[Three cases of pleural mesothelioma and environmental pollution with tremolite outcrops in Lucania].

In a circumscribed rural area of Lucania (Italy) three cases of pleural mesothelioma have been identified: two men, 83 and 52 years old and a 78 year-old woman, who all had in common the fact of being shepards in that area. Possible asbestos pollution sources have been sought: we have immediately excluded an asbestos manufactured articles pollution, however we have highlighted the presence of "green stones", which had always been known to the local inhabitants and which, in three subsequent campains of collecting and chemical-mineralogical investigations, have resulted partly constituted by amphibole asbestos, classified as tremolite. Official institutions are organising a series of initiatives to verify the hypothesis of a causal relationship between the presence of tremolite and the cases of pleural mesothelioma, and preventive initiatives aimed at reducing exposure and to a sanitary surveillance. Similar problems had been identified in Turkey, Greece, Corsica, New Caledonia and recently in eastern Sicily.