Ruggero VigliaturoUniversità degli Studi di Torino | UNITO · Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
Ruggero Vigliaturo
PhD Earth Sciences
About
72
Publications
13,371
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250
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Main interests:
- Medical and Environmental Mineralogy
- Biogeochemistry
- Transmission Electron Microscopy
Additional affiliations
October 2017 - September 2020
October 2016 - September 2017
August 2015 - August 2016
Education
January 2012 - December 2014
October 2009 - July 2011
October 2006 - October 2009
Field of study
- Environmental Sciences and Land Management
Publications
Publications (72)
Neutrophilic, microaerobic Fe(II)‐oxidizing bacteria (FeOB) from marine and freshwater environments are known to generate twisted ribbon‐like organo‐mineral stalks. These structures, which are extracellularly precipitated, are susceptible to chemical influences in the environment once synthesized. In this paper, we characterize the minerals associa...
In this paper, we present the results of a multi-analytical characterization
of a glaucophane sample collected in the Piedmont region of northwestern
Italy. Investigation methods included optical microscopy, powder X-ray
diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, µ-Raman
spectroscopy, Mössbauer spectroscopy, electron probe microanalysis,...
Amphibole asbestos is related to lung fibrosis and several types of lung tumors. The disease-triggering mechanisms still challenge our diagnostic capabilities and are still far from being fully understood. The literature focuses primarily on the role and formation of asbestos bodies in lung tissues, but there is a distinct lack of studies on amphib...
There are six elongate mineral particles (EMPs) corresponding to specific dimensional and morphological criteria, known as asbestos. Responsible for health issues including asbestosis, and malignant mesothelioma, asbestos has been well researched. Despite this, significant exposure continues to occur throughout the world, potentially affecting 125...
The global energy transition has started and the mankind actively looking for new way to replace the fossil fuels based technology. This paradigm change is quite hard to accomplished due the many drawbacks related to a complete rethinking of the engines. So, a solid solution could be represented by the use of oil derived analogue fuels produced usi...
We appreciate very much the interest of Mirabelli et al. [...]
Pollution from heavy metals in urban environments is a topic of growing concern because many metals, including Pb and Cr, are a human health hazard. Exposure to Pb and Cr has been linked to the inhibition of neurological development as well as toxic effects on many organs. Yellow traffic paint (YTP) is a mixture that contains organic polymers, bind...
The aim of the present method is to reduce the dimensional variability of asbestos, elongated mineral particles, fibrous, and other asbestiform minerals for use in biological assays. Here, the pristine mineral sample is filtered through two nylon meshes of different sizes to obtain a narrower dimensional distribution following a power law. Furtherm...
Covered by ultrabasic units for more than a third of its surface, the New Caledonia (South West Pacific) is one of the largest world producers of Ni-ore from lateritic deposits. Almost all outcrops of geological units and open mines contain serpentine and amphibole, also as asbestos varieties. In this geological context, in which weathering process...
Determination of the oxidation state and coordination geometry of iron in Fe-bearing minerals expands our knowledge obtained by standard mineralogical characterization. It provides information that is crucial in assessing the potential of minerals to interact with their surrounding environment and to generate reactive oxygen species, which can disr...
The ferrierite crystal structure has often been subject to discussion because of the possible lowering of symmetry from the space group Immm . It mainly occurs in nature with a fibrous crystal habit, and because of the existence of line/planar defects in the framework, texture and preferred orientation effects it has been difficult to obtain an exa...
One of the open questions regarding the asbestos problem is the fate of the mineral fibres in the body once inhaled and deposited in the deep respiratory system. In this context, the present paper reports the results of an electron microscopy study of both mineral fibres and asbestos bodies found in the lung tissue of a patient who died of malignan...
In nature, asbestos is often associated with minerals and other non-asbestiform morphologies thought to be harmless, but not much is known about the potential toxic effects of these phases. Therefore, the characterization of natural assemblages should not be limited to asbestos fibers only. This paper combines a multi-analytical characterization of...
In this paper, we report the results of the first study focused on the thermal stability and dehydration dynamics of the natural zeolite mineral ferrierite. A sample from Monastir, Sardinia [(Na0.56K1.19Mg2.02Ca0.52 Sr0.14) (Al6.89Si29.04)O72·17.86H2O; a = 19.2241(3) Å; b = 14.1563(2) Å; c = 7.5106(1) Å, V = 2043.95(7) ų] was investigated by therm...
Vibrational spectroscopies (Fourier Transform Infra Red, FTIR, and Raman) are exceptionally valuable tools for the identification and crystal–chemical study of fibrous minerals, and asbestos amphiboles in particular. Raman spectroscopy has been widely applied in toxicological studies and thus a large corpus of reference data on regulated species is...
