It is crucial to prevent the emission of asbestos fibres into the environment. We recommend the application of easy-on Asbestos sealer™ permanent coating as an efficient, resistant and economical way to prevent and protect against the harmful effects of asbestos.

WHY ASBESTOS BECAME SUCH A POPULAR RAW MATERIAL


Asbestos became popular in the middle of the 20th century on account of its numerous features. A natural mineral, resistant to chemicals and heat, it found its place in products for protection against heat, noise, abrasion, and as an electric and thermal insulator. It is found throughout the construction industry (floors, walls, heat insulation, waterworks and sewage pipes, etc. The automotive industry uses it for clutches, brakes, and insulation, and we can also find it in ships, power plants, refineries, indeed, everywhere. Five thousand types of products containing asbestos have been found in the USA.

WHY ASBESTOS IS DANGEROUS


Its special features are due to its very thin and strong fibres, 1,200 times thinner than a human hair. This allows it to pass through the natural filter system of the human body and settle permanently in the windpipe, lungs or intestines. Since our bodies have no chemicals to decompose this mineral, and cannot expel the fibres stuck in the tissue, certain activities start in the cells, which, after a number of years, can cause a variety of diseases.

Asbestos fibres stuck in the alveolar ducts and capillary membranes irritate cells and can cause lung, breast or stomach cancer (mesothelioma), laryngeal cancer and tracheal cancer. After long exposure, the fibres reduce lung capacity and, ultimately, can cause asbestosis, an incurable disease of the alveolar tissue.

ASBESTOS ALL AROUND US


In Croatia today, there are a large number of schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and health centres whose façades and roofs that are exposed to atmospheric influences release asbestos particles into the air around us. Children are most at risk, because the consequences can only be noticed several decades after contamination. Now, after 30 to 40 years, the top layers of façades are peeling off, revealing large tracts of thermo-insulation material, whose fibrous structure is truly frightening for the residents of these housing blocks, and which, on windy days, pollutes entire neighbourhoods with asbestos fibres. Previously, thermo insulation was made from a mixture of cement and asbestos fibres rather than from Styrofoam as it is today. Since asbestos products were highly attractive some fifty years ago, due to their low price and ease of assembly, today we have a large number of buildings covered with construction elements containing asbestos or insulated with panels containing asbestos fibres.

WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT


We can therefore say that it is crucial to prevent the emission of asbestos fibres into the environment. Since asbestos products are mainly based on compounds of asbestos fibres and cement, their surface is sensitive to atmospheric influences and low temperatures. When the surface of such a product is eroded, the fibres separate from the base and are borne in the air by the wind. Therefore, it is essential to prevent surface erosion.

Production plants, asbestos products, roofs, cladding and pipes exposed to atmospheric influences, as well as other sources of asbestos particles, must be protected so that asbestos fibres are not emitted into the environment. We recommend the application of easy-on Asbestos sealer™ permanent coating as an efficient, resistant and economical way to prevent and protect against the harmful effects of asbestos.

ASBESTOS - HISTORY AND LEGISLATION


The story of asbestos is one of many tales about man's desire for wealth, regardless of the harm that is inflicted; a story about negligence and about the decision to ignore new understanding; proof that 100 years are not enough for greed to be suppressed by reason and by care for people's health. There are many such examples, without even mentioning wars, drugs, crime and corruption. It was known in the previous century that asbestos was harmful, but nothing was seriously done about it. On the contrary, its application was expanded. I am afraid that the same is now happening with climate change and global warming, and I hope that wise people in the world will be louder than they were in the 20th century in connection with asbestos, whose consequences will affect us for a long time to come.

Here is the chronology: asbestos was used as far back as in the 17th century, and the discovery of huge sediments of this mineral in South Africa in 1888 launched its exploitation in the textile, cement, automotive and other industries.

The first form of asbestosis was recorded in as early as 1906. In 1912, asbestosis was added to the list of industrial diseases in Canada. The consequence was that insurance companies refused to insure workers in the asbestos industry.

In 1927, asbestosis was described in a British medical journal and information about its danger was disseminated throughout Europe, just at the time when asbestos was beginning to be intensively and extensively applied in shipbuilding, transport and construction. After World War II, asbestos became popular in all areas, and this lasted until the 1990s. A large number of persons who were affected by illness and harm as a consequence of exposure to asbestos prompted the adoption of legislation and the alignment of regulations banning its use. However, its presence in industry, in buildings and in the environment is so great that this requires extensive remedial action and measures to prevent the emission of asbestos particles in the air.

In 1989, EPA issued a final rule banning the use of asbestos in the USA. The EU banned the use of some types of asbestos in 1991, and agreed that by 1999 its use would be totally banned.

In 1968, ACGIH USA proposed a limit of 177,000 asbestos particles per litre of air, and as early as 1971 it went on to prescribe only 5 fibres per millilitre (v/mL). In1975, this concentration was brought down to 0.5 v/mL, and in 1976, to 0.1 v/mL.

In 1977, the International Agency for Research on CANCER (IARC) published that there was no safe level that could exclude the risk of cancer, so that OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) adopted the urgent standard of 0.05 v/mL. This led to the campaign to ban mining, processing and trade in asbestos.


In spite of all this, former Yugoslavia was importing 40,000 tonnes of asbestos per year. From 1995 to 2001, Croatia was importing up to 4,000 tonnes of asbestos per year, and until 2005, 2,000 tonnes a year.

The EU imposed a total ban on the use of asbestos, and prescribed its removal from the environment, effective by 2005, and in Croatia by 2006.

In 2001, the European Parliament concluded that Eastern-Europe had been living in a complete information void in relation to asbestos hazards and proposed awareness raising, and a change in legislation, banning the use of asbestos.