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.

Despite international condemnation, Quebec’s controversial asbestos mining industry may expand mining of the mineral fiber linked to thousands of deaths annually from respiratory diseases. Asbestos is associated with respiratory diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen.

The proposed expansion of the Jeffrey Mine in the town of Asbestos, Quebec has been on hold since 2002 because of lack of funding.

According to The Montreal Gazette, Asbestos Mayor Hugues Grimard said that Quebec Economic Development minister had promised the town and Jeffrey Mine Inc. owner Bernard Coulombe that the government would make a $58-million loan guarantee if the mine workers approved a new employment contract and the workers agreed to pay 10 percent of their salaries into a fund to be held by the government in case the mine fails.

Canada is a leading exporter of asbestos, which is sent primarily to developing countries with weaker worker safety laws. And Quebec Premier Jean Charest has repeatedly emphasized his government’s policy to promote the “safe use of asbestos” despite broad opposition from public health officials and scientists in Canada and around the world.

A letter signed by 36 prominent doctors and public health researchers from 21 countries criticized condemned the expansion. “Chrysotile asbestos causes serious harm to health,” worte Philip Landrigan, dean of Global Health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. “There is no safe exposure level. It goes on killing for generations.”

Landrigan is president of the New York-based Collegium Ramazzini, an independent international academy of 180 renowned experts in the fields of occupational and environmental health.

The use of chemicals continues to grow worldwide, so the World Health Organization has called for urgent action on 10 chemicals and substances such as asbestos that pose a threat to public health.

In a new leaflet, the World Health Organization said the most efficient way to eliminate asbestos-related disease such as mesothelioma is to stop the use of all types of asbestos.

Exposure to asbestos causes serious respiratory diseases including lung cancer, mesothelioma, cancer of the larynx and ovary, and asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs. Approximately 107,000 people died of asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis from workplace exposure in 2004, world health officials said.

People are exposed to asbestos through breathing microscopic fibres in workplaces that use asbestos materials and from airborne fibers in the vicinity of factories that manufacture asbestos products.

Through much of the 20th century, asbestos was used in thousands of products such as roofing shingles, water supply pipes, plastic fillers as well as clutches, brake linings and gaskets for motor vehicles. In recent decades, the use of asbestos has declined in many countries, and more than 40 countries have banned the use of all forms of asbestos. But chrysotile asbestos is still widely used primarily in asbestos-cement building materials.

Some countries have increased their production or use of chrysotile asbestos in recent years. Canada is a leading exported of chrysotile asbestos.  The largest users are developing countries. The use of asbestos is restricted in the United States, but not banned.

Currently about 125 million people worldwide are exposed to asbestos in the workplace, the World Health Organization estimates.

To eliminate asbestos, the WHO offered four recommendations:

• Use less toxic substitute materials for asbestos;

• Develop economic incentives to encourage replacement of asbestos;

• Prevent exposure to asbestos during asbestos removal projects;

• Improve early diagnosis and treatment for asbestos-related diseases.

Other  chemicals on the WHO’s 10 Most Unwanted list include air pollution, arsenic, benzene, cadmium, dioxins and dioxin-like substances, lead, mercury, highly hazardous pesticides.

Government officials in Australia this week announced a new national database to track the country’s asbestos-related cancer epidemic.

The Australian Mesothelioma Registry will collect detailed information about new cases of mesothelioma and mesothelioma patients’ past exposure to asbestos. Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen associated with inhaling asbestos fibers. A consortium led by the Cancer Institute of New South Wales will oversee the registry.

In previous decades, Australia had the highest per capita consumption of asbestos of any country in the world. Today, it has one of the world’s highest rates of mesothelioma.

The number of new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed annually in Australia has been increasing dramatically since at least 1982. The country’s population adjusted death rate from mesothelioma is more than 50 percent higher than the United States.

“It is important that we track progress of this disease cause by Australia’s high use of asbestos in the past,” said Tom Phillips, chair of Safe Work Australia, a government agency that works to improve occupational health and safety for workers.  “Through the collection of more detailed information, the new registry will provide important information on the types and levels of exposure to asbestos that typically result in mesothelioma.”

Overall, the age-adjusted death rate in Australia due to mesothelioma was 23 deaths per million population. By comparison, the annual U.S. rate is 14 deaths per million.

The incidence of mesothelioma in Australia is expected to get worse. The epidemic isn’t estimated to peak in Australia before 2017. Australia’s experience is an important example for those countries still using asbestos, government officials said.

The registry will contribute evidence to the international policy debate about banning all forms of asbestos worldwide. The World Health Organization has urged a ban on asbestos.