Perspectives

Mesothelioma, a malignant cancer of the pleura, is almost exclusively associated with asbestos exposure.1 What will it take to eradicate this highly preventable cancer? Despite the scientific consensus that exposure to asbestos fibres causes deadly diseases, we continue to use as-bestos in products designed ostensibly to improve quality of life. For example, asbestos is still used in automobile brake-linings, and in the chloralkali industry that produces chlorine for disinfecting water worldwide.2 Toxic asbestos remains the main material for some plastics and in domestic building products – especially in corrugated roof materials for housing in developing countries. Regional disparities persist in trans-lating scientific knowledge of asbestos risks to policy for preventing cancers and other diseases. Most cases of me-sothelioma are now found in countries producing asbestos and in developing countries using the products, where scientific knowledge of asbestos toxicity seems to have been lost in translation.3 It is in these countries, where affected populations are less likely to have ac-cess to prompt diagnosis, health care or litigation, that we will observe the next wave of mesothelioma cases.3 A perspective on three scientific transla-tional gaps is presented here: (i) mak-ing policy decisions within the context of scientific uncertainty, (ii) the role of alternative assessments in selecting safer commercial materials, and (iii) the translation of scientific evidence into disease prevention. The International Labour Organi-zation’s Asbestos Convention, designed to protect workers from the well-known hazards of asbestos exposure, entered into force on 16 June 1989. Yet, nearly twenty-five years later, only 35 coun-tries, 19 % of 184 that are eligible, have formally ratified the Convention.2 In contrast, 154 countries (83 % of those eligible) are Parties to the 1998 Rot-terdam Convention on the Prior In