Widely used as construction materials in Korea, asbestos is classified as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1). Exposure to asbestos can cause diseases such as lung cancer or mesothelioma cancer that affects thin cell wall lining of internal body organs. Therefore, protecting citizens from asbestos is becoming increasingly important.
 

Banned from Use
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, classifies asbestos as Group 1 carcinogenic to humans and thus bans countries around the world from using the harmful material. The Korean government also banned use of asbestos, following the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s notification 2008-26. Brown and blue asbestos have been banned since January 2000, and white asbestos since January 2009.
 
Asbestos Poses Serious Health Risk
Today, citizens are exposed to some form of asbestos as the material was widely used in construction during 1970s and 80s. Yet, exposure to the material was viewed only as a health hazard for construction workers and not for residents. Little awareness thus led to insufficient management of use, maintenance and removal of this potentially dangerous material. As citizens became increasingly agitated over their exposure and increased risk involving asbestos, Seoul needed to urgently come up with a systematic legal and institutional basis to protect the public health against the carcinogenic material prevalent in many buildings.
 

Seoul promptly responded to the concern involving asbestos. In March 2008, the city government brought together the Advisory Group for Asbestos Management in Seoul, a group composed of experts, civil groups, professors and journalists prominent in the field. The city government also implemented a series of measures such as technology development and removal of asbestos-containing materials in the buildings.
 
Enhancing Expertise for Asbestos Analysis
In August 2009 a team dedicated for asbestos research was formed under the Public Health and Environment Research Institute, a public agency working under the SMG. The team is fully equipped with various cutting-edge analytics devices such as TEM (transmission electronic microscopy) and deservingly accredited by the Ministry of Employment and Labor as the first asbestos testing laboratory among all the public health and environmental research institutes throughout the nation. The Institute also earned the honor of accreditation in the fields of airborne asbestos and solid asbestos by the US-based National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in November 2010. Seoul’s Public Health and Environmental Research Institute was the first institute ever to receive the NIST’s accreditation in Asia, garnering much deserved recognition.
 
Asbestos in Buildings
Targeting crowd-gathering places such as public institutions, schools and universities, cultural and religious facilities, and medical and senior care center, Seoul began taking samples of asbestos containing materials (ACM), analyzing the level of exposure, drawing maps and writing conclusion of analysis. According to this thorough health risk assessment, Seoul recommends either removal of the building if materials have deteriorated to a serious extent or repair in case of minimal damage. All buildings in use while the Act on Asbestos Safety Control is in force have to complete the assessment either by April 28th, 2014 or by April 28th, 2015.
Another measure taken by the Seoul government to ensure safety of asbestos is the asbestos map, which is drawn using test results from 2,007 city-owned buildings since 2009. The city also conducts a health risk assessment, and the results are disclosed online (http://cleanindoor. seoul.go.kr). The same assessment is now conducted twice a year on ACM containing buildings. Seoul’s administrative districts also actively promote public buildings to draw asbestos map and disclose it to the public.
Committed to protecting health of children and youth from exposure to asbestos and providing a safe learning environment, Seoul completed an asbestos status survey on 100 elementary schools in 2012. As the efforts were ramped up, both asbestos status survey and health risk assessment were conducted on 1,854 schools (from kindergartens through high schools) in Seoul from 2013 to 2014.
 
Asbestos in Subway Stations and Underground Passage
Subway is one of the most popular modes of transportation in Korea used by 10 million Seoul residents. Given the importance of subway in the lives of Seoulites, keeping the metro stations free of asbestos risk is extremely crucial. Accordingly, the SMG has placed a series of measures to study and order removal of asbestos when necessary. An assessment on 120 metro stations operated by Seoul Metro (line 1-4) in 2009 detected asbestos in 115 stations. Since then, the harmful material has been completely removed from 94 stations, and the remaining 21 are slated to undergo removal projects soon. Another metro operator, Urban Railway Corporation (line 5-8) also conducted the same assessment on 245 stations and found that 25 stations and buildings contained asbestos. Complete removal of asbestos from the said stations will be completed by 2015. Assessment was conducted on shops in underground passage. 29 of the underground facilities were found to contain asbestos, and all of them have already removed the harmful material by 2012.
 
Removing Asbestos Slate Roof
The public is making a strong demand that all asbestos slate roofs be removed. To respond to the public demand, Seoul established a slate roofs removal plan based upon its extensive research on level of deterioration of all slates roofs and owner’s willingness to replace. After a pilot run in 2012, the city government is gradually implementing the plan throughout the city. In particular, Seoul is currently working on removing all broken-down slate roofs from housings of underprivileged communities.
 
Safety Involving Asbestos Removal
Removing asbestos from homes and other buildings is a right step, but caution is needed as such work can also cause exposure to people living close to where removal is taking place. Devoted to protect citizens from any possible health threat, the SMG joined hands with districts in Seoul, Institute of Health Environment and Seoul Regional Ministry of Employment and. The partnership was formed to check whether appropriate protective measures are in place to minimize exposure and to measure how much of the asbestos is scattered in the air.
Removing asbestos from homes and other buildings is a right step, but caution is needed as such work can also cause exposure to people living close to where removal is taking place. Devoted to protect citizens from any possible health threat, the SMG joined hands with districts in Seoul, Institute of Health Environment and Seoul Regional Ministry of Employment and. The partnership was formed to check whether appropriate protective measures are in place to minimize exposure and to measure how much of the asbestos is scattered in the air.
 
Support to Asbestos Victims
The city government has compensated victims who were exposed to a high level of asbestos while working in mines or factories as a way to help the victims as well as their families. So far, 223 victims have received KRW 5.3 billion.