|
Friday 19, November, 2004 14:30 - 16:00, No.2 Conference Room Workshop A Asian Network: Scope and Action Chairs: Sugio Furuya and Tushar Kant Joshi Kuang-Wan, Ho Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Injuries (TAVOI), Taiwan ABSTRACT In 80's, because of asbestos industry, a lot of American workers got abdominal cavity cancer, pulmonary asbestosis and the lung cancer. American government revised the stricter expose standard in asbestos, it had resulted in asbestos manufacturers searching for factories in developing countries. At that time Taiwan had no any asbestos production control, so many asbestos factories were migrated from American. It not only made serious pollution in the factories and the environment, but also hurt the workers and the inhabitants' health. To the 90's, Taiwan revised the asbestos stipulation operation and management, the majority of asbestos factories move to other places such as Mainland China, Vietnam, Thailand. However asbestos still continued to be used in many factories illegally, in addition, there is no any ban to stop using asbestos in ingredient of building material. Even many workers doesn't know how dangerous things they touch everyday. Asbestos has already confirmed to be the definite pathogenic factor in pulmonary asbestosis and it's widely used in Taiwan, however there is just few cases recognized in Taiwan. Even occupational disease doctor wondered why he hasn't diagnosed any asbestosis cases for over twenty years. What is the reason? We will like to discuss the following points.
|