South Africa bans asbestos

Pretoria, South Africa – Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced in a media briefing Thursday that regulations to prohibit the use, manufacture, and processing of or asbestos or asbestos-containing products will be in effect starting Friday, March 28.

The new laws will be additions to the Environment Conservation Act of 1989.

There are a few exceptions to the regulations, however. The transportation of the material through South Africa is still allowed to accommodate requests from neighboring, landlocked Zimbabwe. To help eliminate unsafe disposals in the region, the importation of asbestos into the country by Southern African Development Community members for the purpose of safe disposal would be permitted also. The last exception to the asbestos ban is the use of the substance for research as long as the purpose of the research wasn’t to produce a new asbestos-containing product.

Any individual or organization that intends to take any of these actions is required attain authorization from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Those who are currently dealing with asbestos or asbestos-containing products are being given a 120-day grace period to comply with the new regulations.

Companies who have switched to asbestos-free products are welcoming the new regulations because they have had to compete with cheaper, but hazardous, asbestos-containing counterparts imported from suppliers in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Brazil.

South Africa, once one of the world’s largest suppliers of several types of asbestos, can now include itself on the list of more than 50 countries that have chosen to ban the use of asbestos.

Previous story on asbestos ban in South Africa.

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