Asbestos is still with us: repeat call

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos is still with us: repeat call, by Collegium Ramazzini (Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 2010).

The study

• Author: Collegium Ramazzini
• Journal: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• Published: 2010;7(8):D57-61
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article was a commentary, a position statement from the Collegium Ramazzini, an international academic society in occupational and environmental medicine. It did not report a new study. It summarized evidence from other sources, which it cited. The commentary stated that all forms of asbestos cause malignant mesothelioma and lung, laryngeal and ovarian cancers, may cause gastrointestinal and other cancers, and have no safe threshold of exposure. It described exposure at work and environmental exposure from asbestos in construction materials, especially asbestos-cement sheets and pipes used in developing countries. It rejected the position that chrysotile (white asbestos) can be handled safely through "controlled use." It noted that asbestos was banned in 52 countries, that world production stayed above 2 million tons a year, and that repeated efforts to list chrysotile under the Rotterdam Convention had failed. It also listed substitute materials. The authors concluded that technology or work-practice rules cannot control asbestos risks, and they again called on all countries to ban the mining and manufacture of all forms of asbestos.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Commentary (position statement by the Collegium Ramazzini). It is not an original study: the figures it gives come from cited sources.
• Who was studied: No study population. The commentary discussed asbestos use, exposure and disease worldwide.
• Exposure: All forms of asbestos: chrysotile (serpentine), and the amphiboles amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite and actinolite. The emphasis was on chrysotile and on asbestos-cement products.
• Main results:
  • The commentary stated that all forms of asbestos cause malignant mesothelioma and lung, laryngeal and ovarian cancers, and may cause gastrointestinal and other cancers (citing an IARC review).
  • The commentary stated that there is no safe threshold of exposure to asbestos.
  • The commentary stated that chrysotile accounts for 95% of all asbestos ever used and is the only type in commercial use today.
  • The commentary stated, citing other studies, that workers exposed to chrysotile alone have excess lung cancer risk and excess mesothelioma deaths, and that "controlled use" is a fallacy.
  • The commentary reported, from cited sources, that asbestos is banned in 52 countries and that annual world production remains over 2 million tons.
  • The commentary reported that repeated efforts to include chrysotile under the Rotterdam Convention had failed.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the risks of asbestos exposure cannot be controlled by technology or by regulating work practices, and that an international ban on the mining and use of all forms of asbestos is urgently needed.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Amosite, Asbestosis.

Related studies

• Asbestos is still with us: repeat call for a universal ban — Collegium Ramazzini (2010)
• Asbestos is still with us: repeat call for a universal ban — C. Ramazzini (2010)
• Asbestos is still with us: repeat call for a universal ban — C. Ramazzini (2010)
• Asbestos is still with us: repeat call for a universal ban — Collegium Ramazzini (2010)
• Asbestos is still with us: repeat call for a universal ban — Collegium Ramazzini (2010)
• Asbestos is still with us: repeat call for a universal ban — Collegium Ramazzini (2010)

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