Contractors working to redevelop a RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) base in Edinburgh have expressed some anxiety concerning the working conditions of the project. They claim that the presence of high quantities of toxic substances including asbestos fibers could pose a potential hazard to their health. Union officials are said to be planning a meeting to discuss the potential hazards.
Australia successfully established a complete ban on asbestos in 1991, the exact same year that the United State’s own asbestos ban was overturned in a legal battle between an asbestos giant and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Asbestos bans in Australia and around the world were put into place as a result of more than half a century of collecting evidence of the material’s health hazards. The fight to ban asbestos in developed nations worldwide was an uphill battle due to the size and profitability of the asbestos industry.
Exposure to asbestos fibers has been linked with dangerous diseases since the early 1900′s, and more recently has been indicated as the almost exclusive cause of mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a rare and incredibly aggressive cancer that claims the lives of more than three thousand Americans annually. Some estimates place the total number of mesothelioma deaths worldwide in the range of ninety thousand.
After entering into a person’s body via ingestion or inhalation due to a contaminated environment, asbestos fibers pass through the lung or intestinal walls where they become lodged in the mesothelium, a protective soft tissue which surrounds our vital organs. The microscopic, needle like fibers case a scarring reaction in the mesothelium, which after years or even decades of can lead to the development of malignant tumors. These tumors then grow and spread rapidly, often causing death in less than two years. Mesothelioma is incurable, and while some palliative treatments exist to improve the quality of life for patients, the prognosis is often quite dismal.
Asbestos contamination continues to be a problem today, especially in developing nations. Asbestos bans and strict regulations throughout North America, the European Union and other select areas has created a vacuum in the industry’s demand which developing nations have been quick to fill. Asbestos products continue to be exported to nations such as India, Mexico and China at alarming rates, and public knowledge of their danger in these countries and implementation of safe handling procedures remain dangerously scarce.
Jason Wilder, the Electrical, Communications and Plumbing Union organiser for the various contractors in the Edinburgh project, voiced his concern regarding the efficacy of the safe handling procedures in place. “The workforce is not confident in those procedures,” he said,”there seems to be quite a significant amount of asbestos in that area built up over the years.”
