Despite a comprehensive ban in 1993, around 1,500 people die every year as a result of an occupational disease caused by asbestos. Between 2001 and 2016, an estimated 6.3 million tons of asbestos-containing waste was produced. Over 100,000 employees are still at risk of being exposed to asbestos today. These are just some of the latest figures from the National Asbestos Profile Germany, which the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) has now published in its second, updated edition.
In order to protect the health of employees, national asbestos profiles provide information on the asbestos situation in the member states of the European Region of the World Health Organization. To this end, the National Asbestos Profile addresses aspects such as asbestos consumption and use, the number of people exposed, the incidence of disease associated with asbestos fibers, the system for regulating asbestos risks and the economic burden of asbestos-related diseases.
Asbestos is a natural substance that was used as a "mineral of a thousand possibilities" in industrial and consumer-related areas over 100 years ago. Asbestos products were mainly used in the construction sector in Germany, at least until the early 1990s.
According to the national asbestos profile, around 1600 people who fell ill at work in 2017 died because they were exposed to dust containing asbestos. In total, over 34,000 people died as a result of the mineral between 1990 and 2017. The cost of medical care and pension payments for asbestos sufferers and their relatives amounted to around 8.3 billion euros between 1990 and 2016.
Around 650,000 employees in Germany were currently or previously exposed to asbestos at the end of 2017. Around 100,000 employees are known to have potentially come into contact with asbestos during their work in the building trade or in waste disposal. It is estimated that over 37 million tons of material containing asbestos are still in use, mostly in the form of asbestos cement. Asbestos can be released particularly during the demolition or conversion of buildings. Work on concealed asbestos-containing plasters, fillers and tile adhesives poses a particular problem. Under certain circumstances, they could be carried out without the necessary occupational safety measures. Around 750,000 tradesmen in the finishing trade are particularly affected here. The profile therefore also deals with the occupational exposure limits for asbestos and lists the current regulations for the protection of employees.
