Experience of Japan in Achieving a Total Ban on Asbestos

Our plain-English summary of Experience of Japan in Achieving a Total Ban on Asbestos, by S. Furuya, K. Takahashi (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2017).

The study

• Authors: S. Furuya, K. Takahashi
• Journal: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Published: 2017;14(10)
• Cited by: 18 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the process through which a total ban on asbestos was achieved in Japan. We reconstructed the process, analyzed the roles of involved parties/events, and drew lessons from the Japanese experience of achieving the ban. In Japan, a bill to phase out asbestos was proposed in 1992 but rejected without deliberation. Wide support for such a ban subsequently grew, however, largely due to the actions of trade unions and civil societies in establishing a coalition, raising awareness, organizing asbestos victims and their families, and propagating information on international developments. A governmental decision towards a ban was made in 2002 based on several national and international factors. A huge asbestos scandal in 2005 preponed the achievement of a total ban and led to the establishment of comprehensive measures to tackle asbestos issues. However, challenges remain for the elimination of asbestos-related diseases.

In plain English

This article is a historical account of policy, not a medical study. The authors reconstructed how Japan came to ban asbestos, using documents and the first author's experience coordinating the Ban Asbestos Network Japan since 1996. A 1992 bill to phase out asbestos was rejected without deliberation, and crocidolite and amosite were prohibited in 1995. In 2002 the health minister announced an in-principle ban on chrysotile. In the authors' opinion, victims' growing visibility and voices were the most important factors behind this. Products in seven categories containing more than 1% asbestos were banned from 1 October 2004. In 2005 a newspaper reported mesothelioma in five people who lived or had lived within one kilometer of a Kubota plant, none with occupational exposure. This scandal led to comprehensive government measures. The limit was lowered to 0.1% in 2006, and the last exemptions ended on 1 March 2012, though the ban does not cover existing asbestos materials in buildings or exports. The authors concluded that countries without a ban should adopt a total ban without waiting for an epidemic 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: Historical and policy analysis (narrative reconstruction), not an epidemiological study; based on documents and the first author's experience as BANJAN coordinator
• Who was studied: Japan's national asbestos regulation and the parties involved (government ministries, trade unions, civil society, industry, victims and families), from early regulations through the 2012 total ban
• Exposure: Asbestos used in Japan, almost all imported, peaking at 352,110 tons in 1974. Regulation covered crocidolite, amosite and chrysotile and asbestos-containing materials (ACMs).
• Main results:
  • A bill to phase out asbestos and asbestos-containing materials was presented by opposition parties in 1992 and rejected by the ruling party without deliberation.
  • In 1995 the government prohibited the use of crocidolite, amosite, and materials containing more than 5% of either by weight.
  • On 28 June 2002 the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare announced an intention to introduce an in-principle ban on chrysotile asbestos.
  • In the authors' opinion, the increasing visibility and voices of asbestos victims were the most important factors in Japan moving towards a total ban.
  • In Japan in 2002, there were 810 mesothelioma deaths in the vital statistics, but only 55 cases were compensated.
  • Products in seven substitutable categories containing more than 1% asbestos by weight were prohibited. The revised order went into force on 1 October 2004.
  • In 2005 it was reported that five residents who lived or had lived within one kilometer of the former Kubota Kanzaki plant in Amagasaki City had mesothelioma, two of whom had died. None had a history of occupational asbestos exposure. The authors wrote that neighborhood exposure could be assumed to be the cause.
  • A 2006 amendment, enforced from 1 September 2006, extended the prohibition to materials containing more than 0.1% asbestos by weight.
  • A literal total ban without derogation (the remaining exempted uses ended) was achieved on 1 March 2012.
  • On 9 October 2014, in a case concerning asbestos textile plants and local exhaust ventilation, the Supreme Court of Japan ruled that the government illegally failed to protect workers from asbestos exposure.
  • The authors listed remaining challenges. The ban does not apply to existing asbestos-containing materials in buildings and other infrastructure.
  • The legal ban covers manufacturing, import, transport, supply and use of asbestos and asbestos-containing materials, but not export.
  • The authors stated that the Kubota scandal, not the introduction of a ban, improved compensation for asbestos-related diseases.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that countries that have not banned asbestos should adopt a precautionary approach and introduce a total ban without waiting for an epidemic of asbestos-related diseases to appear.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis.

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