Asbestos banned in Argentina

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos banned in Argentina, by E.J. Rodriguez (International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2004).

The study

• Author: E.J. Rodriguez
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Published: 2004;10(2):202-8
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 7 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

In 1997, Argentina gave priority to asbestos in its National Plan for the Sound Management of Chemicals, and it was the subject of a Technical Task Force on Occupational Cancer. After five years of public hearings in which government, workers, industry advocates, environmentalists, clinicians, scientists, and consumers participated, it was agreed that asbestos exposure is a risk factor for both workers and the general population, and that Argentina should provide to its people the same protections adopted by many developed countries. Pressure from asbestos industry groups initially delayed the inclusion of chrysotile asbestos in the proposed ban, but on January 1, 2003, the mining and import of all forms of asbestos were banned in Argentina.

In plain English

This article is a descriptive report, not a research study. Its author headed the Workers' Health Program at Argentina's Ministry of Health. It traced asbestos mining, imports, use and regulation in Argentina. Imports fell to about 2,000 tons in 2000, roughly 60 grams per person per year. In 2001, 113 asbestos companies with 1,156 workers were registered, numbers the author called unreliable. There were no official data on asbestos-related diseases. Health statistics reported malignant pleural tumors from 1993 and, since 1997, also listed pleural mesothelioma, averaging 80 cases a year. In 2000 the Ministry of Health banned amphibole asbestos. After industry pressure had won an exception for chrysotile, Resolution 823 banned mining, import, manufacture and use of all forms of asbestos, including chrysotile, from January 1, 2003. Bans on certain products took effect 60 days after publication. Commercial use of asbestos products could be authorized for up to a year unless replacement was shown impossible or no alternatives existed. The authorization could then be renewed if the conditions that allowed it persisted. The author concluded that the ban does not erase the problem of asbestos-related diseases.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Descriptive report on national asbestos history and policy (not an original research study)
• Who was studied: Argentina: its asbestos mining, imports, exports and industries, with registered asbestos companies and workers (113 companies, 1,156 workers in 2001), covering roughly 1869 to 2003
• Exposure: Asbestos mined in Argentina (chrysotile, anthophyllite and other amphiboles) and imported asbestos fibers and products used in friction products, gaskets, asbestos-cement and other industries
• Main results:
  • Asbestos imports fell to about 2,000 tons in 2000, which the author put at about 60 grams of asbestos per person per year
  • Half of imported asbestos came from Brazil and 25% from Canada and Zimbabwe
  • There were no official data on asbestos-related diseases in Argentina
  • National health statistics reported malignant pleural tumors from 1993 to 1997 and, since 1997, also listed pleural mesothelioma. There was an average of 80 cases a year in this period, with 54.88% in males and 45.12% in females
  • In 1991, permissible exposure levels were set at 0.2 f/cc for crocidolite, 0.5 f/cc for amosite and 2 f/cc for chrysotile
  • At a 1999 seminar, participants agreed to recommend a ban on amphibole asbestos, but asbestos industry pressure led to an exception for chrysotile
  • In 2000, Resolution 845 of the Ministry of Health banned the mining, manufacture, import, commerce and use of all amphibole asbestos
  • Resolution 823 banned the mining, import, manufacture and use of all forms of asbestos, including chrysotile, and products containing asbestos, as of January 1, 2003
  • The prohibition for asbestos textile products, asbestos paper and cardboard, asbestos rubber and plastic, and filters, sealants, pastes, paints and insulators containing asbestos came into force 60 days after the resolution's publication
  • Commercial use of products containing asbestos was to be authorized for a term no longer than a year, unless it was proved that replacement was impossible or that no alternatives existed in the market
  • After that period, the authorization could be renewed only if the conditions that allowed the initial permission persisted
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that banning asbestos does not erase the problem of asbestos-related diseases, because exposures will remain for years and cancers from past exposures will be a challenge for decades
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The registered numbers of asbestos companies and workers were not reliable, and the total number of exposed workers could not be known
  • Occupational medicine in Argentina appeared to misdiagnose or overlook most cases of asbestos-related disease
  • Research efforts in Argentina were far from adequate and had not yet provided published data

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Exposure, Chrysotile.

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• Asbestos-related disease in South Africa: the social production of an invisible epidemic — L. Braun, S. Kisting (2006)
• Cape Plc: South African mineworkers' quest for justice — R. Meeran (2003)
• Evaluation of respiratory effects in miners and millers exposed to talc free of asbestos and silica — D.H. Wegman, J.M. Peters, et al. (1982)

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