Prohibition on using white asbestos should base on convincing scientific grounds

VOV.VN – Until now, scientists have not found any cases of cancer due to exposure to white asbestos fibers in the AC roof sheet.

The term “Asbestos” (Amiang) has been referred to all silicate mineral fibers since the 1600s. In the ancient Greek, this word means “Indestructible”. There are many types of asbestos fibers and they differ completely in their chemical composition, color, mechanical properties, application and level of impact on human health. Brown and blue asbestos fibers are likely to develop into tumors after 10-20 years of incubation upon inhalation. White asbestos fiber – the only fiber allowed in many countries around the world – will be removed from the lungs after 3-14 days. In the early period, asbestos was mainly used for weaving fabrics due to its fire-retardant properties.

Asbestos fiber cement (AC) products were invented in the late 19th century by Austrian industrialist Ludwig Hatschek when he mixed 90% of cement and 10% of asbestos fiber with water and then passed the mixture through a rolling mill to shape it into durable thin sheets. AC materials are often used as partitions in buildings due to their low cost, insulation, fireproof, waterproof and light weight properties. This is considered as one of the most useful and famous building material inventions of the 20th century.

In Vietnam, white asbestos has been used to create AC roof sheets since 1963 and it is the only type of asbestos fiber used in Vietnam. In the subsidy years, there were an increasing number of people living under the AC roof sheets. In 2017, the AC roof sheet industry included 39 production facilities with a designed capacity of over 106 million square meters per year, employing more than 5,000 employees with an annual consumption of 80-85 million square meters.

Prohibitions are hung upon businesses

The AC roof sheet industry is facing a decline in consumption market in recent years due to the trend of consumers being able to buy high-cost, diversified and eye-catching colors roofing materials. However, in a purely agricultural country like Vietnam, where more than 70% of the population is poor and low-income people, and the coastline stretches for 3,350km, AC roof sheets are still irreplaceable products thanks to its features of low cost, good insulation, no warping under abrupt climate change conditions and not being rusty by sea steam, hoarfrost, kitchen fumes or acids in cattle and poultry feces.

cam su dung amiang trang can dua tren can cu khoa hoc thuyet phuc hinh 1

Many AC roof sheets factories are facing difficulties.

But one reason why the roofing industry is still at stake, forced to close as they could not hold out is because of a proposal on banning the import and use of this fiber in the roof sheet, and propaganda without evidence that AC roof sheets cause cancer.

The reality cannot be a lie

Over 5 decades, with million square meters of roof sheets covering from the North to the South, from the mountains to the islands, there has been no case of consumer affected by exposure to white asbestos in AC roof sheets. The research by Construction Hospital – Ministry of Construction on the mortality in Tan Trinh commune (a total of 1,046 households, and 4,565 people) and communes of Quang Binh district – Ha Giang province, where up to 70% households living under AC roof sheets, has shown that the commune’s mortality rate is lower than that of the whole district. And there is no case of cancer due to living under the AC roof sheets.

A study by the Ministry of Health of Vietnam, funded by Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan through the World Health Organization (WHO), also demonstrated that among samples of mesothelioma were screened, none of them had a history of occupational exposure to white asbestos.

Like people living in the cities of white asbestos mining such as Asbest city of Sverdlovsk province – Russia, Minaçu city of Goiás state, Brazil, is the place where people have lived for hundred years, hereditary in the mines. “If someone said that more than 100,000 people died from cancer due to exposure to asbestos each year, and there is no safe threshold for exposure, even for white asbestos, we all have died already!” – a citizen of this city laughed and said.

And if anyone had the opportunity to experience walking on the countryside roads of the over-a-billion population countries as India, China, or even countries next to Vietnam – Thailand, Indonesia, then they will encounter an extremely familiar image, existing for hundreds of years: roofs and cisterns made from AC!

AC roof sheets in Indonesia.

Is chrysotile just a scapegoat?

The burden of disease in developed countries such as Australia, Japan, and Korea today is the consequence of the widespread use of green and brown asbestos without any labor safety measures in the past. To serve the strong industrial development of the early 20th century and especially during World War II, asbestos, including green and brown, was exploited and used on a large scale. They were sprayed directly on the walls and ceilings, workers exposed to high concentrations of brown – blue asbestos in poor working conditions had serious health consequences. In Australia, the number of mesothelioma deaths is the world’s second highest because green asbestos was mined from the 1930s to 1966 and they used brown asbestos until the mid-1980s. The same thing happened in Japan, South Korea and many other developed countries.

Some thoughts…

Use blue-brown asbestos to spray on buildings without labor protection equipment.

Coincidentally, the countries that sponsor anti-asbestos campaigns in Vietnam are the world’s leading manufacturers of alternative materials. Japanese-funded PVA fiber-based sheet factories were established and anti-white asbestos parties praised them as saviors, but in fact these factories had to close because they couldn’t produce the sheets that meet the needs of consumer tastes and affordability.

Is the objective of these campaigns for public health or for reasons such as commercial competition, creating markets for alternative materials, seeking for profit from anti-asbestos activities such as lawsuits and legal fees?