My question for the class is how should develop countries
persuade developing countries from using dangerous materials such as asbestos?
Saturday, April 21, 2012
ASBESTOS IN TODAY'S WORLD post by Colin Lorenz
Asbestos is a set of six silicate minerals that occur
naturally. They have many desirable physical properties such as sound
absorption, tensile strength, fire resistance, and durability. Despite
all of its advantages, asbestos have one major disadvantage. This major
disadvantage is that asbestos can cause major health problems such as lung
cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis. In the European Union, Asbestos is
banned. It is still legal in the United States but the use is limited to brakes
for cars and planes and a small number of other products. Despite being banned
by many developed countries, developing countries such as India, China, and
Mexico are using asbestos as building material. Over two million metric tons of
asbestos were mined in 2009 worldwide. There is an interesting site on this
subject on the following link, http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/asbestos/
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It's not just less developed countries that use asbestos as building material. In the US no new buildings can be built using asbestos materials but thousands of households in the US are still made up of many asbestos materials. Even in the Blacksburg area. I currently work for a construction company who ownes several houses and buildings in the area. About half of them have asbestos siding on them. This is actually a very common thing, especially in poorer areas of our own country.
ReplyDeleteBecause of this, I don't think developed countries should in any way dissuade developing countries from using dangerous materials. This may be their only option to make developments on such a large scale. What our role would be is to inform them of the risks and hopefully get them to take proper precautions to help minimize the health risks. But that's just my personal opinion.
It seems like it should be as simple as warning these countries about the harms of asbestos to stop them from using it. One of the top goals of a country like ours and other developed countries should be to warn these countries and teach them about alternate solutions for their problems. If we suggest other materials that could be used in place of asbestos while avoiding health issues, countries will be much better off and will not have to deal with issues we did when it comes to this material.
ReplyDeleteI feel like we should not tell them to not use it in their buildings if we still use it, even if it is for small things like brakes. We should show them that there are health risks and what they can do to lower the risks. Maybe we could also find them a better, cheaper material that will do the same thing without the health risks.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infsisters/infasbestos.html
ReplyDelete"Chrysotile asbestos, a less toxic form, comprises over 90% of all the asbestos used in the US. This form of asbestos is not nearly as persistent in lung tissue and low level intermittent exposure is not considered to be a health risk to a healthy person. In fact, both OSHA and the EPA concur that asbestos is not dangerous unless airborne. Even if airborne, many studies of asbestos workers indicate that it takes more than a casual exposure to asbestos dust to cause disease... even over periods as long as 15 to 30 years! Asbestos doesn't "radiate" danger and its mere existence in low levels in your environment is not automatically cause for alarm."
Not all types of asbestos are bad, I'm not sure whether or not the asbestos that the developing countries are using is used because its the bad type and the bad type is cheap or what. But the odds are that they are using stuff that isn't nearly as bad as people think it is. The only real danger, it seems like for the new age asbestos is if its airborne.
Developed countries should definitely convince developing countries to stop using asbestos. Even though, it is not being used in United States, their products are being made by developing countries. The final product is used here but the making and illnesses remain in the country where the product is manufactured.In today's day and age of technology, I am certain that scientists can definitely develop a material that can replace asbestos.
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