The History of Asbestos Utilization and Recognition of Asbestos-Induced Diseases

Asbestos-related diseases have imposed significant morbidity and mortality across industrialized nations approximately for the last 80 years and will continue to do so for decades to come, as a consequence of past exposures to asbestos during the 1950s to the 1980s and beyond-in part because of the latency interval between exposure and subsequent diseases such as asbestosis, lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma. In addition, the use of chrysotile asbestos continues, especially in developing and now Asian nations (chrysotile is still mined in and exported from Russia, Brazil (despite a ban), Kazakhstan, China and Zimbabwe, and some of these countries also mine chrysotile for domestic usage). The nations that continue to import asbestos include India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, among others. Many of the nations to which asbestos is exported have poor surveillance and controls on occupational exposures, and limited recording disease incidence, and in many such countries the situation is compounded by a high frequency of cigarette smoking. Asbestos-related diseases will continue to plague mankind for the foreseeable future.