Asbestos: Why a Fiber Banned Across Europe Is Still Killing People
ARTE.tv Documentary
Asbestos is widely seen as a problem of the past. It has been banned in dozens of countries, and in the United States its use has been heavily restricted for decades. This ARTE documentary argues that this view is mistaken. The fiber still sits in millions of square meters of ageing buildings. Ships and waste exported from wealthy countries carry it to poorer ones. A handful of producing nations still mine and market it aggressively. The film cites World Health Organization estimates that asbestos kills between 100,000 and 120,000 people every year and is responsible for half of all work-related illness. It asks two questions: will asbestos extraction and use ever be banned worldwide, and can the victims fighting to put public health ahead of private profit succeed?
A "miracle fiber" built into everything
The narration describes asbestos as a mineral fiber that occurs naturally in some rocks, in types such as amphibole and chrysotile. Asbestos was known in antiquity, but large-scale exploitation began after 1860, when big deposits were found around the world. Its qualities made it look like a miracle material. It was flexible, cheap, a good insulator, and resistant to bad weather, heat and fire. It was first used in textiles. From the early 1950s the construction industry adopted it. Archive advertising in the film urges viewers to consider it for the walls of their home, promising "a troublefree lifetime" like an asbestos roof.
For decades asbestos went into houses, offices, ships and planes. Public buildings were no exception: hospitals, museums, universities and schools all used it, as did pipes beneath cities. One interviewee says building products are the most likely to endanger millions of people: construction workers, residents, and the people who work inside those buildings. In the interviewee's words, these products "by design" cause a tremendous amount of exposure.
Germany was part of this rush. Before its 1993 ban, asbestos was used across millions of square meters of building space, including some unexpected places. The film mentions a police shooting facility where about 400 officers have reported health concerns. The narration stresses that this figure is rough and preliminary, and probably far too low, because asbestos diseases appear only after a long delay.
How the fiber damages the body, and why the harm stays hidden
The film explains why asbestos is called a "ticking time bomb." The fibers are odorless, 500 times thinner than a human hair, and can keep splitting. Once inhaled, they travel to the bottom of the lungs and lodge in the tissue. Defense cells that try to destroy them break down and die in the attempt. A physician lists the symptoms: persistent shortness of breath, a dry cough, and swollen fingertips, known as clubbing. The fibers can stay in the lungs for a long time and cause asbestosis, lung cancer, and pleural cancer, or mesothelioma.
One specialist calls the development of mesothelioma "a very mysterious process" that is still poorly understood, takes years even in heavily exposed people, and is very hard to fight once it appears. Another expert says ten years is about the minimum before disease shows up. Most cases appear 30 or 40 years after exposure, and they can continue to appear even later. The same expert says people misunderstand warnings to "avoid dust" because they picture dust they can see. Asbestos has been known since the 1930s to be lethal at concentrations invisible to the eye.
The documentary gives a short history of official inaction. The first scientific reports on the dangers appeared around 1930, and authorities ignored them. In the 1960s, studies showed a surge in occupational diseases linked to the fiber, and authorities again turned a deaf ear. Protests and lawsuits against producers and states increased. Only in the 1980s did European countries begin banning its use.
Badia del Vallès: the cost and pace of removal
To show how big the clean-up task is, the film goes to Badia del Vallès, a suburb of Barcelona. Every building in this 1970s workers' settlement contains asbestos, and so does the roof of the church in the town center, which is made of asbestos-containing fiber cement. Every building is clad in fiber-cement panels. The narration notes that this material is generally not dangerous unless it is damaged.
The town's mayor has vowed to rid the town of asbestos during her term. Removal is underway and is expected to cost €20 million. The town is poor and its budget small. Over the past 15 years only about 30 buildings have been dealt with, and more than 170 remain. The narration concludes that at this rate the work will take several more decades, even though the risk is "clear and present."
The issue is personal for the mayor. She and her family have lived in the same building for more than 20 years. She has promised residents she will not move until the whole town has been cleared of asbestos.
