The Non-governmental Organisations-Information Centre (NGO-IC) held aworkshop in Hanoi on November 27 to call for joining hands withVietnamese agencies in a bid to draw a roadmap for the ban of whiteasbestos use in the country.
Nguyen Manh Hung from the VietnamStandards and Consumer Protection Association said asbestos is a genericname given to a group of fibrous silicate materials which are nowpresent in more than 3,000 products.
In Vietnam, white asbestosis mostly used in producing asbestos-cement (AC) roofing sheets.Forty-one roofing sheet facilities nationwide are able to turn out over100 million sq.m. of AC roofing sheets a year, meeting 60 percent of thedemand, primarily in rural and mountainous areas due to their lowprices and high level of durability, he added.
Tran Anh Thanhfrom the Ministry of Health’s Health Environment Management Agency saidasbestos is proved harmful to human health, and people are exposed toasbestos dust during production or use such as drilling, grinding, andmixing asbestos materials.
Asbestos may cause a number of lungdiseases such as pneumoconioses and lung cancer, or oesophaguscancer and ovary cancer. As it takes 20-30 years for asbestos-causeddiseases to develop, a majority of patients are of retirement ages, henoted.
Thanh said health insurance has covered asbestos-relateddiseases since 1976 in Vietnam, but the country has not had adequateresources to study and monitor such cases. Meanwhile, hospitals reportedan increasing incidence of mesothelioma cancer, which commonly developsin the lungs of people exposed to asbestos.
The Ministry ofHealth urged the Government to take timely actions to stop the use ofasbestos in order to protect the health of workers as well as consumersand the whole community.
It also asked the Ministry ofConstruction to help roofing sheet facilities to produce asbestos-freeproducts and recommended the Ministry of Science and Technology to stepup researches on alternatives and measures to safely dispose asbestossolid waste, he noted.
Dr Tran Tuan from the Vietnam Ban AsbestosNetwork (Vn-BAN), which made debut at the workshop, cited a survey intwo communes in northern Yen Bai and central Thanh Hoa provinces that 85percent of households used AC roofing sheets, less than 5 percent ofresidents knew about asbestos’s adverse effects on health andenvironment, and almost none of them heard about the ban of asbestos usein the world.-VNA
Nguyen Manh Hung from the VietnamStandards and Consumer Protection Association said asbestos is a genericname given to a group of fibrous silicate materials which are nowpresent in more than 3,000 products.
In Vietnam, white asbestosis mostly used in producing asbestos-cement (AC) roofing sheets.Forty-one roofing sheet facilities nationwide are able to turn out over100 million sq.m. of AC roofing sheets a year, meeting 60 percent of thedemand, primarily in rural and mountainous areas due to their lowprices and high level of durability, he added.
Tran Anh Thanhfrom the Ministry of Health’s Health Environment Management Agency saidasbestos is proved harmful to human health, and people are exposed toasbestos dust during production or use such as drilling, grinding, andmixing asbestos materials.
Asbestos may cause a number of lungdiseases such as pneumoconioses and lung cancer, or oesophaguscancer and ovary cancer. As it takes 20-30 years for asbestos-causeddiseases to develop, a majority of patients are of retirement ages, henoted.
Thanh said health insurance has covered asbestos-relateddiseases since 1976 in Vietnam, but the country has not had adequateresources to study and monitor such cases. Meanwhile, hospitals reportedan increasing incidence of mesothelioma cancer, which commonly developsin the lungs of people exposed to asbestos.
The Ministry ofHealth urged the Government to take timely actions to stop the use ofasbestos in order to protect the health of workers as well as consumersand the whole community.
It also asked the Ministry ofConstruction to help roofing sheet facilities to produce asbestos-freeproducts and recommended the Ministry of Science and Technology to stepup researches on alternatives and measures to safely dispose asbestossolid waste, he noted.
Dr Tran Tuan from the Vietnam Ban AsbestosNetwork (Vn-BAN), which made debut at the workshop, cited a survey intwo communes in northern Yen Bai and central Thanh Hoa provinces that 85percent of households used AC roofing sheets, less than 5 percent ofresidents knew about asbestos’s adverse effects on health andenvironment, and almost none of them heard about the ban of asbestos usein the world.-VNA
