Tsunami rebuilding efforts lay foundation for health crisis

Across Asia, countless efforts are being made to rebuild shattered communities after the 2003 tsunami and more recent disasters, such as the earthquake in Java and then killer waves along the Sumatran coast. But while aid groups have committed millions of dollars to repair buildings in the disaster zones, a meeting of several hundred health and environmental experts in Bangkok last month has raised the spectre of another disaster in the region, this one man-made.

The meeting heard that chrysotile asbestos, a material long banned in construction in many western countries, is being used widely in rebuilding efforts and the construction industry as a whole, and will trigger a wave of fatalities that could run into the thousands, with Thailand at the epicentre.

'Increasing asbestos consumption in Asia will, in years to come, assuredly result in an epidemic of ill-health and death,' warned Laurie Kazan-Allen, a spokeswoman for the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS). 'Asian countries consume more than 50 per cent of global asbestos production.'

Deaths from asbestos still aren't officially reported in Thailand, but a Japanese doctor in recent weeks verified the country's first case of asbestiosis.

One of the world's highest-ranking countries for per-capita asbestos use, Thailand reported in 2004 that it had 16 factories mixing asbestos into building materials, with 1,900 workers, registered at the Ministry of Industry.

The Thai construction industry has for more than two decades relied heavily on rae yai hin because it's cheap and heat-resistant, which is why corrugated roof tiles and wallboards laced with the substance are common. Despite the fact that 40 countries have banned the asbestos materials because of studies linking it to cancer, Thailand - and much of Southeast Asia - continues to use it. Thailand spent US$54 million to import 181,348 tonnes of chrysotile in 2002, up from 90,700 tonnes in 1987.