In January 2021, ADDRI was designated by the World Health Organization as a Collaborating Centre for the Elimination of Asbestos Related Diseases.

This agreement confirms the institute as a global leader in asbestos-related diseases and asbestos mitigation – and the only stand-alone WHO CC dedicated to the elimination of asbestos-related diseases.

The main role of the WHO collaborating centres is to provide strategic support to the WHO to meet two main needs: implementing WHO’s mandated work and programme objectives; and developing and strengthening institutional capacity in countries and regions.

Designation as a Collaborating Centre brings with it an enhanced visibility for ADDRI and recognition by national authorities, calling public attention to the health issues around asbestos and dust-related diseases. It opens up improved opportunities for ADDRI to exchange information and develop technical cooperation with other institutions, in particular at international level, and to mobilise additional and sometimes important resources from funding partners.

Since designation, ADDRI has been actioning the broad range of deliverables WHO and ADDRI agreed upon. This includes publishing an internationally recognised e-Toolkit on Asbestos-related diseases (ARDs), important research to fill knowledge gaps on the elimination of asbestos and much needed training on ARDs in developing countries. To ensure maximum accessibility, all our international training videos are now captioned with the 6 United Nations languages (Spanish, Arabic, Russian, French, Chinese and English) as well as Indonesian.

This is a giant leap forward to increase global understanding of disease identification, patient care and environmental management of asbestos and deadly dusts.

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