnace slag, respectively [1]. These disorganized, interlocking fibers were reported to deliver potentially deleterious health effects, particularly on the skin and upper respiratory tract to workers occupationally exposed to these materials, such as during installation or removal of insulation [2, 3].FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: SM reports personal fees from Synergy Respiratory & Cardiac Care (Canada), related to this work; and Apollo Gleneagles Hospital (India) and Permanyer Inc. (Spain) outside this work. PL reports grants from Wellness of Workers (WoW) Program, Local 110 Heat & Frost Insulators & Allied Workers, and Synergy Respiratory Care Limited (Canada) that supported this work; and personal fees from AstraZeneca (Canada) and GlaxoSmithKline (Canada) outside this work. Other authors do not have any conflict of interest to declare with this work. ER -