THE SOCIAL INVISIBILITY OF ASBESTOS-RELATED DISEASES IN BRAZIL
- 25 percent of the deaths have no defined cause
- no epidemiological studies of asbestos exposed and former asbestos workers
- low-income workers have no access to specialized medical care services(less than 10% in developing countries)
- workers' symptoms appear when they are no longer working with asbestos(long latency period diseases)
- doctors in the public health care system have extremely limited training in occupational medicine
- child labour, the increasing deregulation of the world's work and the unfair dismissal of sick persons without any information or social protection
- there is no systematic medical follow-up for dismissed and retired workers as described in the law(ILO Convention 162)
GOVERNMENTAL PROTECTION
Since 1991 the Brazilian TLV is 2.0 f/cc for chrysotile and all the amphiboles are prohibited
All chrysotile's uses are approved by Decree 2350/97
The Labor Inspectorate has only 26.6% of health and safety inspectors necessary to guarantee one visit per year to each factory manipulating asbestos
The tripartite commission supported on ILO's principles failed - for corporative reasons - supporting the controlled use's thesis
Thus, in Brazil, occupational diseases resulting from asbestos exposure are almost never identified, reported(pleural plaques recognised by the social security and not by the Justice) or compensated
BRAZILIAN STATISTICS OF ASBESTOS RELATED DISEASES
- 1900-1998-<100 cases: 56 asbestosis, 2 lung cancers and 4 pleural mesotheliomas in the medical literature
Group of 960 ex-workers evaluated from Eternit plant at Osasco(Source: ABREA/Jan./2001)
- 98 cases of asbestosis
- 188 pleural plaques
- 222 impaired respiratory function
- 4 surviving lung cancer cases
- 2 cases of pleural mesothelioma(death)
- 6 deaths for asbestosis
- 5 deaths for lung cancers
- 1 death for larynx cancer
- 23 other fatalities (6 pulmonary and 8 gastrointestinal cancers) not officially recognised as asbestos related diseases
THE MYTHS SUPPORTED BY ASBESTOS INDUSTRY
- BANNING ASBESTOS CAUSES UNEMPLOYMENT
2,740 Workplaces eliminated by the productive restructuring at the asbetos plants in São Paulo State by the asbestos industry in the 90’s
- Amphibole hypothesis
- Brazilian asbestos is pure chrysotile without amphibole contamination
- Spraying technology in the application of asbestos has never been used in Brazil
- Asbestos is only an occupational problem, not an environmental one
- There are no asbestos risks associated to the controlled use of asbestos adopted in Brazil that "knows" how to use "differently than the USA and Europe"
The so-called "controlled use of asbestos" is, in fact, a fiction or even better a mystification.
THE ONLY REALISTIC WAY TO ASSURE AN END TO ASBESTOS-RELATED DISEASES IS TO BAN ASBESTOS.
- Social Movements and the Activism in Brazil
- Anti-Globalization Movement Coming from Below
- Cybercommunities
- Collective Group Actions
ABREA's Goals:
- To give the real visibility to asbestos problems
- To carry out medical examinations on the exposed ones
- To consider actions for indemnification
- To inform the population and the consumers on the health risks of asbestos and its admittedly less harmful substitutes.
- To fight for the banishment of asbestos in our country, as already has occurred in more than 21 countries in the world. It will be a reality in the whole European Union from 1/1/2005
Concrete Results Of The Social Struggle:
ASBESTOS BANS ALREADY ANNOUNCED IN 4 STATES (the most industrialized) AND SEVERAL CITIES AROUND THE COUNTRY
"DOMINO EFFECT"
