%0 Journal Article
%T Development of the "National Asbestos Profile" to Eliminate Asbestos-Related Diseases in 195 Countries.
%A Arachi D
%A Furuya S
%A David A
%A Mangwiro A
%A Chimed-Ochir O
%A Lee K
%A Tighe P
%A Takala J
%A Driscoll T
%A Takahashi K
%J Int J Environ Res Public Health
%V 18
%N 4
%D 02 2021 12
%M 33673264
%F 4.614
%R 10.3390/ijerph18041804
%X 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. For 195 countries, we assessed the global status of NAPs (A: bona fide NAP, B: proxy NAP, C: relevant published information, D: no relevant information) by national income (HI: high, UMI: upper-middle, LMI: lower-middle, LI: low), asbestos bans (banned, no-ban) and public data availability. Fourteen (7% of 195) countries were category A (having a bona fide NAP), while 98, 51 and 32 countries were categories B, C and D, respectively. Of the 14 category-A countries, 8, 3 and 3 were LMI, UMI and HI, respectively. Development of a bona fide NAP showed no gradient by national income. 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. The global status of NAP is suboptimal. Country-level data on asbestos and ARDs in public databases can be better utilized to develop NAPs for globally eliminating ARDs.