Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous material that, due to its fire protection and thermal insulation properties, has been extensively used in buildings. Despite its excellent properties, asbestos is also a serious hazard to health and causes many thousands of deaths every year, globally.
Asbestos fibres inhaled into the lungs may cause a range of serious lung diseases, including asbestosis (scarring of the lung), lung cancer and mesothelioma (a malignant and fatal tumour that grows on the lining of the lung). Early symptoms of disease may include chest pain and shortness of breath, leading in more advanced stages, to respiratory failure, cardiac arrest and death. What is important to remember is that it may take 15 to 50 years from first contact with the asbestos fibre for disease to develop. During this long “dormant” period no symptoms are experienced and when the disease is diagnosed it is fatal, as there is no cure.

Where is Asbestos likely to be found in South Africa?

Most buildings constructed prior to the March 2008 banning is likely to contain asbestos as a consequence of asbestos being found in various building materials. Any work or process that disturbs the fabric of the asbestos-containing material (ACM) and that releases fibres, such as drilling, cutting, high pressure cleaning, demolishing or even natural deterioration and weathering of the ACM, introduces a serious threat to human health. Materials that are made from pure asbestos or that contain high percentages of asbestos, such as insulation and lagging material, are far more dangerous than low percentage ACMs, such as asbestos-cement products.