textiles

Sorting rags for Italy’s textile industry may not sound like a dangerous occupation. But a new study in the Annals of Occupational Hygiene finds that rag sorters in the industrial province of Prato have a significantly elevated risk of malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a fast-growing and incurable cancer linked to asbestos exposure. Most people who contract mesothelioma have either worked in asbestos mines or with asbestos-containing products in the construction or shipbuilding trades. However, a hundred and seventy-two cases of mesothelioma were recorded among textile workers in Tuscany between 1988 and 2012. Almost half of them (46.5%) were residents of Prato and half of those Prato workers were rag sorters. In fact, the incidence of mesothelioma among rag sorters in…