France: the ruins of Canari and the scale of the task
Asbestos has been banned in France since 1997. The film visits the village of Canari in Corsica, site of what was France's largest asbestos mine, which once produced 28,000 tons of mineral a year. Access to the polluted site is now forbidden, and the narration compares a visit to stepping into a science-fiction film. Engineers come to check the stability of the foundations, because a collapse could release fibers into the air. Local authorities once hoped to renovate the site but gave up because of the scale of the constraints involved.
Workers on sites like this are trained at specialized facilities, of which Europe has hundreds. One center near Toulouse, which manages hazardous materials, trains 900 asbestos-removal workers a year. The film then gives its own estimate: it will take 100 years and billions of euros to eliminate asbestos in France. It asks how long the rest of Europe would need. Most countries are not yet considering the question at all. Only 67 states have adopted a ban, so most of the world's population is still exposed every day.
Russia's Asbest: the world's largest mine and a town that defends it
A few countries still produce asbestos, including China and Kazakhstan. Russia leads the list and exports 600,000 tons a year. In the town of Asbest, at the gates of Siberia and 1,700 km from Moscow, the company Uralasbest runs the world's largest asbestos mine. The film reports it as 12 km long, 3 km wide and 350 m deep, supplying a quarter of the world's chrysotile.
The film interviews an asbestos engineer who worked for Uralasbest before being elected as a Communist representative to the local Duma. Much of the interview is not translated in the available material. The narration says her favorable view of chrysotile is widely shared by residents, whose homes are a few hundred meters from the mine. Posters around town carry slogans such as "stay fit with Uralasbest," "I love asbestos," and a message near the clinic calling on people to protect their country and their town. Since her election, the narration says, she has criticized working conditions in the mine. She recalls that in the Communist era asbestos was considered dangerous to workers.
The film stresses how little is visible officially. There are no statistics or official figures for asbestos-related illness in the region, and doctors at the local hospital refused to speak. The narration says the victims are invisible to the authorities. It reports that Russian authorities and producers present asbestos bans as a Western conspiracy to damage the Russian economy. Uralasbest is the town's largest employer, with 8,500 workers, and according to the film it regularly tells its factories that workers should not talk to the media.
Canada: a mining town reinvents itself
To show what happens when a mine closes, the film goes to Canada. The town of Asbestos in Quebec was also named after the mineral, and the mine was a major employer in the province. When Canada banned asbestos mining, the local economy took a heavy blow. At its peak, the Jeffrey mine employed 1,800 people. Its former head is described as still deeply bitter about the campaign that led to the ban. The narration adds that he is a member of the International Chrysotile Association, which denies that this type of asbestos harms human health.
The mine left mountains of tailings that contain leftover asbestos but also magnesium, a sought-after raw material. To revive the regional economy, the federal government granted special exploitation rights to companies including Alliance Magnesium. According to the film, the company uses a chemical process to neutralize the asbestos residue and keep only the metal.
The town has also tried to redefine itself. The old mine pit is now an artificial lake, and the town renamed itself Val-des-Sources, "the valley of the springs." On summer weekends, residents and tourists gather at a market overlooking the view. The mayor wants to add a lakeside campsite and a nautical center offering windsurfing and pedal boats. The narration asks whether this is "life-saving resilience or deep denial." It notes that official figures are clear: according to the National Institute of Public Health, people living near the mines have four times as many asbestos-related diseases as the rest of Canada.
The film follows Daniel Green of Canada's Green Party, who has worked on toxic substances in the environment for 30 years. Most of his on-camera explanation is untranslated in the source. The film shows him and his wife taking samples, which were sent to the ITGA laboratory in France. There they were examined first under an optical microscope and then under an electron microscope magnifying up to 10,000 times. The narration calls the results "unequivocal" and says Green's fears were confirmed: whenever the local river overflows, it contaminates the towns downstream and exposes more people in Quebec.
Bangladesh: shipbreaking on the beaches of Chittagong
The documentary's most extensive case of exported risk is in Bangladesh. In Chittagong, wrecked cargo ships and supertankers lie on the beaches, waiting to be dismantled by workers without protective equipment. Most of these ships contain tons of asbestos. The narration says local doctors and NGOs have warned about this for years without effect, and dock workers have been dying of diseases linked to asbestos and other toxic products in the ships. Some former workers who agree to testify can barely speak.
