Current Situation of Asbestos in Thailand

1
Current Situation of Asbestos in Thailand

• Dr. Somkiat Siriruttanapruk
• Bureau of Occupational and Environmental
  Diseases,
• Ministry of Public Health, Thailand

2
Introduction

• Asbestos
• It has been imported for more than 30 years
• It is used in several industries-roof tile,
  cement pipe, etc.
• Asbestosis is one of the occupational diseases
  under national disease surveillance scheme.

3
Production and use

• No asbestos mine in the country
• Only import for manufacturing
• Only chrysotile is allowed to use
• (crocidolite was banned in 1992 and amosite was
  banned recently)

4
The proportion of asbestos use in manufacturing
industry
90 cement manufacture, roof tile, cement pipe 8
brake and crutch 2 vinyl floor tile, gasket,
heat insulating material
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Amount of imported asbestos in Thailand
(1988-2002)
Tons
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Top 10 countries of imported asbestos in
Thailand, 2002

• 1. Russian Federation 46,132 Tons
• 2. Canada 42,091 Tons
• 3. Brazil 33,740 Tons
• 4. Kazakhstan 28,500 Tons
• 5. Zimbabwe 22,759 Tons
• 6. Czech Republic 1,914 Tons
• 7. Belize 1,656 Tons
• 8. Swaziland 1,638 Tons
• 9. South Africa 1,476 Tons
• 10. Botswana 1,080 Tons

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Top 5 countries of imported asbestos in Thailand
during 1997-2002
Tons
8
Number of asbestos factories and workers by type
in each region of the country in 2004
9
(No Transcript)
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Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) of asbestos
in some Asian countries
Takahashi et al. (2003)
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Asbestos related diseases

• Never been reported to the surveillance scheme or
  the Workmens Compensation Fund

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Why?

• 1. This maybe the real situation, or
• 2. Under-report of cases
• Long latency period of the disease
• High turn-over rate among workers
• Lack of awareness and knowledge in diagnosing the
  disease among physicians
• No follow-up or registration system

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Estimation of cases of asbestos-related diseases
in Thailand

• Tossavainen indicated a significant linear
  correlation between consumption of asbestos and
  the number of mesothelioma cases.
• Calculating as follows
• Y 6.82x amount of consumption (25-30 years
  ago)0.43
• Y No. of cases/million/year
• Amount of consumption No. of Kg/capita/year (2.5
  Kg/cap/y)
• Y(6.82x2.5)0.4317.5 cases/million/year
• Total new cases/year17.5x63 1,103 cases

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Results of the survey
Year No. of Factories No. of workers No. of abnormal CXR No. of pleural thickening No. of suspected asbestosis
1987 24 701 13 13 -
2000 6 669 ? - -
2003 6 140 41 5 -
2004 8 106 31 9 1
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Do we need to prevent and control
asbestos-related diseases?
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If we dont do anything, what will happen?

• Health status of exposed workers
• Cost of medical service and compensation
• Public alarming
• Economic problem
• Company and country reputation

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Can we prevent and control asbestos-related
diseases in Thailand?
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SWOT Analysis

• Strength
• well-established responsible organizations
• Existing relevant legislation system
• Good health service system

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SWOT Analysis

• Weakness
• No data for convincing policy makers and public
• Lack of awareness among government officers,
  employers, employees, and occupational health
  professionals
• Poor agreement among relevant government agencies
  
• Lack of knowledge for health screening and
  diagnosis of the disease among physicians
• No effective surveillance system

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SWOT Analysis

• Opportunity
• Global concern
• Strong supportive network
• Low number of target population
• Alternative materials and other technical
  preventive measures are available

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SWOT Analysis

• Threat
• Lack of policy support?
• Being against by pro-asbestos local and
  international industries
• Economic burden
• No public awareness

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Conclusions

• Consumption of asbestos in Thailand is very high
  and the trend shows its increasing
• Asbestos-related diseases will become more
  important public health issue
• Several measures need to be implemented urgently
• Strategy of asbestos ban is the best policy but
  an achievement of this goal is still a long way

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Thank you very much!