Research at the University of Campina Grande, in the eastern Brazilian state of Paraíba, explores the potential uses of sisal (Agave sisalana) as a substitute for asbestos, a toxin and carcinogen, as a construction material. The plant, which is grown in the semiarid Brazilian Northeast, “is low cost, biodegradable, abundant, and is a non-carcinogen renewable resource,” research coordinator Antonio Farias Leal told Tierramérica.

“Its use would help the social and economic development of Brazil's poorer regions, thrashed by drought, where no other perennial crop thrives except sisal, and where nearly a million people rely on it for survival,” he said.

Brazil is the world's leading producer of sisal, generating about 56 percent of the global total.