At a local clinic, doctors see patients with respiratory problems every day. One physician says he cannot be 100 percent certain, but professionally he diagnoses one patient as an asbestos victim exposed for 30 to 35 years. The patient's lungs and heart are now so damaged that he cannot work. Another interviewee estimates that about 50,000 workers and staff are involved in the shipbreaking industry and that about 33 percent of them suffer from asbestosis. He adds that workers cannot afford costly treatment, and that the diseases are incurable anyway: "even if you have huge amount of money it will eventually kill you."
The risk spreads beyond the yards. Everything on the ships is salvaged and sold: metal, accessories, lifeboats, life jackets, down to the last buoy. Each shop specializes in something, and some deal in recovered asbestos. One dealer, Mr. Bimol, shows off its properties and stresses its "high quality." Workers handling it usually have only a scarf or a piece of fabric over their mouths, with no gloves or masks. According to the film, thousands of tons are recovered this way each year and are usually sent to Dhaka for reuse on construction sites. Because it insulates and resists fire, it is also popular for building home ovens.
The film points to the wider environmental hazard. Piles of asbestos sit by the roadside without warnings or covering, open to anyone passing. They also appear in slums where the poorest people live because they have nowhere else to go. Thanks to NGO work, some of these families know the risks.
An interviewee places the main responsibility on exporting countries. He says Western and developed countries send vessels to Bangladesh knowing they contain asbestos. He argues that many Bangladeshis may not know the danger because the country is poor and many people lack education, but the senders cannot claim the same ignorance: "You are part of the ploy. You're part of the corruption." He describes the system as corrupt and sustained by the indulgence exporting governments show ship owners. Early in the film he says Western governments must recognize they are "committing a crime against humanity" by sending toxic vessels to countries like Bangladesh.
Colombia: Eternit, Sibaté and a law named after a victim
The film extends Western responsibility to companies. It says Eternit, which it describes as a joint Swiss, Belgian and French company, kept manufacturing and selling asbestos products in Latin America, particularly Colombia, for well over 20 years. Meanwhile, trials and convictions against the company were piling up in Italy, Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe.
Sibaté, the town closest to Eternit's main Colombian plant, drew the attention of scientists. Juan Pablo Ramos Bonilla, an associate professor at the University of the Andes, worked with Benjamin Lysaniuk of the French Research Institute for Development. The narration says six years of rigorous research produced alarming results. They drilled holes to analyze soil in places including the football pitch and the primary school. The narration asks how a city's soil could be so full of friable asbestos. Residents have their own explanations. Part of the answer, according to the film, comes from Amelia, who runs a hair salon. Her husband, a municipal employee who did landscaping, died a few years ago of mesothelioma. Her detailed testimony is not translated in the available material.
Since January 2022, Eternit can no longer use asbestos in Colombia, after the country adopted a ban following what the narration calls a fierce fight with producers. A journalist, Ana Cecilia Niño, was central to that fight. In 2014, a year after her daughter Sofía was born, she was diagnosed with mesothelioma. With her husband Daniel, she spoke for all asbestos victims in the media, on social media and in Congress. The Colombian ban now carries her name: the Ana Cecilia Niño Robles law. Daniel's fight continues in court, where the company denies any responsibility for his wife's death.
The producers' message: "chrysotile" without the word "asbestos"
The film then looks at how producers promote their product. Specialists say they know the industry's methods and talking points well, and the internet is its preferred channel, including several YouTube channels. One promotional clip claims chrysotile use is under thorough control at the production stage, and that modern technology and labor-protection rules exclude any negative effect of the fibers on workers. As evidence, it says employees work in chrysotile deposits and factories for dozens of years.
Asia consumes 60 percent of global production, so producers target it specifically, with films tailored to each country, including Bollywood-style productions for India and Bangladesh. The narration notes that the word "asbestos" has been removed from these campaigns and replaced with "chrysotile" and "white asbestos," presented as harmless. The message has also appeared on Vietnamese television.
