Australia banned asbestos 20 years ago, but now a new battle is raging next door

Australia Broadcast Center

a day ago

More than 20 years after Australia banned all forms of asbestos, the deadly legacy still lingers.
It is in the walls and roofs of homes, schools and countless other buildings, as well as the lungs of the thousands of Australians who still die every year from exposure they never saw coming.
It took a gruelling, decades-long campaign by unions, victims and health experts to force governments to act, against fierce resistance from key industry players.
But now, as Australia leads a global campaign to raise awareness — especially in South-East Asia, where asbestos use is still rampant — a new legal battle has unfolded.
It started last March, when Indonesia's Supreme Court ordered mandatory labelling on asbestos products that highlight the risks of exposure.
It came after a court action from health and workers' rights groups.
But the asbestos industry refused to accept the decision and is suing the groups for lost revenue.
The case is being seen as a chilling attempt to silence those fighting to ban asbestos and protect public health in Indonesia.
Behind the fight to end mandatory labelling of asbestos is a powerful international industry lobby.
It represents the world's biggest asbestos producers in countries such as Russia, China and Kazakhstan.
The Fibre Cement Manufacturers' Association (FICMA) argues that white asbestos, known as chrysotile, is a harmless chemical.
"Chrysotile fibres, or white asbestos … will be quickly broken down in the respiratory system because they dissolve in acidic solutions in the respiratory tract," its lawyers told Jakarta's Central District Court on Monday.
"Chrysotile … has been shown to be rapidly eliminated from the lungs."
FICMA argues that white asbestos does not require labelling because it is not listed under the United Nations' Rotterdam Convention, an international treaty that regulates the import and export of hazardous chemicals.
FICMA is demanding damages of $US520,000 a month ($802,000), and penalty charges of more than $US300 ($463) a day for any failure to pay.
The World Health Organization's (WHO) website states that "all forms of asbestos, including chrysotile, are carcinogenic to humans".
"Exposure to asbestos, including chrysotile, causes cancer of the lung, larynx and ovaries, and mesothelioma," it says.
The WHO estimates around 1,600 people in Indonesia — and more than 200,000 globally — die every year from asbestos-related diseases.
It says asbestos is responsible for more than 70 per cent of all deaths from work-related cancers.
The Australian government's Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency also declares chrysotile as carcinogenic, saying it is clear that chrysotile can cause mesothelioma as well as cancer of the lung, larynx and ovaries, and is also associated with pharynx, stomach and colorectal cancer.
Siti Kristina, 59, first began coughing in 2009, almost two decades after she had begun working for an asbestos textile factory at Cibinong, in West Java.
Every working day since she was 25, she would mix asbestos fibres with cotton and polyester, and spin them into asbestos thread.
No one had warned her of the dangers of handling asbestos.
At first, Siti Kristina thought nothing of the cough.
Before long, she was losing weight and had a fever, and every few months, she was back in the hospital.
Only after a foreign medical team examined her in 2012 did she learn she had early stage asbestosis.
"When I did my check-up early this year, I had to be hospitalised because my blood level dropped drastically and I was coughing so badly," she said.
"Now I still cough … and can't perform heavy-duty activities."
Tuniyah worked for 10 years at an asbestos textile factory in Jakarta.
In that period, she began coughing constantly.
At first, she couldn't believe she had been diagnosed with asbestosis.
"I felt healthy and had no symptoms," she said.
"My lungs are scarred. I constantly struggle to breathe."
Now 63, she can only do light domestic work.
Indonesia is the world's third biggest asbestos importer after India and China.
Each year, it brings in about 150,000 tonnes of asbestos, all of it chrysotile, for use in construction.
Around 13 per cent of all Indonesian homes have roofs made from chrysotile.
In Jakarta, the figure is much higher, at 50 per cent.
When the ABC visited areas in and around Jakarta in 2019, white asbestos roofs were a common sight — many of them cracked or broken.
Discarded sheeting lay in backyards where children regularly played.
Residents were seen drying clothes on low-hanging asbestos sheets.
While official Indonesian health data in recent years records no asbestos-related deaths and just six compensation claims, Union Aid Abroad — the ACTU's aid arm — says the true toll is vastly under-reported.
"From those estimates from the global burden of disease, more than 1,000 people are dying already in Indonesia every year from asbestos exposure," Union Aid Abroad's Phillip Hazelton told the ABC.
"But as Indonesia's ramped up use in the last 20 years, then we don't expect that to peak for another couple of decades yet."
FICMA is also personally suing three individual campaigners from the Indonesian workers' rights group LION — the Local Initiative for OSH (Occupational Safety and Health) Network.
It is demanding that the defendants apologise on national television and in newspapers for discrediting chrysotile, and that they declare that white asbestos is not hazardous.
It also wants Indonesia's Ban Asbestos Network (INABAN) to delete references to chrysotile on its website.
Leo Yoga Pranata, LION Indonesia's director of public policy and one of the three individual defendants, says the lawsuit could set a dangerous precedent.
"People being critical in the future might worry about getting sued and being asked to pay a tremendous amount of money," he said.
"We were sued for a fantastic, illogical amount of money. I don't know how we can pay that."
He says the case has affected him both financially and emotionally.
"Facing court could be seen as committing a crime. What we did was within our rights."
He agrees that chrysotile is a "silent killer" because symptoms typically only appear 15 to 30 years after exposure to the asbestos fibres.
Muhammad Darisman from Indonesia's Ban Asbestos Network agrees.
"FICMA wants legitimacy to keep their businesses running. Their goal is profit, not public health."
He says Indonesia's health standards fall far behind.
So far, 73 countries and territories, including Australia, have banned all forms of asbestos.
But South-East Asia remains a major market for the world's major asbestos producers.
Union Aid Abroad — with funding from the Australian government — has been campaigning for years to persuade countries including Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos to join the global ban.
"I think we're the only country in the world to have a standalone asbestos safety eradication agency," Mr Hazelton said.
"And one of their aims is also to try to lead in this area in the region in helping countries transition out of this deadly product into safer alternatives."