Environmental exposure
Environmental exposure refers to that occurring in the neighborhood of asbestos milling or manufacturing plants. Vermiculite (a non-asbestos mineral silicate) mined at Libby Montana was heavily contaminated with asbestos (tremolite). Mesothelioma and other asbestos-related conditions have developed in children who played in the vermiculite slag heaps throughout the town. Furthermore, 28 sites throughout the USA that received most of the Libby mine vermiculite have been identified for community-wide evaluation of asbestos disease.

Non-industrial environmental exposure may also occur, because of soil contamination with various fibers (parts of Eastern Europe) or the use of fibrous rock types (erionite) in buildings or stucco (Cappadocia in Turkey).

The use of asbestos-contaminated vermiculite fire-proofing products (see consumer products) in the construction of the World Trade Centers may have contributed to the dangerously high levels of asbestos