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Saturday 20, November, 2004 09:30 - 11:00, No.2 Conference Room Workshop C Trade Union Initiative Chairs: Shigeki Yamaguchi and Hajime Miyamoto Yasunari Fujimoto Japan Teachers' Union (JTU) , Japan ABSTRACT: A total of 51 facilities of 46 public high school buildings in Kanagawa Prefecture, including gymnasiums and sports-related facilities, use asbestos felt as a construction material. The product's name is "Felton R-30," consisting of steel corrugated sheet roofing, and 10-millimeter-thick asbestos roof lining materials. The component ratio of this material is 85% or more chrysotile asbestos to 15% or less sodium silicate. Sodium silicate is used to bind asbestos, but it deteriorates with time and eventually becomes useless, making asbestos felt come off easily from steel sheet. Kanagawa Prefectural High School Teachers' Union conducts inspections for airborne asbestos at the facilities that have been found problematic by visual checks. The characteristic of asbestos felt, however, makes it hard to express any numerical data enough to show its airborne hazards. There are some cases that students are exposed to airborne asbestos during class hours, when asbestos felt comes off from the steel sheet. It is a critical health hazards for the students. The total removal of asbestos from school buildings, which is our hope, has not been carried out yet in Kanagawa, due to the financial hardship of the prefectural government, the same as other municipalities across Japan. Under such circumstances, splayed vermiculite and pearlite materials were identified at 121 sites of 78 facilities. Currently those materials are being examined whether they are contaminated with asbestos or not. In this way, asbestos issues at education facilities are still left unattended in many cases. This is a status report of the issue. |