[评论]加拿大新Condo大量使用致癌石棉 处险境住户不知情

Feat

看问题就像拼魔方,只看一个面不行,照顾六个面才成。

confiture

熊猫出没注意
俺背的单词也是asbestos,你不是一个人。

加拿大这点比较恶劣。石棉导致的恶性间皮瘤的一年生存率只有1%不到,是恶性程度最高的肿瘤之一。

谁来说说那个石棉英文是怎么发音的? 我每次说这个词, æs'bestəs, 别人都听不懂, 我都得拼一遍。
 
Pipes with asbestos still used in new buildings
TAVIA GRANT

The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, Jun. 27 2014, 6:00 AM EDT

Last updated Friday, Jun. 27 2014, 5:01 PM EDT

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...-still-used-in-new-buildings/article19357158/

Unlike most other developed countries, Canada has never banned the use of asbestos and continues to import and export asbestos-containing materials, such as pipes and tiles, The Globe and Mail has reported.

Asbestos-cement pipes are allowed in both Canada and the United States, though there are regulations about how to cut and dispose of them. It is unclear how many asbestos-cement pipes are being installed in Toronto and other cities, and there appear to be no central records of where asbestos is being used. Once the products are imported into Canada, it’s difficult to pinpoint where it actually gets sold. A key concern is that many workers, tenants and owners may not know asbestos materials are in their buildings, raising the risk of accidental exposures particularly in the event of a fire, or as the materials start to deteriorate.

The World Health Organization has declared all forms of asbestos carcinogenic and recommends its use be eliminated. In Canada, asbestos has become the top on-the-job killer, causing diseases such as mesothelioma and asbestosis. Evidence has found even low levels of exposure raise the risk of cancer.

The distributor of some of the pipes is Portneuf, Que.-based Tuyaux Logard Inc., whose owner said Toronto is a key market for the company.

All of Logard’s pipes contain asbestos. They are imported from other countries including Mexico, while Logard cuts and distributes them to contractors in Canada. The company, which employs about 25 people, wouldn’t disclose its revenue or volumes imported for competitive reasons. But Statistics Canada trade data show Canada imported about $2.2-million in asbestos-containing pipes, tiles, sheets, panels and tubes from 2010 to 2013.

Logard also supplies contractors through Ontario and Quebec, and on occasion, the Maritimes, the company’s owner Louis Beauregard says.

Another recent customer was the McGill University Health Centre, he said, a billion-dollar-plus, Montreal mega-hospital which was built by SNC-Lavalin. SNC-Lavalin said in an e-mail the pipes are used in stormwater drainage and noted the only risk with this type of pipe is “when it is being cut upon installation,” a risk that is regulated by the province . “There are no risks associated with this type of piping once installation is completed,” the company said.

Logard is not the only supplier of asbestos-cement pipes in Ontario. Brampton-based Crowle Fittings and Supplies distributes them through the Greater Toronto Area as well (imported from Mexico) and says a “good majority” of the high-rise buildings going up in Toronto are using them, in parking garages or running up to the roof.

Some provinces have boosted restrictions on asbestos, which has curtailed use. In British Columbia, “tightened current regulations have generally stopped the current use of asbestos-cement pipes,” said Al Johnson, vice-president of prevention services at WorkSafeBC. The issue of safe use has surfaced at Ontario’s Ministry of Labour. The ministry said in an e-mail that it has encountered cases of employers or contractors who are not following the rules, noting that in those cases a provincial inspector can stop the job. “It is always a concern for the Ministry of Labour when asbestos is being installed or removed in a workplace,” the ministry said.

The Globe and Mail visited a dozen construction sites in Toronto, Markham and Vaughan, from luxury condos to commercial offices. Asbestos-cement pipes were being installed in at least eight of the sites, principally for drainage. The pipes were stamped with the word “asbestos” on them.

The concern, people in the industry say, is that proper procedures are not always followed and that the fibres could become airborne, endangering both workers on the site and future occupants in buildings.

Tom Kelly, president of Inscan Kaefer Inc., an insulation and asbestos abatement company, says it’s incongruous he’s being asked to remove precisely the same types of pipes that are now being newly installed.

“The regulations are largely geared to removing it,” Mr. Kelly said. “We weren’t anticipating that new piles of this stuff would be installed.”

Mr. Kelly is concerned that a lack of awareness among workers will lead to inadvertent exposures during installations. He also has specific concerns: that the improper use of a handsaw or power saw could generate dust; that, even if a site is wet, fibres could become airborne as it dries; that waste or cut-off pieces of pipe are not being disposed of properly; and that workers may be cutting and working with parts of pipes that don’t have the asbestos stamp on them.

Regulations stipulate that owners keep a record of all asbestos-containing materials in a building and that tenants and contractors be notified of their presence in the area. He’s worried that’s not happening. “This would pose a future risk if, for example, maintenance workers are not aware of the requirements for working with the product.”