Vibrational spectroscopies (FTIR, Raman) are exceptionally valuable tools for the identification and crystal-chemical study of fibrous minerals, and asbestos amphiboles in particular. Raman spectroscopy has been widely applied in toxicological studies and thus a large corpus of reference data on regulated species is found in the literature. However...
IMA2018 Abstract submission Mineral-hazards: the environmental and human health problem represented by raw and man-processed mineral phases with special attention to asbestos minerals. and environmental exposure are possible. For the health and environment protection, prevention is a priority action and the recent guidelines of the Consensus Report...
Fibrous erionite is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as carcinogenic substance to humans (Group 1). In the areas where it is present in the bedrock, it may cause environmental exposure, and both professional and environmental exposures are possible when the bedrock is used for industrial applications (e.g., build...
A reverse approach to toxicology can be seen as the description of the transformation of the toxic mineral (agent) during its interaction with the target organism. The step-by-step visualization and comprehension of these nanoscale transformations could lead to a full description of the mechanisms and discrete steps leading to instant damages to ba...
This work describes the nature of the potentially hazardous fibrous amphibole found in the Orani's feldspar mine (Sardinia, Italy). To identify its nature, a protocol of analysis including morphometric, chemical and crystallographic characterizations was applied. Thanks to this approach, it was possible to classify the observed fibres as tremolite...
The currently available technologies applied to obtain secondary raw materials from asbestos waste are known to be expensive, energy-consuming and to use additional hazardous materials to destroy the native asbestos fibers. These technologies include but are not limited to high temperatures, acid/base dissolution or microwave radiation. The incompl...
Possible microbial transformation of asbestos minerals to possibly remediate asbestos waste in the environment and reduce asbestos toxicity to human health.
The aim of this project is to investigate which transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques can give a contribution in revealing unclear aspects of the interaction of dangerous and potentially harmful nano/micro-minerals in contact with cells (1). Several natural fibers have the reputation to trigger malignant lung diseases resulting from inh...
Medical mineralogy is an interdisciplinary field of research and can play a fundamental role in the comprehension of the “redox regulation” disruption by means of minerals in intimate contact with human cells and the consequent carcinogenic effect. An obvious, but pivotal aspect in this field is that universal physicochemical principles control the...
Along the line of the recent research topic aimed at understanding the in vivo activity of mineral fibres and their mechanisms of toxicity, this work describes the morpho-chemical characteristics of the mineral fibres found in the tissues of Sprague-Dawley rats subjected to intraperitoneal/intrapleural injection of UICC chrysotile, UICC crocidolite...
Relevant mineral fibres of social and economic importance (chrysotile UICC, crocidolite UICC and a fibrous erionite from Jersey, Nevada, USA) were put in contact with cultured diploid human non-tumorigenic bronchial epithelial (Beas2B) and pleural transformed mesothelial (MeT5A) cells to test their cytotoxicity. Slides of each sample at different c...
Health concerns on mineral fibers that are able to induce fibrosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma represent an important topic in medicine and involve several disciplines. Furthermore, they are motivation for a safe nanotechnological development. The comprehension of these mechanisms goes beyond the simple fiber-like morphology of these materials. R...
Mineral fibres like fibrous amphiboles and erionite are among the most feared minerals worldwide because they may provoke fatal lung diseases, such as mesothelioma, through inhalation. The close relationship between inhaled fibres and respiratory diseases have been demonstrated by many scientific works (Davis, 1989) but the mechanisms of cyto- and...
Toxicology was provocatively defined as a “scientific field in which the core experimental protocols have remained nearly unchanged for more than 40 years”. The aim of the presented work is to review, with a new approach, the description of heterogeneous powders, a complex toxic agent.
Starting with asbestos vicissitude, going through the concern o...
The purpose of this work is to define a sample preparation protocol that allows inorganic fibers and particulate matter extracted from different biological samples to be characterized morphologically, crystallographically and chemically by transmission electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (TEM-EDS). The method does not damage or creat...
Valutazione del potenziale rischio da esposizione ambientale ad amianto utilizzando ratti selvatici come animali sentinella
Chrysotile is historically a well known material with exceptional technological properties, as well as famous for the related health issues caused when breathed in high doses. Erionite never had an industrial use, but as any zeolite it bears rare physical and chemical properties and unfortunately also its fibers can cause diseases, specifically mes...
The biological interaction of mineral fibers with cells and tissue can generate fibrosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma are and represent an important interdisciplinary problem . At today, these minerals are recognize as primarly factor in the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) [1]. The thought that only morphology and dimension of fibers r...
