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Tokyo-Since November last year, a series of asbestos-containing bath mats and other items have been found in "hometown tax" gifts provided by local governments in western Japan and products provided by major Japanese furniture retailers, triggering a large-scale recall.

All products contain diatomaceous earth, which is a highly absorbent mineral material, leading some netizens to speculate that this ingredient causes asbestos danger. However, experts pointed out that "diatomite has nothing to do with this case."

Asbestos is a group of mineral fibers that are inexpensive and highly resistant to fire. Japan imported about 10 million tons of asbestos, mainly between the 1970s and 1990s, and it was widely used as a construction material. People who inhale asbestos will have serious health problems even decades later, including mesothelioma and lung cancer. The Japanese government revised the Executive Order of the Industrial Safety and Health Law in 2006, prohibiting the import, manufacture and sale of products including asbestos weighing more than 0.1% of the entire object.

At the same time, diatomaceous earth is composed of layers of diatom fossil shells, which are a type of algae. Because diatomaceous earth has extremely strong water absorption, it can even absorb moisture from the air, so it is usually used in construction materials and general consumer products. Although diatomaceous earth is mined, it contains almost no asbestos in its natural state.

There are several regulatory blind spots behind how the recalled products enter the circulation. The first such example is a gift from a taxpayer donated to Kaizuka City Government in Osaka Prefecture under the "Hometown Tax Donation" system.

Shell mound announced in November that approximately 15,000 bath mats and 2,500 coasters manufactured by local company Hori Mokkosho and processed by the city government between August 2016 and February 2020 may contain asbestos. According to data from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the local government of Kaizuka, the asbestos concentration of the large bath mat is 0.38%, the small bath mat is 0.61%, and the coaster is 0.1-0.3%-exceeding the national government's regulatory limit of 0.1% .

These items are made of extruded cement boards. The materials used include diatomaceous earth. The product's maintenance instructions recommend using sandpaper on the surface to maintain absorbency. According to the Ministry of Health, there is no problem using these items as they are, but if the mats and coasters are polished or damaged, particles including asbestos may be released. According to the city government, Hori Mokkosho contacted individuals who received tax gifts from their hometown and sent them replacement products that do not contain asbestos.

Another question is why the product contains asbestos.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the company manufactures bath mats and coasters by processing cement boards purchased from a company in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture in 2001. This happened before the 2006 amendment to the Executive Order of the Industrial Safety and Health Law, which stipulated a 0.1% asbestos limit. According to the regulations at the time, products with asbestos content less than 1% of the total weight were considered "asbestos-free". As a result, asbestos items that were considered legal at the time of purchase had been stored for nearly 20 years before they were recently distributed as hometown tax gifts.

Other similar cases have occurred in 2020. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced in September that construction machinery gaskets shipped between 2006 and 2015 contained asbestos exceeding the 0.1% limit. In November, Komatsu Corporation disclosed similar information. The Ministry of Health stated that all cases involved the distribution of products manufactured before the strengthening of regulations. The Ministry believes that there are problems with the continuous problems, and has requested in writing about 500 affiliated organizations to conduct another batch of inspections on industrial products and materials purchased and manufactured in 2006 and before.

There are more loopholes, including cases where products are imported into Japan from countries with lax asbestos regulations.

Household goods retailer Cainz learned that there was a problem with the hometown tax gifts of the shell mounds and voluntarily inspected about 50 items that use diatomaceous earth, such as hometown tax gifts. Then five types of products, including bath mats, were found to contain 0.2% to 1.3% asbestos. It announced that it will recall approximately 290,000 articles in 17 categories. According to Keynes, these products are produced in a contracted factory in China. A representative commented: “It is not yet clear in which process the asbestos was mixed, and we are conducting inspections.”

Furniture manufacturer Nitori Co. also encountered the same problem. The Ministry of Health of Japan announced on December 22 that approximately 2.4 million of the nine categories of bath mats and coasters sold between 2016 and December 2020 may contain asbestos. These products produced in the Chinese factory are obviously imported to Japan, and Nitori has been recalling them.

Compared with Japan, China's regulations on asbestos are relatively loose, and asbestos-containing building materials are widely produced in the country. Although Japan has adopted countermeasures to prevent asbestos imports at customs, Sugio Furuya, head of the Tokyo-based Japan Asbestos Ban Network (BANJAN) Administrative Office, said that in some cases, asbestos is not mentioned in the documents of products made in China. Concerns about asbestos-contaminated products imported into Japan.

"There is no guarantee that the import of asbestos to Japan will be banned," he said.

In addition, the basic ingredients of bath mats and other items that were found to contain asbestos contained diatomaceous earth, but officials from the Ministry of Health explained: “We don’t think that diatomaceous earth contains asbestos. We think that asbestos is mixed together. In manufacturing. In the process of squeezing the cement board."

Furuya pointed out, "This problem does not occur because of diatomaceous earth, but it may also occur in other products. We must establish a system to ensure that regulations are thoroughly implemented so that products containing asbestos will not eventually enter the circulation field."

(Original from Japan, Mirai Nagira, Ministry of Science and Environmental Information, Japan)

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