Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
Dipartimento Ambiente e Salute, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
Ann Ist Super Sanita. 2020 Jan-Mar;56(1):6-9. doi: 10.4415/ANN_20_01_03.
Although asbestos exposure and risks can be prevented, only five countries in Latin America have banned asbestos, including Colombia. Beginning in 2011, a collaboration between the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Italy and Universidad de los Andes in Colombia was established, bringing together relevant expertise aiming to improve our understanding of the asbestos problem. An important result of this collaboration was a recently published study conducted in Sibaté, Colombia, a municipality where an asbestos-cement facility has operated since 1942. The evidence collected suggests the presence of a mesothelioma cluster in Sibaté. Landfilled zones with an underground layer of friable asbestos were also discovered in the urban area of the municipality. The importance of this type of collaboration can go beyond understanding the impact of asbestos at the local level, which is crucial, and may also contribute in solving unanswered questions of the problem in countries that banned asbestos decades ago.
虽然可以预防石棉暴露和风险，但拉丁美洲只有五个国家（包括哥伦比亚）已禁止使用石棉。自 2011 年以来，意大利的 Istituto Superiore di Sanità 和哥伦比亚的 Universidad de los Andes 之间建立了合作关系，汇集了相关专业知识，旨在增进我们对石棉问题的理解。该合作的一个重要成果是最近在哥伦比亚的锡巴特市（Sibaté）进行的一项研究，该市自 1942 年以来一直有一家石棉水泥设施在运营。收集到的证据表明，锡巴特存在间皮瘤集群。在该市的城区还发现了填埋区，地下有一层易碎的石棉。这种合作的重要性不仅在于理解石棉在地方层面的影响（这一点至关重要），还可能有助于解决几十年前禁止使用石棉的国家尚未解决的问题。
