On the correlation between physical and chemical properties of respirable mineral fibers and their toxic and carcinogenic effects

The biological and physico-chemical investigations done on the field of "Fiber toxicology" during the last decade indicate that a "black box" model could be developed for the correlation between physical and chemical properties of fibrous particles and their toxic and carcinogenic effects. Fiber size, fiber persistency, fiber charge and catalytic properties show correlations to their experimentally determined biological effects. Practical importance of such correlations is discussed and a serie of standardized screening tests is proposed.