Spring 2025: Hope and Where to Find it!
It is remarkable to witness the heightened engagement of national authorities with asbestos legacies in key global hotspots. The imposition of new restrictions, progression of medical projects, upscaling of impact assessments and implementation of eradication programs are indicative of an ever-growing awareness of the urgent need for action to prevent future deaths.
Last month, India’s Minister of State for Education Jayant Singh Chaudhary announced that the use of asbestos would be banned in schools. This bold step was both unexpected and highly significant. Since 1999, India has been the world’s largest asbestos importing country, with annual average asbestos consumption in recent years of around 400,000t.1 Commenting on the restriction, Minister Chaudhary said: “I hope this starts a movement to gradually phase out asbestos use throughout the country and we build a healthier and cancer-free nation for our children.”
 India’s Minister of State for Education Jayant Singh Chaudhary. |
Asbestos-cement roofing had been widely used on public as well as private buildings throughout India. Asbestos mining was banned in 1993; some years later, the use of asbestos roofing at railway stations was also banned. To date, over 7,000 railway stations have been decontaminated.2
Since 2020, Brazil has been among the top four asbestos producers, along with Russia, Kazakhstan and China.3 Despite a national asbestos ban ordered by the Brazilian Supreme Court (2017), mining operations continue at the country’s sole remaining facility: the Cana Brava chrysotile mine in Minaçu, Goiás State. On March 31-April 2, 2025, the second phase of a medical outreach project in a former asbestos mining town in the northeast of Brazil was implemented.
 Pulmonologist Dr. Hermano Albuquerque de Castro from Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro State examining a patient in the company of Dr. Lucas Carlini Tirelli, from the Family and Community Medicine Residency Program of the Municipal Secretariat of São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo State in September 2024, Picture courtesy of ABREA/AVICAFE. |
Members of the taskforce who had, in September 2024 conducted free health screening on hundreds of individuals from the towns of Bom Jesus da Serra, Poções, Caetanos and Planalto, Bahia reported that of the 584 people evaluated: 68 had contracted one or more asbestos-related disease; of the injured, 37 (54.4%) reported occupational asbestos exposures and 31 (45.6%) reported environmental exposures.4 As the cohort studied accounted for a sample of less than 1% of the total population of the region – ~65,000 people – these figures were indicative of a much wider problem.5
Throughout the 20th century, European and American multinationals invested in, operated and developed asbestos-producing and processing facilities in Southern Africa. South Africa was the only country in the world to produce all three types of commercially used asbestos: chrysotile (white), amosite (brown) and crocidolite (blue) at dozens of mines around the country.6 Between 1910 and 2002, 10 million+ tons of asbestos were produced at South African mines: “The profits were not just good, they were immense.” The commercial exploitation of asbestos was finally banned in 2008, ten years after deliberations by the South African Government began.
 Photograph taken in South Africa’s asbestos heartland by Hein du Plessis. Picture reproduced by kind permission of the photographer. |
When the multinationals walked away from their African asbestos liabilities, they abandoned at-risk workers and contaminated communities; as a consequence of their neglect, tens of thousands of individuals are routinely being exposed to hazardous levels of asbestos. Today in derelict asbestos mining towns like Msauli former workers, local people and communities pay the price for the riches reaped by the historic exploitation of this known carcinogen. A government scheme operated under the auspices of the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act to compensate workers is underfunded, “notoriously slow” and cumbersome. Many asbestos cases go unreported or are misdiagnosed. Even so, 200+ cases of mesothelioma and hundreds of other asbestos-related cancers and diseases/conditions are diagnosed every year. According to one expert: “the public healthcare system is unable to cope with the growing demand for specialist respiratory and cancer treatment” generated by the country’s asbestos epidemic.7
A timely commentary by Anchen Coetzee summed up the current situation as follows:
“South Africa’s asbestos history is not just an environmental and medical tragedy. It is a human rights failure and one that disproportionately affected labourers in rural areas. It is a social justice issue that will most probably remain unresolved until the last of those touched by these deadly fibres are no longer on this earth. And now, the question must be asked: what if the wave of illness has not peaked yet? What if those workers, some of whom never even knew what asbestos was, start falling ill in greater numbers? With no company to sue, no healthcare system to rely on, and no insurance to claim, where will they go? And more importantly - who will care?”8
Unlike India, Brazil and South Africa, Kenya never mined asbestos and was never among the top tier of users. Nevertheless, its modest use of asbestos has left it with a major problem. According to Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA):
“Buildings constructed between the 1940s and 1990s are most likely to contain asbestos; homes built before 1980 have a high probability of containing asbestos materials; many government and institutional buildings constructed during this period used asbestos extensively.”9
New government data delineated the widespread nature and scale of the contamination with tens of thousands of tonnes of asbestos material in premises operated by Kenyan ministries including office buildings, schools, hospitals, health facilities, police stations, border posts, staff accommodation, water delivery systems as well as in commercial and residential buildings under private ownership.
