AboutMesothelioma.Net

With a booming Asian economy, Hong Kong used asbestos extensively in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in the shipyard and construction industries. Asbestos exposure is closely associated with asbestos-related respiratory diseases such as pleural mesothelioma that often appear decades after workers inhale asbestos fibers.

Since 2000, Hong Kong has experienced an epidemic of malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen, according to a recent article in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The epidemic parallels the peak usage of asbestos in the early 1960s since symptoms of asbestos-related disease typically take 30 to 40 years to appear.

Researchers from Australia and China predict that the number of cases of mesothelioma in Hong Kong will peak around 2014, then slowly taper off based on data from the Hong Kong Cancer Registry.

Malignant mesothelioma was rare before the 1950s, but has increased sharply since the 1970s in many parts of the world. Exposure to asbestos in the workplace is considered the highest risk factor for developing asbestos cancer.

The researchers observed a notable increase in incidence of mesothelioma from 1976 to 2006 in Hong kong. The highest incidence was among males 70 years or older.

The increasing incidence of mesothelioma in Hong Kong is similar to trends observed in many countries including France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Australia and Japan. The number of cases of mesothelioma in the United States, which restricts asbestos use, has increased to 2,500 to 3,000 a year. The incidence of mesothelioma in many South American countries such as Brazil is expected to keep rising for 10 to 20 more years because of later restrictions on asbestos use.

Hong Kong banned the import and sale of blue asbestos (crocidolite) and brown asbestos (amosite) in 1996. But the country has allowed the continued use of chrysotile asbestos in various industries. While the asbestos industry has claimed that chrysotile asbestos is less toxic than other forms, health organizations have said chrysotile asbestos is a human carcinogen and also causes malignant mesothelioma.

Given the continuing use of chrysotile asbestos in Hong Kong, the researchers predict the mesothelioma epidemic will continue in Hong Kong.

The use of asbestos has dropped from more than 4 million metric tons to 2.1 million metric tons in the past 25 years as one country after another has banned the cancer-causing mineral fiber. Yet, a majority of the world’s population still lives in countries including the United States that do not ban asbestos or asbestos-containing products. And demand for asbestos is surging in industrializing countries such as China and India where safeguards on worker exposure are weak or non-existent.

Today, the top users of asbestos are China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan and Brazil. These countries export asbestos-containing products to other countries including the U.S. where the products are used in the automotive and construction industries and pose an ongoing threat of asbestos exposure. Asbestos causes about half the of total deaths from workplace-related cancers such as mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen, according to the World Health Organization.

While the U.S. stopped mining asbestos and producing asbestos in 2002, according to a recent article in Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, U.S. companies imported more than 1,400 metric tons on chrysotile asbestos, primarily from Canada, in 2008. Much of it is used for roofing products. In addition, the U.S. imports large quantities of asbestos-containing products such as cement pipe, asbestos-lined brake pads and gaskets.

According to global estimates reported by the World Health Organization 125 million people are exposed to asbestos in the workplace and more than 107,000 people die each year from asbestos-related mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis resulting from occupational exposures. Many experts believe current estimates of asbestos-related disease and deaths understate the actual numbers. Since mesothelioma did not receive its own classification in the International Classification of Diseases until the mid-1990s, many asbestos-related deaths were not classified as such.

Given the decades-long latency period from exposure to asbestos to development of mesothelioma, the epidemic of asbestos-related diseases is still spreading and will for decades to come, particularly in countries still heavily using asbestos.

In a landmark ruling on asbestos, a court in Spain has ordered a manufacturer to pay millions of euros in compensation to residents whose health was damaged by decades of environmental exposure to asbestos.

The Spanish building materials company, Uralita, was ordered to pay the equivalent of $4.9 million to 45 people who lived near an asbestos-cement factory in a Barcelona suburb for “damage to the lungs, leading in some cases to death,” according to the French news agency, Agence France Presse.

Asbestos exposure causes serious respiratory disease including malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen, lung cancer, and non-cancer conditions such as asbestosis, a chronic scarring of the lungs that causing difficulty breathing. More than 125 million people are exposed to asbestos in the workplace today, according to the World Health Organization.

The legal decision is a landmark because it’s the first time that a court in Spain has ordered a company to compensate local residents for health issues related to environmental exposure to asbestos, according to the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais. Previous awards have been to workers who developed health problems after occupational exposure to asbestos in their workplace.

Asbestos was widely used in construction products such as insulation, tile, pipe and for fire-proofing. The Uralita factory used asbestos in the manufacture of cement for decades until use of the mineral fiber was banned in Spain in 2001. The company has said it will appeal.

More than 40 countries including all member states of the European Union have banned all forms of asbestos. Other countries including the United States have restricted asbestos, but continue to allow its use in the manufacture of certain products.

A group of Canadian health organizations called on the national and provincial governments to halt the mining of asbestos in Quebec and ban exports of the hazardous mineral fiber. Asbestos is linked to mesothelioma and other fatal respiratory diseases that cause tens of thousands of deaths each year.

The Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Public Health Association, and the National Specialty Society for Community Medicine condemned Canada’s practice of providing financial subsidies to the asbestos industry and promoting exports of asbestos to developing nations that lack worker safety laws.

“More than 40 countries, including all member states of the European Union, have banned the use of all forms of asbestos including Chrysotile,” Dr. Cordell Neudorf, chairman of the Canadian Public Health Association Board of Directors, said in a press release. “There is clear scientific evidence that exposure to asbestos through mining, processing and use is harmful to health.”

While Canada strictly regulates use of asbestos within its borders, the country ranks as the world’s fifth largest exporter of Chrysotile asbestos. Much of the asbestos goes to developing countries where lax workplace safety regulations expose workers and their families to inhaling microscopic asbestos fibers, extending the epidemic of asbestos-related disease into new generations. Ninety-six percent of the output from the country remaining asbestos mines, both in Quebec, is exported to countries such as India and Indonesia.

“It is inconceivable that we would restrict the use of asbestos in our own country, but continue to export this hazardous material around the world,” Dr. Anne Doig, president of the Canadian Medical Association said in a statement.

The government of Quebec is currently considering extending a $58 million government loan guarantee to allow the reopening on the shuttered Jeffrey asbestos mine, one of the world’s largest open pit asbestos mines. The expansion would create 400 jobs in the town of Asbestos, Quebec, and keep Canada in the asbestos market for 25 years.

The health organizations urged the provincial government not to subsidize the reopening of the Jeffrey mine. Instead they said, all levels of Canadian government should direct new investments to support the transition of asbestos mining regions toward environmentally healthy and sustainable industries.

The World Health Organization, which has called for a ban on asbestos, estimates that 90,000 people die of asbestos related disease each year. In the U.S., approximately 2,500 to 3,000 people die of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen linked to asbestos exposure.