Experts in the film reject this framing. One compares it to tobacco: all tobacco is bad for health, and so is all asbestos, with no question of a good or bad type. Another says 60 years of science show chrysotile is not safe. In this expert's view, the people who claim otherwise are those who mine and sell it, who have a vested interest in "perpetuating this lie," and who are killing people by selling it.
The waste problem: landfill, illegal dumping and vitrification
While production continues, countries that have banned asbestos still face millions of tons of contaminated waste. According to the film, the cheapest and most common solution is landfill. Ihlenberg in Germany is one of Europe's largest hazardous-waste sites and buries 8,000 to 10,000 tons of asbestos a year under a very strict protocol. The narration calls Germany "miles ahead" in Europe on waste management but notes several controversies. One landfill in Saxony drew media attention and local anger. Residents' main worry was not knowing where the waste came from, and the press reported that some of it came from Italy. An investigative reporter who specializes in toxic waste first broke that story.
Illegal dumping is another problem in Germany. Disposal is expensive, so contractors and companies often get rid of asbestos quietly. The film introduces a former contractor who developed cancer and now devotes himself to tracking down illegal asbestos dumps.
Alternatives exist. The film describes a company in the south of France using technology originally developed for the aerospace industry in the 1960s. It processes 6,000 tons of containerized asbestos waste a year, crushing it and melting it into lava. Once cooled, the resulting volcanic rock can be safely used to build roads and motorways. But this process treats only 2 percent of France's asbestos waste, and the narration concludes that the waste question "remains unsolved."
A legacy larger than the numbers
The film closes with the global picture. According to its figures, 1.2 million tons of asbestos are still sold every year, 3,000 asbestos products remain in circulation worldwide, and the death toll keeps rising. One expert says the long gap between exposure and disease means many people never learn they were exposed. Many cases stay hidden because no one asked, no one knew to ask, or no one realized a product contained asbestos. In this expert's view, the legacy of asbestos is "far greater than the numbers show" and will last a long time.
Another speaker calls it a criminal industry: "This is not a legitimate business... It's not like selling bananas. This is a business that's building its fortune on death." Earlier in the film, the same voice argues that the people in this trade don't deserve courtesy from any government in the world.
The narration ends without resolution. Despite the deaths, the science and the evidence, it says, the deadly fiber "still has a bright future ahead." The film leaves its opening questions unanswered: whether a global ban will ever come, and whether the victims' campaigns will prevail over the producers.
Asbestos. This is a remarkable mineral, actually stone. It is made up of tiny but extremely strong and flexible fibers.
You'd have to have been on a different planet not to have heard about the dangers of asbestos.
Asbestos is banned in dozens of countries, and for decades its use has been heavily restricted in the United States.
For many of us, asbestos is a thing of the past. But it would be wrong to think this carcinogenic fiber is no longer a threat.
For decades, asbestos was used by manufacturers and public authorities alike in construction, everyday objects, and transportation networks. The countries that voted to ban it as early as the 80s did not eliminate the issue.
A large portion of the waste we send to developing countries to be recycled is often contaminated. All of our old cargo ships contain tons of asbestos. They are a mortal threat to the locals.
The governments of the Western countries must recognize that they are actually committing a crime against humanity by sending their toxic-laden vessels to a country like Bangladesh.
Some European companies that were forced to stop using asbestos at home continue to use it abroad. It may be bad for us, but it's good for them.
For all that, a handful of producing countries still trade this deadly fiber worldwide. Ignoring the dangers, they continue to extract, sell, and export it, their only limits dictated by the market and their bottom line.
This is not a legitimate business, and the people that are in it don't deserve to be treated with any kind of courtesy by the governments of the world. All of the governments of the world.
According to WHO estimates, asbestos kills between 100,000 and 120,000 people every year. It's further responsible for half of all work-related illness. Will its extraction and use ever be banned on a global scale?
Will the thousands of victims fighting to put the health of the many before the profit of the few ever succeed? In the meantime, the use of this deadly fiber remains widespread.
Asbestos was banned in Europe in 2005, but the amount of work required to remove it is breathtaking.
