Trades of dangers: a study of asbestos industry transfer cases in Asia

Our plain-English summary of Trades of dangers: a study of asbestos industry transfer cases in Asia, by Y. Choi, S. Lim, D. Paek (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2013).

The study

• Authors: Y. Choi, S. Lim, D. Paek
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 2013;56(3):335-46
• Cited by: 16 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Background: In a study of asbestos industry transfers in Asia, we examined the transfer of health and safety measures at the time of industry transfer and resulting health outcomes thereafter.

Methods: Field surveys were conducted in Japan, Germany, Indonesia, and South Korea over a 5 year period beginning in 2007. The surveys involved interviews and field assessments of health and safety conditions.

Results: Even when there were transfers of entire engineering plant processes, we observed that the health and safety measures that should have accompanied the transfer, including technical capacities of risk assessment and management, regulatory protection, and cultural practices, were not actually transferred. According to work environment assessment records, there were differences in airborne asbestos levels of approximately 5-6 fibers/cc between the exporting and importing sides of the transfer. This amounted to a 10 years of time delay in comparable health and safety conditions. These differences resulted in repeated adverse health consequences at each factory operation site.

Conclusions: Dangerous transfers of asbestos industry technology have occurred repeatedly over the years with the result that Asia has become the largest consumer of asbestos in the world. No effective internationally accepted safety measures have been introduced in the region. The study results support the need for both improved public awareness and international cooperation, such as sharing of substitute material technologies by the exporting countries, and provide the rationale for the creation of an Asian fund for asbestos victims.

Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In plain English

This field study asked whether health and safety measures moved with asbestos textile plants transferred from Japan and Germany to South Korea, then to Indonesia. From 2007, the authors interviewed ex-workers, residents, company staff, officials, reviewed records, and took measurements and health tests in Indonesia. The capacity to measure airborne asbestos existed on the exporting side but was not transferred. In 1981, workplace levels were roughly 4 fibers per cubic centimeter (f/cc) in Germany and close to 11 f/cc in Korea. The authors described gaps of about 5–6 f/cc between exporting and importing sides, about a 10-year lag. For Indonesia, this comparison assumed that 2008 conditions reflected those at the early-1990s transfer. At one Indonesian factory, average workplace airborne asbestos was 5.77 f/cc. Chrysotile was found in 21 of 58 wipe dust samples, all within 500 m of the factory. Of 95 workers examined, 41 had abnormal spirometry. Three of five workers given high-resolution CT had early asbestosis. The authors concluded that dangerous transfers occurred repeatedly, and called for international cooperation and an Asian fund for asbestos victims.

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 field study of industry transfer cases, using interviews, review of archival and company records, and field measurements and health screening in Indonesia
• Who was studied: Asbestos textile plants linked by transfers: Tatsuta/Nichias (Nara, Japan) and Rex (Vellberg, Germany) to Jeil companies in Busan, South Korea, and then to PT Jeil Fajar and PT Trigraha in Cibinong, Indonesia. Also studied were ex-workers, residents, company staff, officials and medical experts. Field surveys ran from 2007 over about 5 years.
• Exposure: Asbestos textile production. Crocidolite and chrysotile textile machines were transferred from Japan to Korea, and chrysotile was used in Indonesia. Indonesian company products contained 48% and 98% chrysotile.
• Main results:
  • The capacity to measure asbestos in air existed on the exporting side but was not transferred to the importing side. Measurements began in the mid-1970s at Tatsuta in Japan, in the mid-1980s in Korea, and only after 2005 in Indonesia.
  • At the time of the 1981 Rex transfer, the average workplace asbestos level was roughly 4 f/cc in Germany and close to 11 f/cc in Korea.
  • Based on working environment records, the exporting and importing sides differed by about 5–6 f/cc in airborne asbestos, which the authors described as about a 10-year time lag. The Korea–Indonesia comparison assumed that 2008 Indonesian conditions reflected those around the early-1990s transfer.
  • At the Indonesian factory (PT Trigraha), the average workplace airborne asbestos concentration was 5.77 f/cc. It ranged from 3.1 f/cc at the weaving process to 8.6 f/cc at a mixing process.
  • Outside the Indonesian factory, chrysotile was found at 21 of 58 wipe dust sampling sites (36%), all sheltered from wind and rain.
  • All wipe dust sites positive for chrysotile were within a 500 m radius of the factory. They included houses, a school, a hospital and a baby care center.
  • Of 12 environmental air samples near the Indonesian factory, only one contained a minute amount of chrysotile. This was a personal sample from a housewife living next door.
  • Among Indonesian factory workers, 41 of 95 examined (43%) showed abnormal pulmonary function by spirometry.
  • Of five Indonesian workers further screened with high-resolution CT, three were found to have early asbestosis.
  • At the time of the field visit, workers at PT Jeil Fajar in Indonesia wore simple sanitary masks not appropriate for asbestos protection. A Korean ex-worker reported that Korean workers had worn gauze masks.
  • Data submitted by Tatsuta Company to the Nara city council listed 36 worker victims (12 mesotheliomas, one lung cancer, 23 asbestosis). They also listed 57 residential victims (five mesotheliomas, 52 pleural plaques).
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that dangerous transfers of asbestos industry technology occurred repeatedly and that Asia became the largest consumer of asbestos, without health and safety measures being transferred. They called for public awareness, international cooperation including sharing of substitute technologies, and an Asian fund for asbestos victims.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The comparison of Korea and Indonesia assumed that 2008 Indonesian conditions reflected conditions at the time of the early-1990s transfer.
  • The authors did not have exact figures for environmental disease cases associated with the Korean Jeil Asbestos plant.
  • Many foreign workers at the German Rex plant could not be tracked for health outcomes after returning home.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Transfer of occupational health problems from a developed to a developing country: lessons from the Japan-South Korea experience — J. Park, N. Hisanaga, et al. (2009)
• South Africa's export trade in asbestos: demise of an industry — J.S. Harington, N.D. McGlashan, et al. (2010)
• Asbestos and mesothelioma: worldwide trends — L. Kazan-Allen (2005)
• The asbestos cancer epidemic — J. LaDou (2004)
• Asbestos in Asia — S.L. Leong, R. Zainudin, et al. (2015)
• Asbestos: old foe in 21st century developing countries — L.V. Harris, I.A. Kahwa (2003)

Browse more research in American Journal of Industrial Medicine, or return to medical research.