Collegium Ramazzini call for an international ban on asbestos

Our plain-English summary of Collegium Ramazzini call for an international ban on asbestos, by P.J. Landrigan, M. Soffritti (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2005).

The study

• Authors: P.J. Landrigan, M. Soffritti
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 2005;47(6):471-4
• Type of article: Editorial
• Cited by: 12 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

In this editorial, the Collegium Ramazzini, an international academic society of some 180 physicians and scientists from 30 countries, called for an immediate international ban on all mining and use of asbestos. The authors summarised published evidence that all forms of asbestos, including chrysotile, can cause asbestosis, lung cancer, malignant mesothelioma and gastrointestinal cancers, and that the risks extend to workers' families, neighbours, product users and the public. They cited estimates that asbestos had caused over 200,000 deaths in the United States, that the annual global toll was at least 100,000, and that the eventual toll could reach 5–10 million. They argued that the risks could not be controlled by technology or by regulating work practices: the strictest exposure limit for chrysotile (0.1 f/cc) was estimated to carry lifetime risks of 5/1,000 for lung cancer and 2/1,000 for asbestosis. They stated that country-by-country bans had shifted rather than eliminated the hazard. World use had levelled off at around 2 million metric tons per year, concentrated in countries with minimal prevention and compensation. Per capita use exceeded 2,000 g a year in Russia, Kazakhstan and Zimbabwe, compared with less than 20 g in the United States. The authors concluded that safe use of asbestos was not practicable, that safer substitutes were available, and that a ban must be international in scope and enforced in every country.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This is an editorial, not a research study. Philip J. Landrigan and Morando Soffritti wrote it for the Collegium Ramazzini, an international academic society, and it reported no new data. It called for an immediate ban on all mining and use of asbestos, enforced in every country. The authors supported this with earlier work by others. They cited an estimate by Stayner and colleagues (1997) that even the strictest exposure limit for chrysotile asbestos, 0.1 f/cc, is associated with lifetime risks of 5/1,000 for lung cancer and 2/1,000 for asbestosis. They also cited evidence that chrysotile causes lung cancer and mesothelioma, a study reporting a sevenfold increase in pleural cancer mortality among women living in Canadian asbestos mining areas, and an International Labor Organization estimate of at least 100,000 asbestos-disease deaths a year worldwide. They noted that about 90% of global asbestos use is in asbestos cement construction materials. The authors concluded that safe use of asbestos is not practicable and that bans should be extended worldwide.

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: Editorial and position statement on behalf of the Collegium Ramazzini, an international academic society in occupational and environmental medicine. It contains no original research.
• Who was studied: Not applicable. The editorial has no study population.
• Exposure: Asbestos mining and use worldwide, all forms. The editorial gives particular attention to chrysotile and to asbestos cement construction materials, which it says account for about 90% of global use.
• Main results:
  • Cited from Stayner et al., 1997, not this editorial's own finding: the strictest occupational exposure limit for chrysotile asbestos (0.1 f/cc) is estimated to be associated with lifetime risks of 5/1,000 for lung cancer and 2/1,000 for asbestosis.
  • Cited from earlier studies: chrysotile causes cancer, including lung cancer and mesothelioma.
  • Cited from Camus et al., 1998: women living in communities in Canadian asbestos mining areas had a sevenfold increase in the mortality rate from pleural cancer.
  • Cited from Takala, 2003: the International Labor Organization estimated the annual global toll from asbestos diseases at at least 100,000.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that safe use of asbestos is not practicable. The Collegium Ramazzini called for an immediate ban on all mining and use of asbestos, international in scope and enforced in every country.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Collegium Ramazzini statement on the Tokyo Declaration banning asbestos — P.J. Landrigan, M. Soffritti (2005)
• Promoting international collaboration through the International Commission on Occupational Health — K. Kogi (2015)
• Call for an international ban on asbestos — C. Ramazzini (1999)
• Asbestos and international organizations — L. Tomatis (2004)
• Asbestos is still with us: repeat call — Collegium Ramazzini (2010)
• Statement of the Collegium Ramazzini — M. Soffritti, P.J. Landrigan (2004)

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