ERIONITE AND MESOTHELIOMA: KARAIN “MESO-VILLAGE” VS. KARLIK “NON-MESO VILLAGE”, CAPPADOCIA, TURKEY

Erionite is known to cause mesothelioma, which is a rare but a deadly disease. Research has been ongoing in the three mesothelioma villages in Cappadocia, Turkey. Karain, is the original village where an unusually high rate of mesothelioma has been observed and associated with erionite. Karlik, on the other hand, is only about a mile away from Karain, however, very few or no mesothelioma cases have been observed. Because of its close proximity to Karain but almost no mesothelioma cases - few meso cases were observed on female patients who originally came from neighboring meso-villages -, the Karlik village is a unique place and deserves a detailed investigation to solve the mystery of erionite-mesothelioma relationships. Among the several possibilities, we investigated whether Karlik does not have any erionite or has a less carcinogenic type of erionite than Karain village. We also compared the erionites from Karlik and Karain with standard erionites obtained from the USA (Oregon erionite). All erionites are quantitatively characterized using scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy. Only the results that passed both balance error (E%<10) and Mg-content (Mg<0.8) tests have been accepted. Our results indicate that rocks from Karlik village (both from outcrops and building materials) have the same type of erionite (erionite-K) as that found in Karain village and in Oregon, USA. Thus, the erionites from both Karlik and Karain villages were the same morphologically and chemically/structurally. However, air measurements performed by USGS and EPA in 2008, indicated that air in Karain village was more polluted than in Karlik village. We believe that quantitative mineralogical comparison made between the two villages, the meso-vilage of Karain and the non-meso-vilage of Karlik, would have important implications on future mesothelioma-erionite relationships.