Even as we dispose of old asbestos is installed new

Ulla Brauer
The search for clues to the toxic fiber has old Inge Meier led the way to Canada and China. Furthermore, the author tells in the interview and also explains what consumers should look. Asbestos is actually almost disappeared from the headlines and appeared only now and then again when a public building must be renovated. Why do you make a film about this material? How did you get the theme?


Old Inge Meier with a thermos flask in China
Old Inge Meier: When me an occupational physician awareness about asbestos did, I was skeptical at first. After all, it is a poison from the past, with whom I have nothing more to do.
In what kind of buildings can be found today mainly asbestos?

Old Inge Meier: In all the houses with asbestos roofs and in many public buildings were built between 1960 and 1990. In addition, asbestos in power plants and factories, as a fire protection material was used.
Are all gradually restored?

Old Inge Meier: As an example, in our film serves Erperl the elementary school. It was renovated back in the '80s asbestos, but asbestos was found again now. Asbestos is only taken from the buildings, if rehabilitated must be anyway, with tightly bound asbestos, it is left in the houses.
Asbestosis is not recognized as an occupational disease? Protect the workers who perform such asbestos abatement or adequately reduces the risk still underrated?

Old Inge Meier: Asbestosis is recognized as an occupational disease, but many people who renovate their homes to protect themselves is not.
Asbestos is banned in Germany since 1993. In your document, you indicate that the carcinogenic material once again got here. In what form?

Old Inge Meier: Asbestos comes in thermos flasks and seal rings from China to Germany. These products are used by the Task Force of the Bavarian consumer protection have been found. Experts believe that it is also contained in other products because it is not illegal in China. Due to a special permit, Dow Chemical Stade near Hamburg imported from white asbestos from Canada.
How can that be?

Old Inge Meier: The global trade is not controllable, asbestos is not banned in China. Any attempts to enforce a worldwide ban on trade have failed so far to the Canadians. France has set as asbestos on the list of banned substances in the global World Trade Organization, the Canadians complained successfully.
Who is responsible for ensuring that asbestos gets back to Germany?

Old Inge Meier: There is a European exemption that authorizes the import of asbestos, because there are no appropriate alternatives to chemical factories. In Germany, this exception is granted by the Federal Environment Ministry generous. Especially since the Canadian white asbestos were renamed in chrysotile. Dow Chemical, for example, it threatens to close the plant in Stade, if there is no approval for the asbestos is more, given that modernization would be too expensive.
Are primarily responsible for the asbestos lobby the Canadian government, which largely prohibits asbestos in Canada, but supports the trade. And then there are unscrupulous dealers who even after they should destroy with asbestos-contaminated products, they simply sell.
You have followed the traces of asbestos. Where would you have done the search and what have you found it?

Old Inge Meier: My search for clues began in Germany when I learned that the letter carrier in Hesse had received from their employer for Christmas gift thermos flasks with asbestos. These pitchers am I then followed through Shanghai to the Himalayas, where the asbestos is mined in China. My second track began in the port of Hamburg: A test institute told me that is repeatedly found asbestos in the containers in Hamburg port. The containers come from Canada. This trail led me to Canada in the city of Asbestos and then to Dow Chemical. So I learned of the asbestos-legal import. And another important trace came from Prof. Dr. Andrea Tannapfel from BG University Hospital Bergmannsheil in Bochum. She told me that more and more young women suffer asbestos-related cancer.
Exactly how far we are in a trap?

Old Inge Meier: There are too few controls and no penalties for dealers. And even as we dispose of asbestos-old, is new again blocked.
Are there any alternatives to asbestos - in construction and as insulation for thermos flasks, for example?

Old Inge Meier: Of course there are alternatives, but are more expensive. In thermoses, one can dispense with the glass jug and buy cans of stainless steel without glass bulbs.
"Each of inhaled asbestos fibers can be fatal," it says in your film. However, you have been persuaded for the shooting, working in a Canadian asbestos factory without respirators. Why?

Old Inge Meier: I work for public television. My job is to inform the audience as balanced as possible. The mine manager put me under pressure and always claimed, Canadian white asbestos is safe, I just could not imagine that he is so insidious. As an investigative journalist, I relive it again and again that companies complain, or threaten legal action, because we say something wrong or said they did not have enough opportunities to comment. It's my duty of care to exclude such a thing possible.
It turned out later that their clothes were contaminated with asbestos. What did you do that?

Old Inge Meier: We have dug out the nearest supermarket plastic bags and packed the pants and shoes fixed. Then we have them in Hamburg, where to test and now they are on the hazardous waste. This story has changed our whole movie, actually I'm probably not in the picture, but now I'm part of the film.
What objects of our everyday lives are burdened with asbestos?

Old Inge Meier: thermos bottles and part of the sealing rings from the hardware store. But even in toasters, hair dryers and in the heating can put asbestos. This should be strictly controlled, since these products are indeed all of China. China is the world's largest consumers of asbestos.
How to work with consumers?

Old Inge Meier: Wear a dust mask renovating best, especially in the bathroom because asbestos is sitting behind the tiles. If a flask is broken, sweep only with masks together and give thermos flask with the waste.
Is it possible to somehow defend against further use of asbestos?

Old Inge Meier: The Federal Environment Ministry, to be put under pressure to grant an exemption more. The federal government must act on the Canadians. On suspicion of asbestos, you should immediately return the goods to the dealer.