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Figure 1 | Environmental Health

Figure 1

From: Arsenic, asbestos and radon: emerging players in lung tumorigenesis

Figure 1

Worldwide occurrence of asbestos, arsenic and radon. Regions known to be affected by contamination with asbestos are colored coded in yellow (production >100,000 tons in 2010), blue (consumption >10,000 tons in 1970) and purple (consumption >10,000 tons in 2010). The five largest producers of asbestos (yellow) in 2010 were Russia (1 million tons), China (0.35 million tons), Brazil (0.27 million tons), Kazakhstan (0.23 million tons) and Canada (0.1 million tons). *Zimbabwe produced 0.15 million tons in 2003 but its production was banned in 2004; however, a controversial production revival plan is expected. Countries with current high consumption of asbestos (purple) are distinguished from countries that had previously high consumption prior to the last decades (blue). Grey indicates consumption of less than 10,000 tons per year. Asbestos production and consumption trends (from 1900 through 2003 and for 2010) are provided by the US Geological Survey (USGS)[20, 21]. Areas with known occurrence of arsenic in ground water at >50μg/L (red circles) are estimated using information retrieved from the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (USGS)[22]. Areas reported (non-exhaustive) to have high radon levels are depicted by green circles. Radon occurrence was based on 238U detected in soil and country radon levels (UNSCEAR, WHO, USGS)[23, 24]. Circle placement was determined by approximation; for detailed information, see references as information availability differed from country to country.

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