Korea to Ban Asbestos Sri Lanka Embraces it
As delegates at the Asian Asbestos Conference met in Bangkok in July, 2006, the Ministry of Labor (Korea) announced that the use of asbestos would be prohibited by 2009. According to the Industrial Safety and Health Act (Korea), the use of all types of asbestos will be banned in all products including asbestos-cement as well as friction materials.
In Sri Lanka it is a different story with chrysotile products being approved for use in post-tsunami reconstruction efforts. A three-page document Usage of Chrysotile Fibre-Bonded cement Roofing Sheets for the Housing Reconstruction Programme Launched to Settle the People Displaced by the Tsunami, which was issued by the Sri Lankan Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA) in June 2006, sheds some light on how such a dangerous decision was reached. After a scant 10 weeks of research which included reliance on outdated and faulty sources, the Advisory Committee's conclusions included the following:
Once the asbestos fibres are bonded with cement as in the case of asbestos roofing sheets, it will cause no health hazard unless the fibres are exposed due to cutting, drilling or grinding.
Usage of asbestos roofing would not involve grinding but would necessitate drilling while fixing. Any health problems to arise from exposure to drilling could be avoided if the recommended safety measures such as wearing breathing masks are practiced by those engaged in it.
The Asbestos Manufacturers' Association has educated the builders and carpenters by conducting training programmes as well as by way of catalogues and brochures.
The asbestos manufacturing industries subject their employees to periodical medical check-ups and it has been revealed that employees have not been identified to be suffering from industrial related diseases.
According to the information available at the Cancer Hospital there is no evidence to show that the asbestos fibres are in the lungs of cancer victims in Sri Lanka.1
A suspicious person might believe that some, if not most, of these conclusions were based on industry propaganda rather than independent research. There is no mention in the RADA document of the global consensus that exposure to all types of asbestos can be hazardous, as evinced by statements made by major international agencies including the International Labor Organization, the World Health Organization, the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Union and many global labor organizations. Had anyone on the Advisory Committee done a google search using asbestos or chrysotile they would have seen 47,500,000 references for the first and 532,000 for the second keyword. Just one hour spent studying these sources would have caused them to question the industry's groundless assurances. The use of chrysotile in the tsunami reconstruction is an appalling mistake which will needlessly expose those who have already suffered so much to more pain and heartache in years to come.
September 1, 2006
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1 http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/srilanka/catalogue/Files/Reference/Guidelines/Government%20of%20Sri%20Lanka/G_rada%20guidelines.pdf
