Asbestos great danger
Asbestos in the rubbles of the earthquakes is a great danger to public health
DANGER! CONTAINS ASBESTOS FIBERS. HARMFUL IF INHALED. MAY CAUSE CANCER. KEEP SEALED. AVOID CREATING DUST
Since the earthquake on February 6th, the official death count in Türkiye has reached 50,399. Thousands upon thousands of people have been lost due to a natural catastrophe made so much worse by faulty buildings. Now asbestos, loosened from their crumbling remains, threatens even more lives. Will we allow more to die?
Once widely used in construction but deemed a serious health hazard, asbestos causes cancer and other deadly illnesses when its fibers are inhaled. Because of the consequences, Türkiye banned its usage partially in 2010 and totally in 2013.
The regulation prohibits the use, production, import, export and sale of all types of asbestos and asbestos-containing products and includes the provisions for the safe removal and disposal of asbestos-containing materials. However, buildings constructed prior to 2013 most likely have materials containing asbestos.
The earthquakes destroyed or severely damaged more than 118,00 buildings and generated 10 times more rubble than the absolutely devastating 2010 hurricane in Haiti, according to The Washington Post.
As the removal of debris began and continued without proper planning and handling, people became concerned about the exposure to asbestos. Inhaling asbestos can cause asbestosis, scarring of the lungs due to asbestos inhalation, and mesothelioma, a type of cancer according to the World Health Organization. It does not kill immediately like a natural disaster but kills in decades.
The most common household materials containing asbestos are roofing, block insulation, adhesives, appliance components, cement board, ceiling and flooring products, paints, wallboard, taping compounds, plasters, electrical insulations and panels, and heating and cooling systems. We have seen all of these parts exposed in the ripped apart buildings and scattered around the ghost towns in photos, videos and news stories. We also have seen rescuers without proper masks and protective equipment digging through the debris with clouds of dust forming around them. We have seen those same clouds near piles of debris where tent cities have cropped up and where children are playing.
Even a bird sanctuary – the Milleyha Bird Sanctuary in Hatay – was designated as a disposal area. Luckily, after a protest on Twitter, the debris was relocated. But there are many other cases – the piles of debris disposed of next to tents in Samandag and Uzunbag in Hatay, Aksu Basin and Sir Dam in Kahramanmaras just to name a few, not being addressed. Cleaning the rubble needs to be planned thoroughly with all the stakeholders involved, including but not limited to engineers of geology, civil, environment and system, city planners and public health officials. We need to make sure that toxic materials are not mixed with soil or underground water. The contamination will lead to diseases especially cancer for people consuming agriculture products produced in the area. Let us not forget that the earthquakes hit the areas where 15 percent of Turkey’s agricultural income as we shared here at Sparks in Shadows and nearly 20 percent of its agri-food exports were generated once.
Instead of following the guidelines of health organizations and the provisions of the 2013 regulations, we have been witnessing a growing danger to public health, not just to survivors but also workers and people who will use products from the earthquake-stricken areas, if they happen to purchase them.
If we know the grave danger asbestos presents, why are we not protesting like we did before Türkiye refused São Paulo’s request to dock what became a recycling disaster?
The ship was carrying a lot more dangerous material, asbestos than the company disclosed just four days before the earthquake. After the ship was towed off the coast of Brazil, it was sunk in deep ocean, according to The New York Times.
Why would we allow more Karains to happen, if we understand the root cause of the cancer and can do something to prevent more deaths?
Even the name of the town resonates with the illness, as if all the residents carry it with them wherever they go, as if they are cursed for life. Asbestos in the geological structure of the picturesque village Urgup, Nevsehir with Peri Bacalari on the background caused the accelerated death rate in the 1970s. Dr. Baris, who spent four years studying patients in Karain, told The New York Times that of the 300 people who were examined in Karain, 150 had cancer.
Why don’t we use what we know now to prevent people from dying? After the 2018 earthquake in China, where asbestos was released from debris due to cement sheets – commonly known as “fibro” or “fibro cement,” the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme provided guidance on how to control the risk of the clean-up and to safely dispose of asbestos waste in the areas affected by the earthquake: asbestos-after-earthquake.pdf (who.int).
How Japan recovered from the 1995 Kobe earthquake is another reference for us to incorporate into our planning. Factbox: Japan’s recovery from the 1995 Kobe earthquake | Reuters. The earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 killed more than 6,400 people and the damage was estimated at $100 billion. The debris removal took three years and two months as Bulent Sik tweeted. We need to handle cleaning carefully if we don’t want to create more damage.
Materials containing asbestos should be disposed of by trained people. They should never be mixed with other waste. They should be disposed of in engineered landfill sites. In the case of an earthquake, it’s first disposed of in a temporary site. As a minimum precaution, people handling debris should wear goggles, gloves, disposable or replacement clothing and disposable dust masks.
Only a filter with the rating designation of 100 would be protective against microscopic asbestos fibers in the air. N-100 and P-100 respirators filter at least 99.97% of airborne particles according to Asbestos Organization. Filters with the “P” designation are also strongly resistant to oily particles. The guidelines also clearly explain why any manipulation of asbestos-containing materials needs to be minimum. Asbestos structures should be dismantled as gently as possible. If it is necessary to move, saw or break up such materials, we need to keep them thoroughly wet to reduce the amount of airborne fibers and dust.
Piles of asbestos-containing materials have to be covered, sealed and labeled until they can be safely stored or disposed of.
“DANGER! CONTAINS ASBESTOS FIBRES. HARMFUL IF INHALED. MAY CAUSE CANCER. KEEP SEALED. AVOID CREATING DUST”
And we have been witnessing the opposite! It’s time to speak up.
