THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 16, 2021 at 18:44 JST
Asbestos dust particles are known to cause lung cancer. (Provided by Tokyo Occupational Safety & Health Center)
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in fiscal 2020 certified 1,060 people who developed mesothelioma or lung cancer due to exposure to asbestos as eligible for industrial accident insurance benefits. The figure, announced Dec. 15, is down 85 compared with fiscal 2019.
Even though Japan banned the manufacture of asbestos in 2006, almost 1,000 people each year are added to the list to receive payments as a result of having inhaled asbestos particles in the course of their work, mostly on construction sites.
The total number of construction laborers or factory workers, among others, approved to receive industrial accident insurance benefits after developing mesothelioma or lung cancer reached 18,427 by fiscal 2020.
Building materials containing asbestos are no longer sold in Japan.
However, vast quantities of the dangerous material still exist in buildings across the nation. Officials are concerned that asbestos cases will continue to occur as more of the old buildings are demolished in the future.
Ministry officials said 910 work sites were identified in fiscal 2020 during the course of approving industrial accident insurance payouts. Payments were also made to bereaved family members of those who died from asbestos exposure.
Officials said that with regard to 668 of the work sites, fiscal 2020 marked the first time for former workers or their family members to gain approval to receive benefits.
Illness due to exposure to asbestos can take decades before symptoms surface.
“It is entirely possible that around 1,000 people each year will continue to be approved for industrial accident insurance benefits in the future,” noted a ministry official responsible for handling the issue.
Some patients got sick simply from inhaling asbestos dust particles emanating from work sites even though they didn’t work there.
Under the law governing compensation payments in such cases, a total of 16,393 people were approved to receive government benefits as of this past October, including 1,055 people in the past 12 months alone.
(This article was written by Kyosuke Yamamoto and Hiroki Hashimoto)
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