Comments:Asbestos victims file 6.6 billion yen class action lawsuit in Tokyo

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Is it...

Asbestos week here on Wikinews? --TUFKAAP (talk) 14:17, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Seems to be a lot of interesting stuff related to asbestos in the news lately, and in varied locations around the world too. Cirt (talk) 19:46, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

More Japanese mis-statements

The statement that "Japan stopped spraying asbestos in 1975" is completely false. According to 2008 Tokyo Metro asbestos sampling guidelines, all buildings constructed up until 2000 are considered suspect for containing asbestos spray-on insulation.

In 1989, Japan passed it's first law to "prohibit" the use of asbestos in spray-on insulation. Unfortunately, the government's definition of "asbestos" was so limited that manufacturers simply switched to other types of asbestos for use in spray-on materials. This did not come to light until 2005 during the "Kubota asbestos scandal". This same scandal revealed that a key MOE official had accepted payments from an asbestos manufacturing lobby. The MOE official in question subsequently resigned.

Japan has re-written it's asbestos laws four times between 2006 and 2008 due to government mistakes. The country still does not allow the use of polarized light microscopy (PLM) analysis for identifying or quantifying asbestos, despite the fact that (a) PLM is the world stndard for asbestos analyses and (b) that ISO deems the Japanese JIS method to be incapable of accurately identifying or quantifying asbestos in building materials.

As of 2010, Japan's asbestos cover-up continues, due to either bureaucratic incompetence or direct corruption.