Worldwide, 230,000+ people die annually from asbestos-related diseases (ARDs). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that countries develop a National Asbestos Profile (NAP) to eliminate ARDs. This research article assessed the global status of NAPs for the 195 Countries by national income (HI: high, UMI: upper-middle, LMI: lower-middle, LI: low), asbestos bans (banned, no-ban) and public data availability.
The research found that only fourteen (7% of 195) countries had NAPs in place while 149 countries had a partial NAP or published information and 32 countries were no relevant information at all. The proportions of countries having a bona fide NAP were similar between asbestos-banned and no-ban countries. Public databases useful for developing NAPs contained data for most countries.
Irrespective of the status of national income or asbestos ban, most countries have not developed a NAP despite having the potential. Country-level data on asbestos and ARDs in public databases can be better utilized to develop NAPs for globally eliminating ARDs.
Diana Arachi 1, Sugio Furuya 2, Annette David 3, Alexander Mangwiro 4, Odgerel Chimed-Ochir 5,1, Kenneth Lee 6,1, Peter Tighe 7, Jukka Takala8, Tim Driscoll 9 and Ken Takahashi 1,10,*
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health