Environmental Exposure
Research from almost every continent has confirmed the link between hazardous environmental exposures to asbestos and asbestos-related disease. Airborne contamination generated by mining or processing of asbestos and the liberation of fibers through physical manipulation, man-made or natural catastrophes endanger human health [Environmental Hazard, Asbestos in the environment].
Instances of environmental asbestos contamination include:
- U.S. – The attack on the World Trade Center liberated 5,000 tonnes of asbestos from sprayed asbestos fireproofing and asbestos floor tiles used in the twin towers [Asbestos Fallout from 9/11].
- Lebanon & Israel – Bombs dropped during the 2006 war in the Middle East liberated asbestos from asbestos-cement roofing products and asbestos-containing insulation in damaged buildings in both countries [Asbestos Fallout from War in Middle East].
- Sri Lanka – In the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, asbestos debris was found strewn throughout coastal areas in Hikkaduma, Sri Lanka [Killing the Future - Asbestos Use in Asia].
- India – Asbestos-contaminated waste generated by decades of asbestos mining operations in the Singbhum district in Jharkhand has polluted villages and the surrounding countryside. A local activist described the toxic legacy as follows: “The (asbestos) dust gets mixed with water and flows into the field… the entire issue of managing mineral waste has been totally neglected” [What Price the Truth?].
- Vietnam – The northern hamlet of Tho Vi is nicknamed “cancer village” because of the high incidence of asbestos disease; although asbestos mining operations ceased 20 years ago, the haphazard and unrecorded discarding of asbestos-contaminated waste and the use of such waste to reinforce wells and roads has compromised the health many local people.
- South Africa – The level of asbestos pollution in the mining town of Penge is so high that some experts feel the town is “virtually uninhabitable” [Environmental Asbestos Fallout in Asia and Africa].
- Canada – Epidemiologists have confirmed the high incidence of asbestos-related disease in mining towns such as Thetford. Tonnes of asbestos-contaminated debris collected into tailing mountains pose a daily risk to local people. There is an elevated incidence of mesothelioma among women in Thetford Mines, many of whom have had no occupational exposure to asbestos [Asbestos Kills Canadians Too!].
- Japan – In 1975, more than 20% of townspeople (120,000 out of 540,000) lived in areas where asbestos fiber concentration levels exceeded 10 f/liter. In 2006, 99 mesotheliomas were identified amongst people in Amagasaki City who lived within 1,500 meters of the former Kubota Kanzaki asbestos-cement plant [Asian Asbestos Conference (AAC 2006)]. According to research published by the Environment Ministry on June 4, 2008, about 18% (145) of 804 people living near asbestos-using factories in Yokohama, Hashima, Nara, Osaka, Amagasaki City, Tosu and Saga have pleural plaques, an asymptomatic condition which is usually regarded as a marker of asbestos exposure [Japan: Cause & Effect].
- Korea – In 2009, researchers announced that tremolite asbestos had been found in a populated area in close proximity to a redundant asbestos mine in Susan county, Jecheon City, Chung-Cheong Buk Province. The highly toxic substance was identified in the surface soil of agricultural fields and on a school sport's ground [Tremolite Contamination in South Korea].
- Poland – In Szczecin, a small town in the southeast of the country, air measurements routinely show high levels of airborne asbestos: from 5 to 50 fibres/liter. Over half of the district's inhabitants are environmentally exposed to asbestos fiber concentrations above 10f/L. As a result of the environmental contamination, the local incidence of asbestos cancer among local people is very high [European Asbestos Conference: Policy, Health and Human Rights].
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Updated February, 2010
