Asbestos ban 'costly'

A ban on chrysotile, or white asbestos, in roof tiles would cost the agriculture, healthcare and other industries as much as Bt464 billion to replace the tiles, according to a study by the Chrysotile Information Centre (CIC).

The CIC and manufacturers including Oran Vanich, Diamond Roofing Tiles, and Mahaphant, the maker of Ha Huang tiles, for a year have tried to convince the government that the use of chrysotile roof tiles will not cause lung cancer. If the ban is implemented, the manufacturers will have to invest a lot in revamping their production to use alternative materials such as pulp or polyvinyl alcohol (PVA).

Ing-Wei Huang, chairwoman of the School of Management of the business economics department, Assumption University, said the university had conducted a study indicating that if the users of concrete roof tiles had to replace them, the cost could be as high as Bt464 billion.

The study targeted people in the agricultural, residential, healthcare such as hospitals, schools, and industrial sectors.

Huang said roof tiles made of chrysotile had been used in Thailand for more than 50 years, and proved to be durable. The study found that these types of tiles were stronger than those made from pulp or PVA. These new types of tiles have to be replaced within two to eight years after a building's construction, resulting in a long-term cost for consumers.

According to the study, manufacturers of concrete roof tiles would have to invest Bt30 million per production line to change over to alternative materials. A single tile factory has five to 10 production lines per product. During the past 15 years, white asbestos has been used to produce 1.4 billion square metres of concrete roof tiles with a combined cost of Bt365 billion.