The Old-New Asbestos Question Returns to the Limelight

Asbestos-linked news is making the headlines these days.

The spate of recent news began with an announcement in late June by Kubota Corp., a machinery maker, that 79 workers - employees, former employees, and workers in its trading companies who had worked at a factory manufacturing asbestos-related products - had died of diseases believed to be linked to asbestos between 1978 and 2004. Additionally, the company will reportedly pay sympathy money to three residents near the manufacturing plant who had developed mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer.

Nichias Corp., a building-materials maker, also announced in early July that over a period of 29 years (between 1976 and 2004), 86 employees from its five factories had died and 6 were convalescing after developing mesothelioma and other complications believed to be closely linked to asbestos.

Needless to say, asbestos has been widely used in many industrial sectors as a splendidly versatile material, although early on it was discovered to have a lethal impact on the health of workers who had had close contact with it.

Although asbestos used to be fairly familiar to ordinary people as insulation material for housing, there is a common perception nowadays that both production and use of the substance have been sufficiently checked by various laws laid down to halt its damage to public health.

The number of victims, announced not only by construction companies but also by ship-building and railway companies, has been increasing every day. These numbers include both deaths and people being treated for asbestos-related illnesses.

This old-new problem has come to light again not only because it takes time for asbestos related illnesses to develop and some production sites are still waiting for removal of the material, but above all because Japanese firms are now accepting social responsibility.

Japan will implement a total ban on asbestos from 2008, lagging behind Norway, the Netherlands, Germany and France by more than 10 years. On July 11, the Japanese government admitted the delayed measure, convening a conference of related ministries and agencies to consider future steps to be taken.

The proposed steps are fairly specific, including on-site inspections of business establishments using asbestos; the establishment of health counseling desks for workers using asbestos, their families, and residents near sites using asbestos; calling for regular health examinations; encouraging thorough prevention of dispersal when buildings are dismantled; and facilitating use of substitute materials for products including asbestos, among others. Terrifying cases in which residents near sites which use abestos, as well as workers in direct contact with the substance, have become ill, and others in which wives of workers who washed their work suits have developed cancers, are all being covered intensively by the media. These accounts have served to put great pressure on the government to take immediate action to deal with the issue.