title: Prevention of Asbestos-Related Disease in Countries Currently Using Asbestos.
abstract: More than 40 years of evaluation have consistently confirmed the carcinogenicity of asbestos in all of its forms. This notwithstanding, according to recent figures, the annual world production of asbestos is approximatively 2,000,000 tons. Currently, about 90% of world asbestos comes from four countries: Russia, China, Brazil and Kazakhstan; and the wide use of asbestos worldwide represents a global threat. The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the asbestos health impact and to discuss the role of epidemiological investigations in countries where asbestos is still used. In these contexts, new, "local" studies can stimulate awareness of the size of the problem by public opinion and other stakeholders and provide important information on the circumstances of exposure, as well as local asbestos-related health impacts. This paper suggests an agenda for an international cooperation framework dedicated to foster a public health response to asbestos, including: new epidemiological studies for assessing the health impact of asbestos in specific contexts; socio-cultural and economic analyses for contributing to identifying stakeholders and to address both the local and global implications of asbestos diffusion; public awareness on the health and socio-economic impact of asbestos use and banning.
authors.affiliation: Environment and Primary Prevention, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome 00161, Italy. daniela.marsili@iss.it.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marsili
authors.affiliation: Professor of Biostatistics, University of Turin (Now Retired), Turin 10124, Italy. benedetto.terracini@fastwebnet.it.
authors.forename: Benedetto
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Terracini
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Saude Coletiva, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador 40110-040, Brazil. vilma_santana50@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Vilma S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Santana
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ingeniería Civil y Ambiental/Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá 110231, Colombia. jramos@uniandes.edu.co.
authors.forename: Juan Pablo
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Ramos-Bonilla
authors.affiliation: Environment and Primary Prevention, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome 00161, Italy. roberto.pasetto@iss.it.|WHO Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Contaminated Sites, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome 00161, Italy. roberto.pasetto@iss.it.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pasetto
authors.affiliation: Department of History and Cultures, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy. agata.mazzeo2@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Agata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mazzeo
authors.affiliation: International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon 69372, France. LoomisD@iarc.fr.
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Loomis
authors.affiliation: Environment and Primary Prevention, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome 00161, Italy. pietro.comba@iss.it.|WHO Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Contaminated Sites, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome 00161, Italy. pietro.comba@iss.it.
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Comba
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Medicina, FUNDACENTRO, São Paulo 05409-002, Brazil. eduardo@fundacentro.gov.br.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Algranti
mesh_terms: D001194:Asbestos / Q000633:toxicity; D001938:Brazil; D002681:China; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D007623:Kazakhstan; D011634:Public Health; D012426:Russia
chemical_list: D001194:Asbestos
keywords: Latin America; asbestos; asbestos-contaminated communities; international cooperation; prevention