 A news flash on Kenyan TV on March 11, 2025 reported the Cabinet’s asbestos eradication initiative. |
On March 11, 2025, the Kenyan Cabinet officially approved a nationwide program to eliminate the asbestos hazard from the built environment. In a press release about this decision, an official spokesperson explained that it was taken not only to “enhance public health and safety” but also to “reduce future disease burden, cut healthcare costs, and enhance environmental safety.” According to a directive issued at the meeting chaired by President Willian Ruto: “NEMA will oversee the safe removal, disposal, and handling of asbestos. County governments were urged to establish designated disposal sites.”10
In other jurisdictions, strides are also being made in screening at-risk populations, securing compensation for victims of asbestos-related diseases, documenting the crimes of asbestos defendants, highlighting long-standing injustices of compensation schemes, and exposing hazardous workplaces and practices.11 Scrupulous monitoring of developments is essential to preserve progress made in the battle for global asbestos justice. Watch this space!
April 22, 2025
_______
1 According to data from the United States Geological Survey, in 1998, Japan was the biggest asbestos importer (123,225 tonnes/t), India second (109,036t) and China third (71,437t); in 1997, top importers were: Thailand (177,124t), Japan (176,021), China (103,254t) and India (83,356t) and in 1996: Thailand (190,205t), Japan (177,869t) and India (84,378).
2 Debroy, G. Exclusive | Education Ministry Issues Ban On Using Asbestos In KVs And JNV. April 3, 2025.
https://www.etvbharat.com/en/!bharat/education-ministry-issues-ban-on-using-asbestos-in-kvs-and-jnv-enn25040304301
3 In 2024, asbestos production in Russia was 600,000t, in Kazakhstan 210,000t, China 200,000t and Brazil 160,000t.
4 Kazan-Allen, L. September Miracle in Northeastern Brazil! September 16, 2024.
http://ibasecretariat.org/lka-september-miracle-in-northeastern-brazil.php
5 Estudo revela impactos do amianto na saúde da população do sudoeste baiano – MPT-BA [Study reveals impacts of asbestos on the health of the population of southwestern Bahia – MPT-BA]. April 8, 2025.
https://agenciasertao.com/2025/04/08/exposicao-ao-amianto/
Estudo revela impactos do amianto na saúde da população do sudoeste baiano [Study reveals the impacts of asbestos on the health of the population in southwest Bahia]. April 10, 2025.
https://www.jornalfolhadoestado.com/saude-e-bem-estar/estudo-revela-impactos-do-amianto-na-saude-da-populacao-do-sudoeste-baiano
6 Kazan-Allen, L. South Africa’s Asbestos Crisis. March 12, 2015.
http://ibasecretariat.org/lka-south-africas-asbestos-crisis.php
List of South African Asbestos Mines.
http://ibasecretariat.org/south_african_asbestos_mines_list.pdf
7 Coetzee, A. The forgotten cost of asbestos. April 3, 2025.
https://www.miningweekly.com/article/the-forgotten-cost-of-asbestos-2025-04-03
8 ibid.
9 Njeru, L. Asbestos, the deadly material lining Kenya's public institutions. March 12, 2025.
https://nation.africa/kenya/health/asbestos-deadly-material-lining-kenya-s-public-institutions-4961224
10 Oboto, E. Cabinet approves nationwide asbestos removal from all public, private buildings. March 11, 2025.
https://www.citizen.digital/news/cabinet-approves-nationwide-asbestos-removal-from-all-public-private-buildings-n358991
11 IBAS News Digest.
http://ibasecretariat.org/abs_archive_news.php
