Asbestos is still with us: Repeat call for a universal ban

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos is still with us: Repeat call for a universal ban, by C. Ramazzini (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2011).

The study

• Author: C. Ramazzini
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 2011;54(2):168-73
• Cited by: 17 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

All forms of asbestos are proven human carcinogens. All forms of asbestos cause malignant mesothelioma, lung, and laryngeal cancers, and may cause ovarian, gastrointestinal, and other cancers [Straif et al., 2009]. No exposure to asbestos is without risk. Asbestos cancer victims die painful lingering deaths. These deaths are almost entirely preventable. When evidence of the carcinogenicity of all forms of asbestos became incontrovertible, concerned parties, including the Collegium Ramazzini, called for a universal ban on the mining, manufacture, and use of asbestos in all countries around the world [Collegium Ramazzini, 1999]. Asbestos is now banned in 52 countries [IBAS, 2010], and safer products have replaced many materials that once were made with asbestos. Nonetheless, a large number of countries still use, import, and export asbestos and asbestos-containing products. And in many countries that have banned other forms of asbestos, the so-called ‘‘controlled use’’ of chrysotile asbestos is exempted from the ban, an exemption that has no basis in medical science but rather reflects the political and economic influence of the asbestos mining and manufacturing industry. All countries of the world have an obligation to their citizens to join in the international endeavor to ban all forms of asbestos. An international ban on asbestos is urgently needed.

PubMed has no abstract for this study. This is the authors' abstract, copied from the article.

In plain English

This article was a position statement by the Collegium Ramazzini, not a new study. It reported no original data. Instead, it drew on previously published research and agency reports to repeat the group's 1999 call for a worldwide ban on asbestos. The authors stated that all forms of asbestos, including chrysotile (white asbestos) and the amphiboles amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite and actinolite, cause asbestosis, malignant mesothelioma, and lung and laryngeal cancers, and that no exposure to asbestos is without risk. Citing other sources, they reported that asbestos was banned in 52 countries and that annual world production remained over 2 million tons. They also cited a US NIOSH estimate: exposure at the OSHA permissible limit over a working lifetime would cause five lung cancer deaths and two asbestosis deaths in every 1,000 workers. They argued that exempting the "controlled use" of chrysotile from bans has no basis in medical science. They noted that repeated efforts to list chrysotile under the Rotterdam Convention had failed. The authors concluded that an international ban on the mining and use of asbestos is urgently needed.

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: Position statement (commentary) by an organization, drawing on previously published studies and agency reports; no original data
• Who was studied: No study population; the statement discussed asbestos-exposed workers and communities worldwide in general terms
• Exposure: All forms of asbestos: chrysotile (serpentine) and the amphiboles amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite and actinolite, with particular attention to chrysotile and asbestos-cement products
• Main results:
  • Cited from another source (IBAS, 2010), not this article's own finding: asbestos was banned in 52 countries
  • Cited from other sources: annual world asbestos production remained over 2 million tons
  • Cited NIOSH estimate (Stayner et al., 1997): occupational exposure at the US OSHA permissible exposure limit would cause five lung cancer deaths and two asbestosis deaths in every 1,000 workers exposed for a working lifetime
  • The authors stated, citing other studies, that workers exposed to chrysotile alone have excess risks of lung cancer and mesothelioma
  • The authors argued that exempting 'controlled use' of chrysotile from asbestos bans has no basis in medical science
  • The authors reported that repeated efforts to list chrysotile under the Rotterdam Convention had failed
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that an international ban on the mining and use of asbestos is urgently needed and that exposure risks cannot be controlled by technology or by regulating work practices

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Chrysotile.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Malignant Mesothelioma, Laryngeal Cancer, Collegium Ramazzini, Controlled Use, Chrysotile.

Related studies

• 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)
• Should Canadian health care professionals support the call for a worldwide ban on asbestos? — J. Siemiatycki (2001)
• Asbestos is still with us: repeat call for a universal ban — Collegium Ramazzini (2010)

Browse more research in American Journal of Industrial Medicine, or return to medical research.