Asbestos risk assessment in Pakistan: current scenario and way forward.

Cite this article as: Ahmed Khan A, Ahmed Nafees A, Fatmi Z. Asbestos risk assessment in Pakistan: current scenario and way forward. Int J Occup Environ Med 2013;4:50-51. Asbestos is used widely in various manufacturing industries in Pakistan despite the adverse health affects associated with it. Around 70% of the global consumption of asbestos is from Asian countries like China, India, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia,1 where it is used in manufacturing of products for insulation, roofing, building materials, car brakes, etc. Prolonged exposure to asbestos is predominantly linked to diseases like asbestosis, mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung cancer; all forms of asbestos are classified as human carcinogens.1,2 According to WHO, it has been estimated that around 125 million people are being exposed to asbestos globally leading to an estimated 90 000 deaths annually.3 Various international organizations like international labor organization (ILO), WHO and others joined together to call for a worldwide ban on asbestos use in 2006.3 However, only around 23% of WHO member states have imposed the ban so far while majority of the lowand middle-income countries continue to use it in various products to date.3 ILO in 1986 has established asbestos convention to promote national laws and regulations for the “prevention, control and protection of workers against health hazards due to occupational exposure to asbestos.”4 International standards are also available for work involving asbestos containing particles which include controlling exposure to air-borne fibres, measuring exposure to air-borne fibres, proper disposal of asbestos containing material (ACM) to protect the community and environment, identifying asbestos materials and training of the personnel who would be involved in inspections, maintenance, removal or laboratory analysis.4 Pakistan has still not banned asbestos generation and use in the country.1 Mining of asbestos has been done in various parts of Pakistan. Approximately 90% of these deposits of asbestos are in Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa (KPK) province. The labor workers in these mines do not use any precautionary or protective measures to protect themselves from occupational and environmental hazard of asbestos. There are large number of milling and manufacturing units of local and imported asbestos in KPK. These units produce corrugated sheets, ceiling tiles and other asbestos containing materials.5 In Pakistan, between 1995 and 2003, 601 cases of mesothelioma were diagnosed only in Correspondence to Adeel Ahmed Khan, Resident Community Medicine, Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Stadium Road, PO Box: 3500, Karachi 74800, Pakistan Tel: +92-21-486-4857 Fax: +92-21-3493-2095 E-mail: adeel.khan@ aku.edu Received: Jun 5, 2012 Accepted: Jul 23, 2012 Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan