Asbestos
Primary reference(s)
WHO, no date. International Programme on Chemical Safety: Asbestos. World Health Organization (WHO). Accessed 18 November 2019.
Additional scientific description
Asbestos has current or historical commercial use due to its extraordinary tensile strength, poor heat conduction, and relative resistance to chemical attack. For these reasons, asbestos is used for insulation in buildings and as an ingredient in a number of products, such as roofing shingles, water supply lines, and fire blankets, as well as clutches and brake linings, gaskets, and pads for automobiles (WHO, no date).
The main forms of asbestos are chrysotile (white asbestos) and crocidolite (blue asbestos). Other forms include amosite, anthophylite, tremolite and actinolite (WHO, no date).
All forms of asbestos are carcinogenic to humans. Exposure to asbestos, including chrysotile, causes cancer of the lung, larynx, and ovaries, and also mesothelioma (a cancer of the pleural and peritoneal linings). Asbestos exposure is also responsible for other diseases such as asbestosis (fibrosis of the lungs), and plaques, thickening and effusion in the pleura (WHO, no date).
Metrics and numeric limits
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), globally about 125 million people are currently exposed to asbestos at the workplace. In 2004, asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis from occupational exposure resulted in 107,000 deaths and 1523,000 Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) (WHO, no date). In addition, nearly 400 deaths have been attributed to non-occupational exposure to asbestos. The burden of asbestos-related diseases is still rising, even in countries that banned its use in the early 1990s. Owing to the long latency periods attached to the diseases in question, stopping the use of asbestos now will only result in a decrease in the number of asbestos-related deaths after a number of decades (WHO, 2014).
The WHO air quality guidelines for Europe estimate likely lifetime exposure for asbestos based on typical environmental concentrations and the associated health risk factors such as mesothelomia and lung cancer (WHO, 2000:38).
Key relevant UN convention / multilateral treaty
Asbestos Convention, 1986 (ILO, 1962).
Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention, 1989). At the time of writing, there were 187 parties to the Basel Convention.
Examples of drivers, outcomes and risk management
In many disaster-prone areas, asbestos cement is widely used as a building material and when the material corrodes due to aging or is damaged it releases harmful asbestos fibres. Fires in buildings can release large amounts of dust and fibres from asbestos and fibreglass insulation (WHO, 2018).
The WHO, in collaboration with the International Labour Organization and other intergovernmental organisations and civil society, works with countries towards elimination of asbestos-related diseases by (WHO, no date):
- Recognising that the most efficient way to eliminate asbestos-related diseases is to stop the use of all types of asbestos.
- Providing information about solutions for replacing asbestos with safer substitutes and developing economic and technological mechanisms to stimulate its replacement.
- Taking measures to prevent exposure to asbestos in place and during asbestos removal (abatement).
- Improving early diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation services for asbestos-related diseases.
- Establishing registries of people with past and/or current exposures to asbestos and organising medical surveillance of exposed workers.
- Providing information on the hazards associated with asbestos-containing materials and products, and by raising awareness that waste containing asbestos should be treated as hazardous waste.
Cost-effective interventions for preventing occupational lung diseases from exposure to asbestos are among the policy options for implementing the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (2013-2020), as endorsed by the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly in 2013 (WHO, 2013).
Asbestos is a proven human carcinogen (International Agency for Research on Cancer [IARC] Group 1). No safe level can be proposed for asbestos because a threshold is not known to exist. Exposure should therefore be kept as low as possible (IARC, 1987/1998).
References
Basel Convention, 1989. Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (1989). At the time of writing, there were 187 parties to the Basel Convention. Official website. Accessed 18 November 2019.
IARC, 1987. Asbestos (Actinolite, amosite, anthophyllite, chrysotile, crocidolite, tremolite) (Group 1). Summaries & Evaluations Supplement 7:106. Last updated 1998. International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Accessed 18 November 2019.
ILO, 1962. C162 - Asbestos Convention, 1986 (No. 162). International Labour Organization (ILO). Accessed 18 November 2019.
WHO, no date. International Programme on Chemical Safety: Asbestos. World Health Organization (WHO). Accessed 18 November 2019.
WHO, 2000. Air Quality Guidelines for Europe, Second Edition. World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe. European Series, No. 91. Accessed 18 November 2019.
WHO, 2013. Global action plan for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases 2013-2020. World Health Organization (WHO). Accessed 18 November 2019.
WHO, 2014. Chrysotile asbestos. World Health Organization (WHO). Accessed 18 November 2019.
WHO, 2018. Chemical releases caused by natural hazard events and disasters: Information for public health authorities. World Health Organization (WHO). Accessed 18 November 2019.