IARC 60th Anniversary - 19-21 May 2026
Session : 20/05/26 - Posters
The Australian Mesothelioma Registry: monitoring the legacy of asbestos use in Australia to guide prevention policy
DRISCOLL T. 1,2, BARKER S. 3, BENKE G. 4, BRIMS F. 5, BRYANT M. 6, CHALKER E. 7, COOKE-YARBOROUGH C. 3, DEAKES J. 8, HARVEY J. 3, HARDEN S. 4, KLEBE S. 9, MACFARLANE E. 4, MAHONEY K. 8, PRABHAKARAN S. 9, WATSON T. 3, WISE P. 6, YOUNG A. 3, WALKER-BONE K. 4
1 Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, University of Sydney, Australia; 2 Asbestos and Dust Diseases Research Institute, Sydney, Australia; 3 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra, Australia; 4 Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; 5 Curtin Medical School, Curtin University, Perth, Australia; 6 Safe Work Australia, Canberra, Australia; 7 National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; 8 Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency, Sydney, Australia; 9 College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
The Australian Mesothelioma Registry: monitoring the legacy of asbestos use in Australia to guide prevention policy
Background
Australia had one of the highest per-capita uses of asbestos in the world. This use peaked in the 1970s, with exposure significantly diminishing from the mid to late 1980s. Although asbestos importation and use has been banned since the beginning of 2003, some exposure still occurs in both occupational and non-occupational circumstances.
Objectives
The Australian Mesothelioma Registry (AMR) provides information on cases of mesothelioma that have been diagnosed in Australia from 1 July 2010 onwards, including past asbestos exposure for a subset of cases.
Methods
Most notifications to the AMR come directly from State and Territory cancer registries (new diagnoses of cancer are legally required to be reported to these registries). All notified persons are invited to participate in the AMR’s exposure assessment activity, providing information by questionnaire followed by a structured telephone interview using a computer-based exposure assessment system (OccIDEAS). This presentation focuses on 2024, using information received by the AMR to May 2025.
Results
In 2024, 684 people were diagnosed with mesothelioma (additional 2024 cases are expected to be notified); 78% were male; median age was 77 years. The overall rate per 100,000 of cases in 2024 was 2.5; rates rose with age. Most (81%) people were aged 70 years or older. The (age-standardised) rate in males (3.2) was much higher than in females (0.8). The overall (and male) age-standardised rate reached a peak in about 2003, slowly decreasing since; the female rate appears to have been relatively stable since 2018. Case numbers appear to have plateaued in the last five years and are expected to slowly decline over many decades. 1,305 persons diagnosed with mesothelioma from July 2010 to May 2024 provided detailed asbestos exposure information. About 94% of these people were considered to have had possible or probable asbestos exposure above background levels – 11% occupational only; 36% non-occupational only; 53% both. Of these, most men (78%) had occupational exposure; most women (93%) did not. The most common non-occupational exposure was from home renovation.
Conclusions/Implications
High rates of mesothelioma in Australia reflect the past high use of asbestos in Australia. The Registry provides important insights into the effect of past asbestos use and exposure and understanding of the burden of mesothelioma and likely causative exposure circumstances. These also indirectly provide information on the extent of other asbestos-related disease, particularly lung cancer.