Tremolite Ca2Mg 5Si8O22(OH)2 is a member of the calcic amphibole group of silicate minerals and it is classified asbestos when grown as fiber with length >5 µm, width < 3 µm and ratio length/width > 3. In this work asbestos fibers were characterized by Raman Spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscope (FeSEM) and transmission electron...
The biological effects of mineral fibers in the generation of diseases as fibrosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma are an important topic in medicine . In particular, the role of these minerals in reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was recognized [1]. This suggests that not only morphology and dimension of fibers are the carcinogenic factors, b...
Asbestos has been banned in many countries, because of its carcinogenic potential. Despite this, many states continue to mine, export and process mineral fibers. In this study, we address the mineralogical changes that result fromthe interaction of asbestos with human lung tissue by comparing the mineral fibers in the original cement matrix (Eterni...
The target of this work is to present different sample preparation methods that permits to characterize, by different TEM techniques, the inorganic fibers or particulate matters contained in an organic or artificial complex matrix.
We will present two type of methods: the first kind includes the complete removal of the matrix component, in order t...
In 2006 it has been proposed to introduce the term of “nanosafety”. Nowadays, developments in nanotechnology grow increasingly, with the intention of new useful discoveries and the concern of possible health consequences, some of them have been already experienced by mankind since more than 100 hundred years.
Among these health risks, asbestos cem...
The target of this work is to present a different sample preparation approach that allows to characterize by TEM-EDS the inorganic fibers and particulate matters from a morphological, crystallographic, and chemical point of view. The used method has to avoid provoke, in the inorganic material extracted from biological sample, any kind of damage or...
Gold-catalyzed ZnTe nanowires were grown at low-temperature by molecular beam epitaxy on a ZnTe(111) B buffer layer, under different II/VI flux ratios, including with CdTe insertions. High resolution electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) gave information about the crystal structure, polarity and growth mechanisms. We ob...
Questions
Questions (4)
In order to complete our experiments we need around 1-200 grams of crocidolite with clear fibrous habit.
Thanks
e.g. migratory birds or mammals affected by neurodegenerative diseases
Asbestos exposed to gentle bleach.
The exposure of 24-48 hours in sodium hypochlorite solution (10-14%) of a mineral fiber, can change the oxidation state of the iron present in that material? (Independently from the crystal structure)
Projects
Projects (5)
We are pleased to announce that the European Mineralogical Union has launched the 2nd EMU school on mineral fibers (2019 EMU school) scheduled on September 9-13, 2019 in Casale Monferrato (AL), Italy.
Topic: Naturally occurring asbestos (NOA): from geological to medical aspects
The school focuses on natural asbestos (NOA) from a geological to a medical point of view. It covers different multidisciplinary aspects related to the study of natural fibers and is aimed at students with different backgrounds.
Web site: emu2019.unimore.it
On-line registration is now open! The deadline is May 10th, 2019.
Attendance fee: 150 euro.
Attached introduction file: emu_school2019.pdf
We welcome you in Casale Monferrato!
Alessandro Francesco Gualtieri and Ruggero Vigliaturo
Chairs 2019 EMU school
This Goldschmidt 2019 conference session will highlight recent scientific advances in the elimination and reuse of metals and minerals using multidisciplinary approaches, and will fill the gap on a scientific area in need of future research developments.
Metals/minerals and microbes are linked in a complex interplay: the inorganic components of a system may be beneficial or toxic to microbial life, whereas microbes can contribute to the geochemical cycles of most elements and mineral transformations. These processes can occur in both natural and anthropogenically-impacted environments. In nature and industrial settings, microbial diversity and activity can affect the fate of toxic metals/minerals through processes such as respiratory redox reactions and biomineralization. Additionally, potentially-useful microbial mechanisms can be engineered for bioremediation and for fabricating products (e.g. metallic nanoparticles, secondary raw materials, etc.) that can be reused within the circular economy framework in different industrial fields.
The focus of this session is to explore recent advances in the use of microbiology, geochemistry, microscopy, and spectroscopy to study natural microbial reactions with metals/minerals and their application(s). We invite contributions regarding: the role of microbes on the speciation and behavior of metals and minerals; mechanisms of metal/mineral transformations at the geosphere-biosphere interface; applied research on bioremediation of toxic metals/minerals; industrial reuse of microbially-produced secondary materials of high commercial and technological value; and field-scale studies. Moreover, contributions applying novel geochemical and geomicrobiological methods (field, laboratory, and/or modeling studies) towards enhancing the understanding of microbial processes in the environment are encouraged.