ASBESTOS-RELATED DISEASES AND ASBESTOS TYPES USED IN THE FORMER GDR

In the period from 1960 to 1990 about 1.4 million tonnes of asbestos w ere imported by the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and mainly processed into asbestos-cement products for the building industry. Th e production was concentrated in the former counties of Magdeburg and Dresden. In the past, asbestos was primarily used as insulation and fi re prevention material, etc. in the large-scale chemical industry. Chr ysotile was predominantly imported from the former Soviet Union, partl y from Canada. Very small amounts of amphiboles came from Mozambique, but they were not processed in the counties of Magdeburg and Halle. In the German Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt, approx. 600 asbestoses, al most 2,700 pleural changes caused by asbestos, 843 asbestos-induced me sotheliomas and 787 bronchial and laryngeal carcinomas caused by asbes tos were recorded in the period from 1960 to 1990. A considerable perc entage of the mesotheliomas are solely due to exposure to chrysotile a sbestos.