On the other hand, their poorer counterparts – the developing countries – seem unmindful of the danger. Let alone a ban, most of them don’t even have a credible occupational safety and health system in places where asbestos is used. The epidemic these countries stands to face will be several times bigger than the one confronting developed countries.
Ironically, there is a point of view in certain developing countries that asbestos-related fears are exaggerated and that there is “no scientific evidence” of asbestos being a health hazard! Ironically, there is also an affluent Western country that has a no home use policy on asbestos, but continues to sell it to poor countries for some US$80 million annually.
The problem with asbestos
Asbestos has a long history of use throughout the world. Its fibrous nature, bad conductivity, and chemically inert nature – combined with its cheapness – made it a ‘miracle mineral’ for many industries including:
- Insulation
- Building and construction
- Non-pressure pipes
- Shipbuilding
- Automotive brake linings
- Gaskets
- Railway works
- Power
- Specialized equipment…. and many others.
Physical contact with asbestos is truly not harmful. The problem arises with inhalation of asbestos dust. Inhalation of the dust can be prevented if only palletized asbestos is used. Even masks are not adequate. The main asbestos-related diseases are: asbestosis, and mesothelioma:
- Asbestosis: This affects both lungs but, by itself, is non-malignant. It can be controlled if exposure to asbestos is stopped. However, it increases the patient’s vulnerability to the really lethal disease: mesothelioma.
- Mesothelioma: This is a cancerous disease that affects the mesotheleum, the protective lining over the body’s internal organs (usually lungs). Survival period between detection and death is less than two years in most cases. Despite promising medical breakthroughs, mesothelioma remains a deathly disease. So far, 7,000 deaths have been caused by it in the US, Europe, and Australia, with the figure to run into millions by 2020.
Asbestos mining and export scenario
The only countries that mine considerable volumes of asbestos today are:
- Canada,
- Brazil
- Zimbabwe
- China
- Russia.
Four of the above countries allow the use of asbestos within their own borders, with Canada being the striking exception. Canada has banned use of asbestos within its own borders but has no qualms exporting it to poorer nations. It is the world’s biggest exporter of asbestos today and continues to influence poorer countries to oppose any global ban on asbestos. The government of Canada also finances a pro-asbestos lobby, the so-called Chrysotile Institute that promotes exports of asbestos.
Developing countries scenario
Lack of reliable data obstructs a reasoned analysis of the asbestos-related harm done to, and faced by, people in the developing countries. However, it would be safe to estimate that many millions of people in these countries are at risk, while tens of thousands are already suffering.
In eastern Europe, towns with cement factories are so contaminated with asbestos dust that if it were to be the US, large scale evacuation would have taken place. Though South Africa has recently taken steps to ban the use of asbestos, a lot of damage has already been done. During apartheid, blacks worked in asbestos mines and, today, thousands of them as well as their family members, are suffering.
Many countries that were formerly part of the erstwhile Soviet Union continue to use asbestos without necessary precautions. The region was the world’s biggest producer of asbestos until the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s. In Brazil, some 200,000 workers currently use asbestos at the workplace. The picture applies to most other Latin American countries too.
In China and India, two Asian neighbors fancying themselves as emerging global powers, lip-service continues to be paid to asbestos-related concerns, but there isn’t much being done to restrict asbestos use or promote safety. In China, it is normal for prisoners to be made to work in asbestos mines.
In India, a statement was made in Parliament as recently as in 2002, which said: “no scientific study establishing white asbestos as the cause of lung cancer is available, (so) it is not considered desirable to ban its use.” In the Middle East, especially in the oil-rich sheikhdoms, immigrant workers from poor countries still work in asbestos environments. Saudi Arabia is the only major country in the region that has banned asbestos, but workers continue to be at risk due to maintenance work on asbestos structures built before the ban.
Conclusion
Despite Canada’s pro-asbestos lobbying, it is only a matter of time before it falls in line with other Western nations. But the menace of a mesothelioma epidemic will continue to become fiercer in most developing countries in the decades to come. An asbestos-free ‘third world’ seems a distant possibility. These are countries grappling with more basic and immediate issues of poverty and employment.
In such circumstances, the long term prospect of an epidemic is not a matter of priority today. Mesothelioma deaths in developing countries will be far more than in North America and European Union. The only hope lies in new methods of detection and treatment, research into which is current in the Western world. |
