The World Health Organization (WHO) Assembly in 2005 adopted Resolution 58.22 on Cancer prevention and control urged Member States to pay special attention to cancers for which avoidable exposure is a factor, particularly exposure to chemicals at the workplace and the environment.
The WHO stated in 2006 that asbestos is one of the most important occupational carcinogens causing about half of the deaths from occupational cancer.
Also, the Thirteenth Session of the Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health in 2003 recommended that special attention should be paid to the elimination of asbestos-related diseases.
In 2007, World Health Assembly Resolution 60.26 called for global campaigns to eliminate asbestos-related diseases, and in 2013, World Health Assembly Resolution 66.10 addressed prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, including cancer.
The WHO states that elimination of asbestos-related diseases should take place through the following public health actions:
recognizing that the most efficient way to eliminate asbestos-related diseases is to stop the use of all types of asbestos;
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); and
improving early diagnosis, treatment, social and medical rehabilitation of asbestos-related diseases and establishing registries of people with past and/or current exposures to asbestos.
Elimination of Asbestos-Related Diseases – August 2006