Developers may not be aware asbestos materials are being used in construction. “The developers themselves, a good number of them probably wouldn’t know what’s going on in the garage drainage system,” said Michael Steele, director of technical standards at the Residential Construction Council of Ontario, which represents builders in the province.

Asbestos-cement pipes may also be known as transite or fibrocement pipes.

Logard’s Mr. Beauregard says the pipes are safe, provided workers take precautions such as using a snap or crack saw, wearing a proper mask and keeping the site damp while cutting. The pipes his company sells are 13-per-cent asbestos .

Crowle’s Ken Dyble acknowledges that not everyone may be following proper procedures. “There is still a concern that somebody’s going to take a quick-cut saw to it and we don’t like seeing that happen. Most people are using chain or snap cutters now,” he said. “You’re always going to have somebody that’s going to do something stupid, unfortunately; it’s like that with every product.”

Logard’s Mr. Beauregard says safety concerns are out of touch with modern-day practices and there is little risk if proper precautions are followed. “I just question how some people arrive at the conclusion that it’s impossible to work with cement pipes or asbestos cement pipes safely,” he said in a June telephone interview with The Globe.

He said the key advantages of asbestos-cement pipes are that they are less expensive, quieter, stand up better to heat and freezing, and are flame retardant. His pipes are mainly used for industrial, commercial and high-rise buildings , he said.

The World Health Organization notes that asbestos cement is a “particular concern” because it’s difficult to control exposure and because of the potential for materials to deteriorate over time.

By contrast, the federal government’s long-standing position is one of safe and controlled use of asbestos. Some workers are concerned the stamps fade over time and that shortened pieces of the pipe won’t have those labels.

Rolf Priesnitz, director of Centre for Construction and Engineering Technologies at George Brown College, says the chief concerns about asbestos pipes are that fibres could become airborne during the installation process and that these pipes will in future decades break down, leaching asbestos into the city’s water system.

Safer alternatives include cast iron, plastic and ordinary cement pipes, he said. “I don’t see any reason whatsoever in this day and age to have anyone install transite pipe. You have alternatives that are better,” he said.

In the long run, “it is a concern for people who maintain buildings with asbestos pipe or if fire or other disasters damage the pipe or when the building is torn down,” says Paul Demers, University of Toronto professor in public health and director at Cancer Care Ontario.

Several papers published this year have found elevated cases of mesothelioma (a form of cancer caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure) among firefighters, which in turn “supports the fact that when buildings burn, asbestos can be released from building materials,” he said, adding that fibres can also be released from deteriorating pipes.

The high cost of managing and removing asbestos in buildings is another reason some would like to see asbestos use eliminated. “Life would be a lot easier if you could say, ‘I just built an asbestos-free building,’” said Mike McCoy, director of facilities management for the City of Toronto, adding that it’s tricky to know which materials have asbestos.

The continuing use of asbestos pipes is a concern to Fred Clare, who has worked with asbestos since 1970 and watched a dozen of his colleagues die of asbestos-related diseases.

“I don’t want my children and grandchildren having to do what I did. This material has to be banned,” said Mr. Clare, vice-president of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, which used to be called the union of asbestos workers. “Are we going backwards now, in seeing it installed again?”

With reports from Tara Perkins and David Hains in Toronto
 

David Zhu

大多新房专家*家园赞助商
1970年发现,石棉纤维对人体有害,吸入石棉粉尘不仅会导致肺部纤维化,形成肺尘病,还能诱发支气管肺癌、胸腹膜间皮瘤和其他恶性肿瘤。世界卫生组织(WHO)的附属机构国际癌症研究组织(IARC)已经宣布石棉是第一类致癌物质。有鉴于此,多数国家(特别是发达国家)都倾向逐渐减用甚至禁用石棉。
 

David Zhu

大多新房专家*家园赞助商
法国与加拿大因为石棉的管制工作,引发一场贸易与环保的战争。

法国于1997年1月1日开始限制温石棉的进口和使用,可是加拿大为保持产品市场(世界第三大石棉生产国,出口的温石棉占总开采量的百分之九十七),以“只要正确使用、该产品还是安全”为由,向WTO贸易壁垒委员会指控法国政府行为不理性,要求法国废除该项禁令。

2001年三月WTO做出具有里程碑意义的裁定,认为温石棉既然已被认定是致癌物质,石棉生产商坚持的安全使用极限就不存在。

使得WTO的各个成员国禁止使用或进口如石棉等含致癌物质的权利合法化,也进一步确认WTO各成员国有权认为保护生命和健康比履行贸易义务更为重要。
 

David Zhu

大多新房专家*家园赞助商
以往的建筑内往往含有石棉来作为建材,若在良好的状况下留在原来位置不受干扰,石棉不会分裂释出石棉纤维而浮游于空气中,但当工作人员进行保养、翻新、拆卸或其他任何工程,都会扰动含石棉物料,例如美国纽约世贸大楼崩毁后,灾难现场就持续被监测到有石棉污染问题,因此许多国家要求进行建筑物拆除或整修前的石棉拆除工作。
 

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