Slowly but surely, national program on asbestos related diseases pushes through

Manila, Philippines – The multi-sectoral group tasked to discuss the adoption of a National Program for the Elimination of Asbestos Related Diseases (NPEAD) finally agreed in a meeting today, 16 April 2010, to develop the NPEAD based on the outline of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and World Health Organization (WHO).

Building the National Asbestos Profile will start the process. The National Asbestos Profile provides information on consumption of the various types of asbestos, workers at risk from current and past exposures, asbestos-related diseases, among other things. It will help develop programs or interventions needed to prevent the occurrence of asbestos related diseases.

Steered by Dr. Cucueco of the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC), the group assigned stakeholders who would provide certain information to complete the asbestos profile. Other items in the profile would be included in a research study to be proposed for funding to the WHO.

The research idea came up after the Association of Chrysotile Industry of the Philippines (ACIP) presented the health situation of only their existing workers exposed to asbestos. A deeper look at the medical surveillance of workers including those retired is needed because the latency period of asbestos diseases can reach 40 years before any disease is diagnosed.

The NPEAD will be under the existing Inter-Agency Committee on Environmental Health (IACEH). IACEH was created by Executive Order No. 489 to facilitate and improve coordination among concerned government agencies on environmental sanitation, environmental health impact assessment and occupational health.  – DMT