New findings on asbestos diseases

The US-based Asbestos Disease Awareness Organisation (ADAO) publicly applauded the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)’s recent reconfirmation that all commercial asbestos fibres — including chrysotile, the most commercially used form of asbestos — cause lung cancer and mesothelioma. The IARC also confirmed that there was sufficient evidence that asbestos causes ovarian cancer and reconfirmed asbestos causes laryngeal cancer.

IARC, part of the World Health Organization (WHO), is considered the leading international cancer research agency, with some of the world’s foremost cancer experts participating in a number of specialised research groups.

Dr Richard Lemen, Assistant Surgeon General, US Public Health Service (Ret.) and ADAO Science Advisory co-Chairman said: “The confirmation by IARC that all forms of asbestos cause lung cancer, laryngeal cancer and mesothelioma leave no doubt that the prevailing medical evidence is irrefutable as to asbestos’s carcinogenicity. The new findings that there is sufficient evidence that asbestos also causes ovarian cancer will have far-reaching implications to all women exposed to asbestos and begins a new chapter in the prevention of asbestos-related cancers.”

Linda Reinstein, Executive Director and co-Founder of ADAO, added: “As ADAO prepares for its fifth annual National Asbestos Awareness Conference to raise awareness and prevent asbestos exposure, we applaud the timely findings of the IARC. The more knowledge we have about asbestos dangers, the more power we have to effectively fight this deadly mineral and someday end its lethal abilities.”