This is Badia del Vallès, a suburb of Barcelona. Each of the buildings in this worker settlement built in the 70s contain asbestos. Even the roof of the church in the town center is made of asbestos-containing fibrocement.
Town mayor Eva María Menor has vowed to eradicate asbestos from the town during her term in office.
Every building in Badia del Vallès is covered in fibrocement panels. As a rule, this material isn't dangerous unless it becomes damaged.
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The vast asbestos removal project in Badia del Vallès is already underway. It's set to cost €20 million. But this is a poor town and its budget small. Over the past 15 years, only some 30 buildings have been seen to. There are over 170 to go. The risk is clear and present and the work urgent, but at this rate, it'll take several more decades to complete.
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Construction.
Eva María Menor and her family have been living in this same building for over 20 years. This is an issue that affects her personally.
For
The mayor has made a promise to her constituents. She won't change residence until the whole town has been cleared of asbestos.
Asbestos is a mineral fiber that occurs naturally in some rocks. There are different types such as amphibole and chrysotile asbestos.
Although it's been known since antiquity, it began being exploited at scale after 1860 following the discovery of large deposits worldwide.
A miracle fiber, it's full of useful qualities. It's flexible, cheap, provides good insulation, and is resistant to bad weather, heat, and fire.
It was first used in textiles, then the construction industry adopted it from the early 1950s on.
We suggest you consider this material for the walls of your home. Designed to last a lifetime, a trouble-free lifetime. Like your asbestos roof, like your modern floor covering.
For many decades, asbestos was used in houses, buildings, offices, ships, and planes. Public buildings were no exception. Asbestos was used in hospitals, museums, universities, and schools. It was everywhere, down to the pipes beneath our cities.
Building products are the most likely to endanger millions of people, millions of construction workers, millions of people that live in the buildings, million people that work in the buildings. These are products that by design are going to cause a tremendous amount of exposure.
Germany was not exempt from the asbestos rush. Prior to the ban set in place in 1993, asbestos was used over millions of square meters of building space, down to the most unexpected places.
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400 officers have reported health concerns related to this shooting center. Yet, this estimate is only rough, preliminary, and most likely heavily underestimated because asbestos-related illnesses are ticking time bombs. They're complex pathologies that can take decades to manifest.
These odorless fibers are 500 times thinner than a strand of hair, and they can split endlessly. When inhaled through the mouth or nose, they travel down through the airways to the bottom of the lungs. There the fibers settle into the tissue. Whilst trying to destroy them, the cells in the body's defense system degrade and die.
In general, what happens, the patient suffering from the shortness of breath, persistent or dry cough, and patient's finger, finger and finger swollen, we call, is known as clubbing. This is the symptoms, physical signs or symptoms.
Asbestos fibers can remain in the lungs for long periods of time, causing numerous diseases such as asbestosis, lung cancer and pleural cancer, or mesothelioma.
Asbestos, particularly for the development of the mesothelioma, takes years even in those heavily exposed people. So it's a very mysterious process, and it still isn't well understood, unfortunately. When it develops, it's very difficult to combat.
10 years is about the minimum where you start seeing the diseases, but you start really seeing the diseases, it's actually about 30 or 40 years after, and then it can continue even longer.
People don't have any concept when you say avoid dust. They're thinking about dust they can see. And it's been known that asbestos is lethal at concentrations that you can't see. That's been known since the 1930s.
The first scientific reports on the dangers of asbestos came out as early as 1930. The authorities ignored them. In the 60s, studies showed a surge in the number of cases of occupational diseases linked to the fiber. Public authorities once again turned a deaf ear. More and more protests and lawsuits occurred against producers and states. It was only in the 1980s that European countries first began banning its use.
In France, asbestos has been banned since 1997. The village of Canari in Corsica houses the ruins of France's largest asbestos mine. Its days of producing 28,000 tons of mineral a year are long gone. Today, access to this polluted area is forbidden.
Paying a visit to the site is like setting foot in a science fiction film.
These engineers have come to check the stability of the foundations and prevent any risk of a collapse that would lead to fibers being released in the air.
