The transparency and public availability of asbestos exposure levels

Our plain-English summary of The transparency and public availability of asbestos exposure levels, by M. Shepard, L. Binelli, I.C. Okereke (Journal of Thoracic Disease, 2025).

The study

• Authors: M. Shepard, L. Binelli, I.C. Okereke
• Journal: Journal of Thoracic Disease
• Published: 2025;17(12):11465-11477
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Asbestos exposure continues to be a critical public health concern due to its established link with serious respiratory diseases and malignancies. Despite the attention that asbestos-related disease has received and the litigation that has existed, asbestos-related deaths have increased over time. Public reporting of asbestos levels is essential to inform at-risk populations and facilitate regulatory compliance. Laws and practices regarding measuring of asbestos levels and reporting of these levels vary widely. Each different country has different standards that are applied to reporting. In many countries, legislation that has been passed by governing bodies has affected the amount of asbestos use and the reporting standards. Other countries have depended on community organizations to spread awareness and public pressure regarding standards of reporting. This review summarizes current practices in asbestos monitoring and public reporting, examines the strengths and limitations of existing frameworks, and explores technological and policy innovations aimed at improving transparency and public awareness. Enhancing data accessibility and public engagement remains vital to reducing asbestos-related health risks worldwide. Creating a uniform policy as widely as possible regarding asbestos reporting will empower the public and aid in reducing harm from asbestos-related disease. Future efforts should focus on creating comprehensive reporting policies and facilitating the ease at which the public can access this data.

© AME Publishing Company.

In plain English

This was a review of how asbestos levels are measured and publicly reported worldwide. The authors searched government websites (including the US EPA, US OSHA and EU-OSHA), the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat news archive and Google for asbestos laws and reporting rules. They chose countries from a 2019 US Geological Survey report and from the Secretariat's ban lists. They described bans region by region and reported that 72 countries had full bans. For the United States, they also tested state asbestos databases with a standard search. As of September 2025, only eight states had publicly accessible online databases of asbestos records from demolitions and renovations. In a search for all projects in 2023, five of the eight returned the information and three gave the data as a workable spreadsheet. The authors judged only Missouri's database fully comprehensive, though it had received 6,015 logins since 2017. They also described registries and databases in other countries, including Italy, France, South Korea and Australia. The authors concluded that reporting is held back by lack of standardization, limited public access and minimal enforcement. They called for a national registry and uniform reporting thresholds.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Review article (narrative review of laws, regulations and public reporting systems for asbestos, with a test of US state databases using a standard search)
• Who was studied: Countries listed in the 2019 US Geological Survey report as using asbestos and countries listed as having bans by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat; US state asbestos databases, searched or contacted by the authors
• Exposure: Laws, regulations and reporting mandates for asbestos, and public reporting of occupational and community asbestos levels; no specific fiber type was studied
• Main results:
  • According to the authors, 72 countries worldwide had instituted full asbestos bans, many of them years before the US
  • As of September 2025, only eight US states had publicly accessible online databases of the asbestos records from demolitions and renovations that NESHAP leaves to the states to maintain
  • In a standard search for all projects in 2023, five of the eight state databases returned the information, and three of them provided the data in a workable spreadsheet
  • As of October 2025, the authors judged only Missouri's database fully comprehensive by their standard search
  • The Missouri database held 8,879 entries dating from 2017, but the site had received only 6,015 logins since 2017 in a state of over 6 million people
  • In the US, workplace exposure data collected by OSHA are not usually released to the public, and there is no national database for school asbestos (AHERA) reports
  • The mesothelioma registries of Italy (ReNaM) and France (PNSM) publish public health metrics, with more specific data available only to researchers and registered institutions
  • South Korea keeps a public database of asbestos-containing public buildings that can be searched by address
  • Argentina, Chile and Colombia have national bans but none has a public reporting system
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that current reporting systems are held back by lack of standardization, limited public access and minimal enforcement. They called for a national registry, uniform reporting thresholds, multilingual education campaigns and stronger collaboration between agencies, healthcare providers and affected communities.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors excluded regulations written in a foreign language when no English translation could be found

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Exposure.

Related studies

• Statistical analysis of data on airborne asbestos levels collected in an EPA survey of public buildings — K.S. Crump, D.B. Farrar (1989)
• Mesothelioma in a connecticut friction plant: the need for transparency and exposure information in attribution of risk — M.J. Teta (2011)
• Effects of asbetos, iron oxide, silica, and carbon black on the microsomal availability of benzo[a]pyrene — J.R. Lakowicz, D.R. Bevan (1979)
• Availability of epidemiologic data for chemicals known to cause cancer in animals: an update — M. Karstadt (1998)
• Asbestos: scientific developments and implications for public policy — B.T. Mossman, J. Bignon, et al. (1990)
• Indoor air pollution: a public health perspective — J.D. Spengler, K. Sexton (1983)

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