Isn’t it time Asbestos is banned completely?
The mining, manufacture and use of asbestos leads to a variety of diseases like fibrosis, asbestosis, asbestos warts, lung cancer, Pleural plaques, diffuse pleural thickening and the most dreaded disease, ‘mesothelioma’˳ Asbestos has been in use right from the time of ancient Greeks itself˳ Even Romans and Persians have used it˳ It was used to make lamp wicks and was also woven into the clothing worn by the slaves˳
The Greeks first realized that something was wrong with asbestos˳ They found that the lungs of slaves who wore asbestos woven clothes became diseased˳ It was only in the 1900s that the medical researchers woke up to the harmful effects of asbestos˳ In the 1930s, the diseases caused by asbestos were identified one by one˳ However, mesothelioma was identified only in 1940s˳ England was the first country that banned the mining, use and manufacture of asbestos˳ After this, USA banned asbestos˳ Though slow in efforts, Japan too banned the mining and use of asbestos˳ Developed countries have banned or at least severely restricted using asbestos˳ However, developing countries are not showing as much effectiveness in banning asbestos˳
Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that is resistant to fire, resistant to chemicals and flexible˳ Thus, it is a very useful chemical for most people in the developing countries˳ Since they are ignorant about its harmful effects, they use it extensively˳ Thus the asbestos industry is one flourishing industry in most developing countries˳ The asbestos industries are owned by wealthy politicians or by media˳ So, they cover up research reports and do not release any information about the harmful effects of asbestos˳ Moreover, they even argue that scientific evidences about mesothelioma’s harmful effects are absent˳ So, this harmful chemical is being produced and used in a widespread manner in many developing countries like India and China, Though India has banned all other types of asbestos, it has not imposed any ban on white asbestos˳ In India alone, around I0000 cases of mesothelioma occur every year˳
Another issue faced is that the latency period of mesothelioma is very high˳ That means, the time gap between exposure to asbestos fibers and the onset of mesothelioma may be even up to 20 to 30 years˳ So, people shift many jobs within this time period and so, they do not link mesothelioma to they’re working in or living near asbestos industry˳ Sweden is the first country to show a decline in incidence of mesothelioma after a ban on asbestos˳ It has around 20 cases per million population per year˳
As mesothelioma has a huge latency period, medical researchers expect that a vast majority of people would suffer from mesothelioma between 2020 and 2040˳ In the developed countries alone, it is expected that more than a million people would die of mesothelioma in the next few decades˳ If this were the case in developed countries, then the situation in developing countries, which have neither banned asbestos nor given any occupational safety or precaution, is frightening˳
A complete ban on the mining, manufacture and use of all types of asbestos, in all countries, is the best solution for this problem˳
Source by https://ezinearticles˳com/?Banning-Asbestos&id=731491