The local authorities once hoped to renovate this unique site. The sheer magnitude of the constraints it entailed made them give up.
In order to work on sites like this, these specialists have been trained in one of the hundreds of specialized facilities set up in Europe.
On the outskirts of Toulouse, Aléa Contrôles specializes in the management of hazardous materials. Each year 900 asbestos removal agents are trained here.
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100 years and billions of euros to eliminate asbestos in France. How long would it take the rest of Europe?
Most of the other countries in the world aren't even considering the question. Only 67 states have adopted a ban. Thus, the majority of the world's population remains exposed every day.
A handful of countries, including China and Kazakhstan, still produce asbestos. At the top of the list, exporting 600,000 tons each year, is Russia.
At the gates of Siberia, 1,700 km from Moscow, the Uralasbest plant operates the world's largest asbestos mine. 12 km long, 3 km wide. It's 350 m deep. This mine alone provides a quarter of the world's chrysotile asbestos.
Natalia Krylova is an asbestos engineer. She worked for Uralasbest before entering politics and getting herself elected as the communist representative in the local Duma.
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This view in favor of chrysotile asbestos is widely shared by the local inhabitants whose homes sit a few hundred meters from the mine.
"Stay fit with Uralasbest," this one says. A few streets down there's "I love asbestos." This poster adjoining the clinic says, "Protect our country, our town, and our"
Ever since she got elected, Natalia Krylova has denounced the working conditions in the mine. She recalls the communist era when asbestos was considered dangerous to workers.
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There are no statistical data or official figures for asbestos-related illnesses in the region. Doctors at the local hospital refused to speak out. The victims claimed by the fiber are invisible to the authorities.
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The Russian authorities and producers see the asbestos ban as a Western conspiracy. A ploy to damage the Russian economy. Uralasbest is the town's largest employer, putting 8,500 people to work. The company regularly sends word out in its factories asking that workers not speak to the media.
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What happens to a region when an asbestos mine closes? There's a town like Asbest on the other side of the world in Canada. The small town of Asbestos also got its name from the ore. For a long time, it was a major employer in the province of Quebec. When Canada banned asbestos mining, the local economy took a heavy blow.
In its heyday, the Jeffrey mine employed 1,800 people. Its head, Bernard Coulombe, remains deeply bitter about the campaign to ban asbestos, which ended up being adopted. He's a member of the International Chrysotile Association, which denies the impact that this type of asbestos has on people's health. It's called ICA.
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The golden age of asbestos mining has left behind mountains of residue, also known as tailings. They contain leftover asbestos as well as a highly sought-after raw material, magnesium.
In order to revive the ailing region's economy, Canada's federal government has granted special exploitation rights to certain companies such as Alliance Magnesium. A chemical process enables the company to neutralize asbestos residue and only keep the metal.
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She meant what she said. She wished I was there. Where am I going to live when I get home?
The town of Asbestos has also decided to bounce back and do everything it could to promote the legacy of the mine. The old well has been turned into an artificial lake. The town has changed its name. Asbestos became Val-des-Sources, the valley of the springs. Every weekend during the summer, residents and tourists gather at the local market to make the most of the spectacular view.
Georges-André Gagné is a member of the team of local council members that set up the project.
Republic.
No.
Add the residue.
In the years to come, the mayor of the town is looking to introduce a campsite by the lake, as well as a nautical center offering windsurfing and pedalos. Is this proof of life-saving resilience or deep denial?
Official statistics are indisputable. According to the National Institute of Public Health, people living near mines see four times the number of asbestos-related diseases as the rest of Canada.
Daniel Green is a member of Canada's Green Party. For the past 30 years, he's focused on the issue of toxic substances in the environment.
Quebec Minister
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The samples taken by Daniel Green and his wife were sent to the ITGA laboratory in France to undergo a two-fold analysis. First under an optical microscope, then under an electron microscope. This cutting-edge technology offers up to 10,000 times magnification. The results of both tests are unequivocal.
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Circumstance.
Daniel Green's fears have turned out to be true. Anytime the Bécancour River overflows, it contaminates all the towns downstream, further exposing the people of Quebec.
