Current Asbestos Bans and Restrictions
(Revised Jan 6, 2011)
National Asbestos Bans:1
| Algeria | Czech Republic* | Iceland | Malta* | Saudi Arabia |
| Argentina | Denmark | Ireland | Mongolia5 | Seychelles |
| Australia | Egypt | Israel3 | Mozambique | Slovakia* |
| Austria | Estonia* | Italy | Netherlands | Slovenia |
| Bahrain | Finland | Japan | New Caledonia | South Africa |
| Belgium | France | Jordan4 | Norway | Spain |
| Brunei | Gabon | Korea (South) | Oman | Sweden |
| Bulgaria | Germany | Kuwait | Poland | Switzerland |
| Chile | Greece* | Latvia | Portugal* | Turkey |
| Croatia2 | Honduras | Lithuania* | Qatar | United Kingdom |
| Cyprus* | Hungary* | Luxembourg | Romania | Uruguay |
Note. Singapore and Taiwan were removed from the ban list (Oct 2010) as a result of information received.
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1 Exemptions for minor uses are permitted in some countries listed; however, all countries listed must have banned the use of all types of asbestos. Additionally, we seek to ensure that all general use of asbestos, i.e. in construction, insulation, textiles, etc., has been expressly prohibited. The exemptions usually encountered are for specialist seals and gaskets; in a few countries there is an interim period where asbestos brake pads are permitted.
2 Croatia banned asbestos as of January 1, 2006. Six weeks later, the Ministry of Economy, under political and commercial pressure, forced the Ministry of Health to reverse its position with the result that the manufacture of asbestos-containing products for export was permitted again.
3 As the result of a series of restrictions on the use of asbestos introduced from the 1980s onwards, a de facto ban on asbestos exists in Israel.
4 An immediate ban on amosite and crocidolite was imposed on August 16, 2005; a grace period of one year was allowed for the phasing out of the use of tremolite, chrysotile, anthophyllite and actinolite in friction products, brake linings and clutch pads. After August 16, 2006, all forms of asbestos were to be banned for all uses.
5 Although an order banning the import of all types of asbestos including chrysotile was adopted in July 2010, the enforcement of this legislation is not without problems.
* January 1, 2005 was the deadline for prohibiting the new use of chrysotile, other forms of asbestos having been banned previously, in all 25 Member States of the European Union; compliance with this directive has not been verified in countries with an asterisk (*). As of May 2009 there are 27 Member States, with Romania and Bulgaria joining the EU in 2007.
