Fire sparks call for asbestos ban

Asbestos still used in Pacific despite dangers

SOLOMON ISLANDS – The discovery of previously unknown asbestos after a hospital fire in Solomon Islands has sparked a call for a Pacific-wide ban of the toxic substance.

The asbestos has since beenrevealed as not from old building materials but from material used in a recent renovation.

Gizo Hospital, in the country’s west, had been cleared of containing asbestos products in a study carried out by the Pacific Community’s environmental programme, SPREP, prior to the July fire.

But local inspectors identified asbestos, which is dangerous when it becomes airborne, after the fire destroyed much of the hospital.

A SPREP team identified materials used in recent renovations as the likely cause of the contamination.

PacWaste project manager Stewart Williams said the cost of clearing old asbestos was already daunting, without more being imported.

“Altogether on the Pacwaste project we are spending about $3.5 million on the asbestos project and probably about $2.5 million on physical intervention.

“But it is a drop in the ocean because that is quite small compared to the total cost of asbestos removal in the Pacific, which we gauge would be around US$150 million”

Asbestos is not banned in any Pacific country, and New Zealand is only bringing in an asbestos ban later this year.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) asbestos related diseases are responsible for more than 100,000 deaths each year.

The topic of a Pacific-wide ban on the import of asbestos products will be raised at a SPREP meeting in Niue later this month. - RNZI