ELEVENTH COLLEGIUM RAMAZZINI STATEMENT CALL FOR AN INTERNATIONAL BAN ON ASBESTOS: STATEMENT UPDATE

To eliminate the continuing burden of disease and death that is caused worldwide by exposure to asbestos, the Collegium Ramazzini calls for an immediate ban on all mining and use of asbestos. To be effective, the ban must be international in scope and must be enforced in every country in the world. Asbestos is an occupational and environmental hazard of catastrophic proportion. Asbestos has been responsible for over 200,000 deaths in the United States, and it will cause millions more deaths worldwide. The profound tragedy of the asbestos epidemic is that all illnesses and deaths related to asbestos were entirely preventable. Safer substitutes for asbestos exist, and they have been successfully introduced in many nations. The grave haz-ards of exposure to asbestos and the availability of sub-stitute materials have led a growing number of countries to eliminate all import and use of asbestos. In the United States asbestos usage has been drastically reduced but not eliminated. By the end of 2004 national asbestos bans are scheduled to be in place in all 25 member coun-tries of the European Union as well as Chile, Argentina