News In Brief
Brazil
On November 28, 2000 the City Council of Osasco, Brazil voted unanimously to ban the future use of asbestos within the city limits. This astounding development followed a surprise announcement by Dr Silas Bortolosso, the Mayor of Osasco and the Honorary President of the Global Asbestos Congress, during the September conference that he would encourage the Council to make Osasco one of the first cities in Brazil to ban asbestos.
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Latvia
Latvia, now in the midst of a construction boon, has yet to come to terms with its asbestos legacy. Many houses built during the 1970s are contaminated with asbestos; for fifty years asbestos insulation materials were commonly used on Latvian rooves. Local expertise in handling and disposing of asbestos is inadequate. According to environment engineer Hanna Kauppinen, construction workers "remove asbestos with their bare hands sometimes."
Source: The Baltic Times: Constructing with Hazardous Materials, 11 Oct. 2000.
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China
Asbestos is big and getting bigger in China. During the first eight months of this year, China exported nearly 75,000 tonnes of asbestos and asbestos-containing cement products; these exports generated foreign currency sales of US$12.4 million.
Source: China Economic Information Network, 11 Oct. 2000.
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Gulf States
An editorial in The Gulf News reported that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which represents Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, was considering a ban on the use and import of asbestos this Summer. The Federal Environment Agency commissioned a comprehensive study from the Ministry of Finance and Industry on this subject. This report is, the editorial says, unnecessary because the "harmful effects have been established beyond doubt." The Gulf News calls on the GCC to "take a firm decision and ban asbestos forthwith;" as "it is the responsibility of governments to protect the large labour force employed in GCC states from asbestos and this can only be done if its production and import is banned forthwith. The ban should also be strictly enforced."
Consumers in the Middle East and India absorbed 212,000 tonnes of asbestos in 1999, making the region the world's third largest market. It is not surprising therefore that asbestos interests in Dubai have been critical of proposals to ban asbestos insisting that a 30-200 per cent cost advantage should be taken into account. Sushital Das from Umm Al Quwain Industries Corporation, the only local company manufacturing asbestos cement sheeting for the GCC market, claims: "It is not right to ban the product without proper study." Ibrahim Al Rahmani, Chairman of The Building Materials Group and Managing Director of Al Rahmani General Trading, confirms the collapse in sales, down 70 per cent in the past quarter, and the availability of alternatives such as fibreglass, PVC and aluminium.
Source: Gulf News 07, 09 & 14 Aug. 2000.
December 12, 2000