The threat of asbestos can take many forms. In Bangladesh, it comes in the shape of cargo ships and supertankers. In Chittagong, there are wrecks like this everywhere, washed up on beaches. They're waiting to be dismantled by workers who have no protective equipment.
Most of these ships contain tons of asbestos. For years, local doctors and NGOs have been sounding the alarm in vain. Dock workers have been dying from diseases linked to asbestos and to the toxic products contained in these ships. Some of those who are willing to testify are barely able to speak.
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At the local clinic, doctors see patients with respiratory problems every day.
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I cannot say it in 100%, but as a physician I can professionally diagnose he is asbestos victim. He is exposed to asbestos for last 30 to 35 years. So now his body condition, lung condition and heart condition is so crippled, so in problem that cannot do his work for his own.
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We have around 50,000 workers and other staffs working with this shipbreaking industry, and around 33% of them have been suffering from asbestosis.
They contract deadly diseases, and by no means can they afford to go through the costly treatment process. And this particular disease, or the diseases that you get from asbestos, are not curable. So even if you have huge amount of money, it will eventually kill you.
Shipyard workers are the most exposed to the asbestos in ships, but they're not the only ones. Everything gets recovered from cargo ships. All the metal and all accessories end up on the market. Lifeboats, life jackets, down to the last buoy. Everything is sold. Each shop is specialized in something.
And it was only a matter of time until some turned to recycling asbestos. Take for instance Mr. Bimol. He never misses an opportunity to show off its properties.
Item. Quality. High quality.
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For most workers, their protective equipment is only comprised of a scarf, a piece of fabric to cover their mouths, and that's about it. No gloves, no masks.
Thousands of tons of asbestos are recovered this way each year. They're usually sent to the capital, Dhaka, to be reused in various construction sites.
The fiber's properties as an insulator and fire retardant also make asbestos popular for building home ovens.
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This asbestos trade isn't only dangerous to workers' health. It also represents a wider environmental issue. Next to the makeshift shops, stocks proliferate on the roadside, devoid of any warnings or protection, right in the open air, in direct contact with any passersby. They're also found in the middle of the slums where the destitute live because they have nowhere else to go. Thanks to the efforts of NGOs, these families are sometimes aware of the risks posed by living near asbestos.
The Western and developed exporting countries who send their vessels to countries like Bangladesh with full knowledge that the vessels contain asbestos are the ones who are primarily responsible for this saga. We Bangladesh may not know because we are a poor country. Most people are not educated.
But how can you, being from a Western country, not know what you are sending to Bangladesh, not know how it is being sent? You are part of the ploy. You're part of the corruption. It is a corrupt system that is sustaining because of the indulgence that the governments of the exporting countries are giving to the ship owners.
The responsibility of Western countries extends to their companies. For years, some companies have continued to use asbestos abroad even after their own countries banned it.
The joint Swiss-Belgian-French company Eternit kept on manufacturing and selling products containing asbestos in Latin America, and in particular Colombia, for well over 20 years. All the while, in Italy, in Switzerland, and elsewhere in Europe, more and more trials and convictions against the company were taking place.
The town closest to Eternit's main production unit in Colombia, Sibaté, ended up attracting scientists' attention.
The Colombian Juan Pablo Ramos Bonilla, an associate professor at the University of the Andes, has carried out research with Benjamin Lysaniuk from the French Research Institute for Development.
Six years of rigorous scientific work have yielded alarming results.
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Exposition professional.
All right, people.
The two researchers drilled several holes in order to analyze the soil in Sibaté, on the football pitch and at the primary school.
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How is such a catastrophic health hazard possible? How can a city's soil be so full of friable asbestos? Does have anything to do with it? The citizens of Sibaté all have their views on the matter.
Part of the answer lies with Amelia Segura, who runs a local hair salon.
Amelia's husband was a municipal employee who did landscaping. He died a few years ago from mesothelioma, which is asbestos cancer.
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As of January 2022, Eternit can no longer use asbestos in Colombia. The country ended up adopting a ban following a fierce battle with asbestos producers. One journalist was central to this fight.
