[Frequency of asbestos fibers and asbestos bodies in lung sections]

100 specimens of lung resections coming from 100 patients operated on in 1980 in the thoracic surgical department were examined without any selection by turn for the presence of asbestos fibres or ferruginous asbestos bodies. Among these patients asbestos fibres were found in 65% and asbestos bodies in 46% of all cases examined. The observations were related to age, residence (town, village), occupation, and underlying diagnosis found with the surgical procedure. It could be recognized by the analysis that also the population of Slovakia is exposed to ubiquitious asbestos. An etiological relation between the frequency of asbestos fibres and the occurrence of malign tumours could not be proved. Such a relation is very complex, the cancerogenic effect of other factors (benzpyrene, smoking) has to be taken into consideration.