17:00 - 19:30, International Conference Hall
Plenary Session 6
Identification, Management and Removal of Existing Asbestos
Chairs: Shigeharu Nakachi and Anders Englund
 |
Anders B Englund
Occupational Medicine, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, UmeEUniversity , Sweden
ABSTRACT
Still, almost 30 years after cessation of asbestos use in Sweden some 100 male pleural mesotheliomas occur annually of which 20-25% are in construction workers. Excess incidence of pleural mesotheliomas is seen in several construction sectors indicating substantial exposure to asbestos in the past in connection with installing of products containing asbestos. After successiv decline in incidence during the last decade rates have increased again in groups where exposure has occured later in the removal of earlier installed asbestos containing products. In Swedish males asbestos caused malignant disease annually kills 2-3 times as many as fatal work accidents and this applies also to the more accident prone construction sector.Banning of asbestos containing construction material took place only recently in some European Union countries although in others one to two decades earlier. More coordinated efforts have been made all over Europe to prevent upcomming asbestos exposure in the repairing and demolition of existing buildings. Experiences of different administrative and technological approaches have recently been compiled and shared in a pan-european conference in Dresden, Germany in 2003. Additional legal improvements are in preparation on the EU-level. Asian countries are today the major asbestos importers and users and the majority of the asbestos imported in all countries that still use asbestos is construction materials in a broad sence. Work will never be done with such tight safety procedures in construction work sites as in stationary industry. Accordingly, even in the absence of domestic data on asbestos caused ill health among construction workers in these countries there is no reason to believe that their risk is less than that found in Swedish surveillance programs. There is accordingly strong reasons for Asian countries to follow the recommendations of the Dresden declaration even with regard to a cessation of use of asbestos.