Mineral-fluid interaction in the lungs: insights from reaction-path modeling

Thermodynamic modeling, in conjunction with available kinetic information, has been employed to investigate the fate of chrysotile and tremolite in the human lung. In particular, we focus on mineral-fluid reactions using techniques borrowed from geochemistry, including calculation of saturation indices, activity-ratio phase diagrams, and reaction-path modeling. Saturation index calculations show that fresh lung fluid is undersaturated with respect to both tremolite and chrysotile and these minerals should dissolve, in accordance with conclusions from previous work described in the literature. Modeling of reaction paths in both closed and open systems confirms previous suggestions that chrysotile dissolves faster than tremolite in lung fluid, which offers an explanation for the apparent increase in tremolite/chrysotile ratios in lungs of miners and millers over time. However, examination of activity-ratio phase diagrams and reaction-path model calculations raises the possibility not only that minerals dissolve congruently in lung fluid, but that secondary minerals such as talc or various Ca-Mg carbonates might potentially form in lung fluid as asbestiform minerals dissolve.