Takashi Kameda a, Ken Takahashi a, Rokho Kim b, Ying Jiang a, Mehrnoosh Movahed a, Eun-Kee Park c & Jorma Rantanen d

a. Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Iseigaoka 1-1, Yahatanishiku, Kitakyushu, Japan.
b. WHO Western Pacific Regional Office, Suva, Fiji.
c. Department of Medical Humanities and Social Medicine, Kosin University College of Medicine, Busan, Republic of Korea.
d. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.

Correspondence to Ken Takahashi (email: ktaka@med.uoeh-u.ac.jp).

(Submitted: 31 October 2013 – Revised version received: 19 June 2014 – Accepted: 29 July 2014 – Published online: 17 September 2014.)

Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2014;92:790-797. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.13.132118

Introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO), joined by the International Labour Organization (ILO)1 and the United Nations Environment Programme, has called on countries throughout the world to eliminate asbestos-related diseases.2–4 WHO advises that the best way to eliminate such diseases is to stop using all types of asbestos.2 Although numerous countries have adopted national asbestos bans, many others continue to use asbestos at various levels. The use has declined 55% from its historical peak of 4.7 million metric tonnes per year in 1980,5 but more than 2 million metric tonnes per year are still used worldwide.6,7 Read more

Courtesy: World Health Organization