아래 내용은 호주 ABC 뉴스 7월 4일자 기사입니다.
인도네시아 발리와 맞 닿아 있는 롬복(Lombok)은 관광객들이 몰려드는 유명한 휴양지이나 2018년에 발생한 지진으로 파괴된 수십만채의 건물 자재들이 여전히 처리되지 않고 있는데 그 중에 석면이 포함되어 있어 현지 주민 뿐 아니라 관광객의 건강까지 위협하고 있음.
호주는 석면이 포함된 잔재물을 의무적으로 제거해야 하는 반면, 인도네시아 정부는 불도저를 이용하여 수백만 조각으로 부수었다. 백만톤 가량의 슬레이트가 부서졌으니 수백만톤의 석면으로 오염된 잔재물이 있는 것이다. 이곳에서 닭도 키우고 아이들은 뛰어 놀고, 사람들이 살고 있다.
호주의 연구팀은 100개 이상 지역에서 31개 샘플을 수거하여 3곳의 서로 다른 분석기관에 보낸 결과 2/3가 석면이 검출되었다.
호주에서는 건물이 무너지면 해당 지역은 위험구역으로 출입을 금지하고 있다.
롬복에는 코로나 이전에 150만명의 여행객이 방문하였으며, 최근에는 여행객 수가 다시 증가하고 있다.
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ANNE BARKER, REPORTER: Senggigi Beach on the idyllic Indonesian island of Lombok is a tourist drawcard but this paradise is hiding a toxic secret.
DAVE HODGKIN, MIYAMATO INTERNATIONAL: Some areas, we’re probably better to put in a layer of soil on top, at least immediately just to cover it up. Even if it's only 10 centimetres of soil, just to actually stop the immediate risk.
REPORTER (2018): Not one tremor but several sent people on Lombok, neighbouring Bali, running from fear.
ANNE BARKER: Lombok is covered in deadly asbestos rubble after a massive earthquake in 2018 destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes - a quarter of which had asbestos roofs.
Instead of cleaning up the asbestos rubble – as would be mandatory in Australia – Indonesian authorities sent bulldozers in to crush it into millions of pieces.
DAVE HODGKIN: What that then means though, is that if say you had a million tons of broken asbestos sheeting, you now have millions of tons of asbestos contaminated rubble.
All of that entire environment that we have got chickens landing in, kids playing in, people living in, is basically asbestos contaminated.
ANNE BARKER: Australian Dave Hodgkin works in disaster management for Miyamoto International.
With a team of experts, he took 31 samples at more than 100 locations. They were tested in three different labs. Two-thirds were contaminated with asbestos.
DAVE HODGKIN: Where we've had an asbestos building in the middle of Australia – one building that's been demolished by accident – that whole area would be fenced off, it would be declared a hazardous zone, hazmat zone really.
ANNE BARKER: 7.30 tagged along as the team took more samples just a few kilometres from Senggigi Beach.
They were sent to Australia for testing.
KEN ARCHER, ENVIROSCIENCE SOLUTIONS: What we're most interested in is if there's any contamination from pieces of bonded board from this, the rubble at the site of the earthquake.
ANNE BARKER: Experts and locals told 7.30 there isn’t a single doctor in Lombok trained to diagnose asbestos-related diseases so it’s impossible to know how many people here, including tourists, may have breathed in asbestos.
PROF. KEN TAKAHASHI, UNIVERSITY OF WA: Once they’re breathed into lungs, they tend to stay there for a long time, and eventually cause many problems, including cancer.
ANNE BARKER: Lombok has an alarming rate of tuberculosis which shares many symptoms of asbestos caused cancer or mesothelioma.
Experts including Ken Takahashi believe it’s possible many don’t have TB at all but asbestos-related disease.
KEN TAKAHASHI: Asbestosis, which is a fibrotic condition, caused by asbestos exposure is very often complicated with tuberculosis.
ANNE BARKER: Ibu Rauhun and her family, like others, have used recycled material from their old home to rebuild. They used broken asbestos roofing to make this tiny hut for her mother.
IBU RAUHUN (translated): She’s scared, traumatised because of the earthquake so she refuses to stay in the house.
DAVE HODGKIN: We’ve got kids sitting here playing here with toys. This is a classic example where we can see a piece of asbestos that kids are probably using that as a little scoop to load their truck or to do something else with but the entire environment through here is broken asbestos throughout this rubble.
ANNE BARKER: Indonesia is one of a dwindling number of countries that still uses asbestos widely in the construction industry.
Despite a global campaign, and reforms by other neighbouring countries, it hasn’t banned the lethal substance.
The Indonesian Government is considering what it can do to protect NGO workers and the people of Lombok.
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Asbestos posing a threat to tourists and locals in Lombok
