Banning asbestos is a good thing! That more than fifty countries have banned all uses of asbestos must be noted as an important fact, and ultimately the reasons for the ban is less an issue than the fact. The paper by Domyung Paek and colleagues, 'Why some, but not all, countries have banned asbestos,' attempts to address reasons why this has occurred, but in many ways misses the mark, and ignores other factors of some potential importance. The main reason for the absence of bans seems ultimately best explained by political will. The recent decision in Canada to "finally shutter the asbestos mines speaks eloquently to that point. While many of the facts cited in the paper are true, the theses put forward do not really hold up. Yes, countries with higher mesothelioma rates have banned asbestos, but deaths over time from lung cancers, asbestosis, and other asbestos-linked ailments far exceed such deaths in almost all settings and are ignored. Countries with advanced medical care systems usually have better health care data collection systems as well, so these factors are linked and are unlikely to independently account for bans.
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