Global Asbestos Mortality: 2025 Update
For decades, the human costs of the asbestos industry’s profits were paid for by workers, family members, local people, and communities that had been exposed to carcinogenic fibers liberated by mining, transporting and manufacturing processes. The failure of international agencies tasked with protecting occupational and public health to take timely action on the asbestos hazard was due, in some part, to their woeful underestimation of global asbestos mortality:
- in 2006, the International Labor Organization (ILO) “estimated 100,000 workers die every year from diseases caused by exposure to asbestos;”1
- in 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that there had been 107,000 occupational asbestos-related deaths in 2004;2
- by 2024, the WHO had upped its estimate: “Globally, more than 200,000 deaths are estimated to be caused by occupational exposure to asbestos – more than 70% of all deaths from work-related cancers;”3
A paper published in 2017 suggested that cumulative annual global asbestos mortality far exceeded previous estimates and could surpass 300,000. This loss of life would be equivalent to wiping out a city the size of Cordoba, Spain; Cincinnati, US; Canberra, Australia; or the sinking of 200 Titanics every year.4
The lead author of the 2017 paper was Emeritus Professor Jukka Takala, former President of International Commission on Occupational Health. In November, 2025, Professor Takala made a presentation at an asbestos event in Norway (which he has kindly given us permission to upload, in the form of a PDF): Latest asbestos deaths and diseases, global, European and country data for males and females.
Key points highlighted in the 40 slides included the following:
- the total burden of asbestos-caused cancers had been continually under-estimated nationally as well as internationally;
- the incidence of global asbestos deaths had risen steadily from 1990 to 2023;
 Slide from J. Takala November presentation. Reproduced by kind permission of the author. |
- according to evidence from Sweden, China, the US and Scotland there was an increase in the incidence of female deaths from mesothelioma, the signature cancer associated with asbestos exposure. This was most likely due to previously overlooked occupational asbestos exposures experienced by women; exposure to asbestos in the built environment could also be a contributory factor to the rise in female mortality.
 Slide from J. Takala November presentation. Reproduced by kind permission of the author. |
There was no question in the presenter’s mind that a complete and universal asbestos ban was well justified. Mandatory protections as well as strict national protocols for enforcement were, he added, required to prevent future exposures. On slide 32, Professor Takala wrote: “Cancer is a disease – Occupational cancer is an administrative decision.” In all my years of researching and writing about the history of the asbestos industry, that is one of the most insightful statements I have ever read.
December 2, 2025
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1 ILO. Resolution concerning asbestos (adopted by the 95th Session of the International Labour Conference, June 2006).
https://www.ilo.org/resource/resolution-concerning-asbestos-2006
ILO. Asbestos: the iron grip of latency. January 10, 2006.
https://www.ilo.org/resource/article/asbestos-iron-grip-latency
2 WHO. Preventing Diseases Through Healthy Environments. No longer accessible when viewed on December 1, 2025.http://www.who.int/ipcs/features/10chemicals_en.pdf
3 WHO. Asbestos. Key Facts. September 24, 2024.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/asbestos
4 Takala J. et al. Comparative Analysis of the Burden of Injury and Illness at Work in Selected Countries and Regions. June 2017.
https://www.icohweb.org/site/images/news/pdf/CEJOEM%20Comparative%20analysis%20published%2023_1-2_Article_01.pdf
