Tværtimod bruger den asiatiske byggeindustri mere asbest end nogensinde, selv om det koster titusindvis af dødsofre hvert år og mange lider en pinefuld og langsom kvælnings-død.
BANGKOK, 21 March 2012 (IRIN): Even though public health experts recognize how deadly asbestos can be, its use is on the rise in the construction industry throughout Asia, according to the US Geological Survey.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates some 107.000 workers die annually from asbestos-related diseases, out of 125 million people who encounter it in the workplace.
The European Union, Australia, Japan, South Korea and an increasing number of countries have outlawed it, according to London-based NGO International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS).
The asbestos industry paid 70 billion US dollar over four decades in damages and litigation costs in the USA, where asbestos is regulated but not banned, according to the Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
But despite the ban, asbestos is still an important component of the construction and manufacturing industries, said Sugio Furuya, coordinator of the Tokyo-based Asia Ban Asbestos Network (A-BAN).
“In fact, Asia and the Middle East consume the asbestos that is not used elsewhere any more,” he added.
“Our main worries are China, India and Russia, that account for 60 percent of world asbestos consumption and have very little regulation over its use,” added Laurie Kazan-Allen, IBAS coordinator. “Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Uzbekistan and Sri Lanka are also consuming a lot and without a tight legal framework.”
Asbestos is used to produce wall coverings, roofing plates (tagplader), water pipes (rør), heat conservation and insulation (isolerings) material.
In studies from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, at least one case of mesothelioma (kræftsygdom) occurred for every 170 tons of asbestos used.
Based on this internationally accepted formula, Asia and the Middle East’s current asbestos consumption would lead to 8.000 mesothelioma cases annually.
An incurable form of cancer, mesothelioma can lay dormant for decades before turning fatal and is stealthy in its transmission.
“Exposure can also be indirect, like a woman who regularly washed the asbestos-impregnated clothes of her husband,” said Domyung Paek, professor of occupational and environmental medicine at Seoul University.
Other asbestos-related diseases include cancer of the lungs, larynx (strubehoved) and ovaries (æggestokke) and asbestosis (when lung tissue becomes fibrous = “jernlunger”).
Weighing costs
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