09:30 - 11:00, No.2 Conference Room
Workshop C
Trade Union Initiative
Chairs: Shigeki Yamaguchi and Hajime Miyamoto
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Hiroshi Watanabe
Japan Water Supply Workers' Union (ZENSUIDO) , Japan
ABSTRACT
For approximately 10 years from around 1957 during Japan's high economic growth period, the Waterworks Bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government installed approximately 980 km of asbestos pipes in Tokyo's 23 wards, as well as approx. 2,500 km of municipal asbestos pipes in the Tama area. Removal work was more or less completed by around 1985, but there still remain a few dozens kilometers of asbestos pipes today, mainly in the Tama area. Apart from some directly managed undertakings, Bureau officials have been responsible for the on-the-spot supervision/observation of work. Implementation of dust control measures has been instructed since 1987, which, however, is not always complied with in practice.
At the end of 2002, the Tokyo Unit of ZENSUIDO ("TOSUIDO") submitted a "Request for the Prevention of Further Asbestos Exposure and Survey on the Health Effects of Active and Retired Employees". In reply, the Water Bureau promised (i) to perform studies on how to perform removal work and implement optimum methods, and (ii) with regard to the "early detection of malignant mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure and health checkups," to conduct interviews/work experience surveys and direct chest x-rays as preliminary checkups, as well as pulmonary function testing and CT scanning as detailed checkups.
In October 2003, the Bureau performed asbestos pipe cutting simulations. TOSUIDO requested that past work practices be reproduced as faithfully as possible during these simulations. In the case of some of the cutting methods, results revealed high values for dust concentration and other parameters, as well as the fact that dust would diffuse into the air immediately after the work was performed. However, the Bureau did not go as far as to estimate the effects of such asbestos exposure.
In future, investigators should be educated as part of efforts to establish a TOSUIDO survey system for rating actual work practices. Union members also require proper asbestos education as relatively few undergo health checkups.
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