ENVIRONMENT-MOROCCO: Asbestos Regulation Debate Worries Business

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Nizar al-Ali

RABAT, Jul 5 1998 (IPS) - Morocco is typical of developing states coming to terms with the long-term dangers to workers of asbestos use, a problem well regulated in the North, but barely monitored in Southern nations, let alone controlled.

There is also a shortage of reliable data on the numbers affected by asbestos-related ill-health, says Ahmed Kablawi, a physician specialising in occupational diseases.

But details of foreign research into the dangers of asbestos dust and its link with lung cancer and the respiratory disease asbestosis are becoming more available here. The result has been a widespread debate on the need for legislation and its likely effects on Moroccan business efficiency.

Presently Moroccan firms using asbestos are not regulated, merely issued with guidelines from international health and safety agencies.

The Moroccan government is planning to bring a draft law on safe handling of asbestos before parliament shortly. The issue has been under consideration for years by an inter-ministerial committee, set up to find a solution that takes account of the interests of industrialists, workers and consumers alike.

According to the United States Lung Association, asbestos can cause asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs that leads to breathing problems and heart failure. Workers who manufacture or use asbestos products and have high exposures to asbestos fibres are of ten affected with asbestosis.

Inhalation of asbestos fibre can also cause lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the chest and abdomen lining. It may be linked to cancer of the stomach, intestines, and rectum, as well.

Morocco’s proposed law intends to meet the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended maximum limits for asbestos in the workplace, to be set at no more than one fibre per millilitre of air by the year 2000. The WHO says it want to set a much higher target by the year 2010.

In the United States the production of all asbestos-containing materials for home construction and use was banned in a graduated programme between 1990-1997. But the problem has been recognised in the U.S. for a quarter of a century. Spraying of asbestos was banned in the U.S. in 1973, and certain pipe coverings in 1975.

According to Morocco’s Industrial Department, the country imports about 5,000 tons of asbestos annually, about eight percent of Africa’s annual consumption, estimated at more than 62,000 tons per year or about 0.34 percent of the five million tons of asbestos used annually by the world’s industries.

Dr Samira Khribech, from the country’s Employment Department, says the projected law will require employers in firms using asbestos to set up a medical check-up system for workers exposed to the fibres.

It will also require commercial users of asbestos to keep copies of importation declarations, to fight the “informal trade of asbestos which escapes control”. However asbestos-related disease will not be recognised as an occupational disease by the Moroccan authorities, said Khribech.

Morocco’s laws on Moroccan occupational disease only recognise a link between asbestos and heart complications, but does not recognise a link with cancer.

The definition of asbestos related disease as an occupational hazard in developed countries has made employers legally responsibility for the condition of their sick staff.

Some businessmen feel that there should be a limit to the use of foreign guidelines when setting policy on asbestos use in Morocco. Others worry about being hit by a bill to compensate workers and their families affected by the disease.

“The best regulation for Morocco would be the one which best serves the country’s social, economic and environmental concerns,” says businessman Brahim al-Ahmari, whose firm uses asbestos.

Nevertheless some large Moroccan firms have already expressed readiness to obey the projected law.

Rachid Hitmi, from the private Chaabi construction materials group company says its subsidiaries, Dimatit and Fibro-Cement, is ready to meet WHO guidelines, up to one fibre per Ml of air. But he warns that if the minimums are lowered further, possibly to 0.6 fibres per Ml, meeting that target would be difficult.

Asked about the incidence of lung disease among Dimatit and Fibro- Cement workers, Hitmi said the cases reported so far could not be 100 percent attributed to asbestos. “If there were any cases linked to asbestos, they must date back to the 1960s when workers used to work without any precautions,” he said.

Asbestos is generally safe when combined with other materials with strong bonding agents. As long as the material remains bonded so that fibres are not released, it poses no health risk. But occasionally asbestos fibres become loose and airborne, most of ten when contained in soft, easily crumbled materials.

Before the 1970s the fibres used to be separated dry in Moroccan factories, increasing the risk of inhalation. Hitmi said that Chaabi then invested heavily in modern ventilation systems to clear the fibres, reducing potential risk.

Pressed on his group’s reaction to the possible recognition of asbestos as an occupational disease in Morocco, Hitmi said the important thing was to limit the risk of inhalation of fibres.

However Hitmi urges the Moroccan government not to take hasty decisions. The negative effects of limiting the production of certain construction materials could outweigh the benefits of safety in Moroccan workplaces.

“Open sewerage systems, for instance, are more adverse to the population’s health than an industry which is already under control,” he said.