ANDEVA - International Day for Asbestos Victims (Paris, 12th October 2012)

The conference organised by the French national association of asbestos victims (ANDEVA), entitled « International Day for Asbestos Victims » will be held in Paris, palace of Luxembourg, Friday 12th of October. This conference will gather around 250 participants - scientists, executives, doctors, technicians, NGO activists, asbestos victims and their family - coming from more than twenty countries. The room of the colloquium will be equipped with simultaneous translation (French/English/Italien/Spanish) required by the international character of speakers.

The following format is envisaged :

the morning session « state of science » (epidemiology and medical research) ;
the afternoon session « state of the planet » (use of asbestos, legislation, situation of victims)

The morning session will provide references on epidemiology of cancers caused by asbestos and the progress - modest but genuine - concerning therapies.

The afternoon session will detail the situation and specificities of various regions of the globe, concerning asbestos, the awareness of hazards and situation of victims, through the presentations by doctors, labour inspectors, activists, victims from several countries (Europe, Canada, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea, Africa, etc).

2. The context

The knowledge of asbestos hazards is quite ancient, in France one often quotes factory inspector Auribault report (1906) as the first warning. The carcinogenicity has been scientifically well established since the fifties (through the Doll studies and then Wagner studies) and an impressive amount of epidemiological data has been accumulated since. Nevertheless translation of scientific knowledge into prevention has been much too slow and even today there are shocking inequalities between regions of the planet. Every country using or having used asbestos is facing today an epidemic of cancers ; the situation concerning prevention of diseases and compensation of victims is nevertheless highly contrasted.

Asbestos is banned thoughout the 27 countries of European Community and in a further thirty countries, but several countries remain big producers (Russia, China, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Canada) or big consumers of asbestos (China, India, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, etc). The asbestos mining industry continue to spread misinformation on the hazards, sometimes even helped by their governments (example : Canada).

The majority of asbestos victims are contaminated at their work place and, since the high risk trades are mostly men’s, a large majority of victims are men ; nevertheless, we witness today a large number of environmental or domestic exposure victims. Compensation of asbestos victims is very different from one place to another. France can be shown as an example with the creation of the (French) Indemnisation Fund for Asbestos Victims (FIVA) ; in the United States compensation is usually obtained through lengthy legal procedures. In many countries asbestos cancers are just ignored by authorities.

3. Program and objectives

The choice of speakers aims at surveying the body of scientific knowledge and drawing a map of the diverse situations in different countries concerning use of asbestos, prevention of diseases, compensation of victims and actions undertaken or to be undertaken.

The meeting has a double purpose : increase diffusion of scientific knowledge and develop an international public health movement.
This « international day » follows several international meetings, the latest held in Casale Monferrato, Italy, during April 2011, and some important issues have already been underlined :

a call for a worldwide ban on asbestos ;
the urgency to stop double standards between industrialized and developing countries – the former exporting the asbestos cancer epidemic towards the latter ;
the need to improve awareness and prevention of riks due to asbestos in place, above all within the building and maintenance trade ;
the will to develop a priority for scientific and medical research on asbestos related diseases ;
the wish to generalize the principles of a « quick and fair » compensation for victims, drawing lessons from the example of the French compensation fund.

The « international day for asbestos victims » in Paris will give the opportunity to develop these themes ; the edition and publication of the colloquium’s « acts » will help to provide better awareness of the risks and damages due to asbestos and stimulate better public health policies to fight this plague at regional, national, european and worldwide level.

This scientific colloquium is endorsed and sponsored by

National league against the cancer ;
National institute of the Health and the Medical research ( INSERM) ;
Labour General Office of the Ministry of Employment ;
Regional council of Ile-de-France (Paris region) ;
Mutualité Française (FNMF) ;

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