Diseases That Bunkyo City Does Not Consider Asbestos Related
Malignant Tumors
Along with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)—the World Health Organization’s cancer research institute—Bunkyo City does not recognize certain malignant tumors as asbestos-related malignant diseases. The IARC summarized its research on asbestos and related cancers in a 2012 monograph. See IARC Monograph 100C Arsenic, Metals, Fibers, and Dust; IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans Volume 100 C, Asbestos (Chrysotile, Amosite, Crocidolite, Tremolite, Actinolite, Anthophyllite) 2012.
Specifically, Bunkyo City does not consider brain tumors, pharyngeal cancer, esophageal cancer, stomach cancer,biliary tract cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, skin cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer, uterine cancer, leukemia, malignant lymphoma and the like to be asbestos-related malignant tumors. For information about other malignant tumors, please contact the Infant Division’s Infant Section.
Contact information for the Infant Division’s Infant Section
Respiratory Diseases
One of the best-known sets of international diagnostic criteria for asbestos-related diseases are the Helsinki criteria (Asbestos, Asbestosis, and Cancer: the Helsinki Criteria for Diagnosis and Attribution;Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health 1997;23[4]: pp. 311 to 316, Tossavainen A.) Three new diseases (ovarian cancer, laryngeal cancer, and retroperitoneal fibrosis) were added in 2014. A Japanese translation of the Helsinki Criteria 2014 was published as 石綿、石綿肺、及びがん、診断および原因判定に関するヘルシンキ・クライテリア2014年版 勧告(the Helsinki Criteria 2014: Recommendations on Asbestos, Asbestosis, and Cancer, Diagnosis and Determination of Causes), Occupational Health Journal, Vol. 39(5), 2016, pp. 57-70. If you need these two reference documents on the international asbestos-related disease diagnostic criteria, please email your request to Bunkyo City.
Following the above recommendations stated in the internationally recognized Helsinki Criteria 1997 and Helsinki Criteria 2014, Bunkyo City also does not consider certain diseases to be benign asbestos-related respiratory diseases. Specifically, Bunkyo City does not consider bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD), pneumonia (bacterial pneumonia, viral pneumonia), pulmonary tuberculosis, or atypical mycobacterial disease to be benign asbestos-related diseases.
Since the construction work at the nursery school that led to the asbestos exposure only took about two weeks, Bunkyo City does not consider asbestosis a benign asbestos-related disease, based on the conclusion of experts that asbestosis only develops in people with occupational exposure of at least one year.
For information about other benign respiratory diseases, please contact the Infant Division’s Infant Section.
Contact information for the Infant Division’s Infant Section
Inquiries
Infant Section, Infant Division
Bunkyo Civic Center 12F South Side
1-16-21 Kasuga, Bunkyo City, Tokyo 〒112-8555
Tel: 03-5803-1189
Fax: 03-5803-1346