In 2014, a year after her daughter Sofía was born, Ana was diagnosed with mesothelioma. With the help of her husband Daniel, she spoke out for all asbestos victims in the media, on social media, and even in Congress.
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Foresia.
Real.
In Colombia, the law banning asbestos now bears a name. It's called the Ana Cecilia Niño Robles law. But Daniel's fight isn't over. He's taken Eternit to court. The company denies any responsibility for his wife's death.
Specialists are very familiar with the methods and speeches trotted out by asbestos producers. Their favorite medium remains the internet. They have several YouTube channels to hammer their message home.
The use of chrysotile is under thorough control at the production stage. Modern technology and the requirements for labor protection, as well as its industrial safety, exclude any possibility of fibers' negative impact on workers' health. Consequently, employees keep working on chrysotile deposits and in the factories for dozens of years.
Globales.
Asia consumes 60% of global asbestos production, which is why producers specifically target the continent. Each country gets its own tailor-made films, like these Bollywood-flavored productions for India and Bangladesh.
The word asbestos has been banished from this outreach campaign. It has been carefully replaced with the words chrysotile and white asbestos, a product that isn't harmful to health. The message is even being relayed on Vietnamese television.
Like tobacco, all tobacco is bad for health. So all asbestos is bad for health. There's no question of good or bad.
60 years of science has shown that chrysotile is not safe. The argument that chrysotile is safe is false. And the people who perpetuate that chrysotile is safe are the people who mine and sell chrysotile. And they have a vested interest in perpetuating this lie. And what they are doing is killing people by selling this product.
With global production ongoing, the countries that have banned asbestos don't know what to do with their millions of tons of contaminated waste. The cheapest and most widely used solution is landfill.
Ihlenberg in Germany is home to one of the largest hazardous waste sites in Europe. Each year, between 8,000 and 10,000 tons of asbestos are buried there according to a very strict protocol.
Fore.
Mater.
Germany is miles ahead in Europe when it comes to waste management. Nonetheless, the country has seen its fair share of controversies. This landfill site in Saxony has stirred up a lot of media attention and anger among locals.
Direct. Of the visp. As best.
Residents are mostly worried about not knowing where the waste comes from. The press has reported that some of the asbestos buried here came all the way from Italy.
Michael Billig first broke the story of the Italian waste. This investigative reporter specializes in the treatment of toxic waste.
For.
Take back.
Italians of the war.
Nor is Germany exempt from illegal dumping. Asbestos disposal is expensive, so contractors and companies very often dispose of it discreetly.
Velus is a former contractor who got cancer. He's now made it his mission in life to hunt down illegal asbestos waste dumping.
Minister.
Minister. Minister.
This is kind of.
Best to. Fore! Foreign! Foreign!
Besten.
And yet there are ways to dispose of asbestos waste. One of them is based on technology developed for the aerospace industry in the 1960s. It's used by a company in the south of France which crushes 6,000 tons of asbestos waste in containers each year.
The waste is then melted down and transformed into lava.
Fore! Foreign! Foreign!
Once it's cooled, the resulting volcanic rock can safely be used to build roads and motorways. At present, however, this process is only used to treat 2% of the waste produced in France. The matter of asbestos waste remains unsolved.
Meanwhile, 1.2 million tons of asbestos are still sold annually. 3,000 asbestos products are still in circulation worldwide, and the number of deaths caused by this deadly fiber continues to rise.
One of the big challenges with asbestos is that because there is that long period of time from when someone is exposed to when they develop disease, they don't know that they had the exposure. And as a result, there are many hidden cases of asbestos-related diseases simply because no one either asked or knew to ask, or they didn't realize the product had asbestos. So I think the legacy of asbestos is far greater than the numbers show. So it's a legacy that will be with us for a long time.
This is a criminal industry. This is not a legitimate business selling asbestos. It's not like selling bananas. This is a business that's building its fortune on death.
Will.
Fore.
Traffic.
The bitter and unequivocal truth is, despite the deaths, despite the science, despite the obvious, the deadly fiber still has a bright future ahead. It's like a story that just won't end.
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