ANGELES CITY – The bishop at the local parish here has called for an investigation into why asbestos used in the ceiling of the parish hall as soundproofing material is still openly sold in hardware stores in the city.
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David and officers of the Parish Pastoral Council met with representatives of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Environment Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO), Dr. Carmencita D. Dobles and the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG) at the City Council Session Hall on Tuesday to find out how asbestos is openly sold in the market.
David said he discovered the asbestos when he had the parish hall renovated beginning last month.
He said whenever he inspected the work being done on the parish hall he would always have itches on his exposed body parts. He said when he asked the workers if they had the same symptoms, they answered in the affirmative and said it’s coming from the “cotton-like insulation” which they removed from the ceiling.
David said he had the material taken to a government accredited laboratory for testing which confirmed that the material contained asbestos, a banned substance worldwide.
David said NCR Construction Supply along Jake Gonzales Boulevard has admitted selling the insulation material containing asbestos. David said the hardware store even informed him that they import the insulation material from China who also manufactured it.
During the meeting, DTI representative Atty. Joan Uy-Quiambao said their department is not capable of testing the insulation material for its asbestos content and pointed to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) as the proper agency to do testing. She said the DTI’s mandate is to examine the material for standardization.
Natalia A. Sapla, environmental management staff II of the EMB, said there are three kinds of asbestos.
The black and blue asbestos are both banned worldwide while the white asbestos although banned in the USA and other countries is still being used in China and the Philippines as fire proofing materials, soundproof insulation as in the case of the parish hall, and motor vehicle brake lining among others.
Sapla said information on these can easily be obtained from the EMB website under the Chemical Controlled Order for asbestos.
Meanwhile, environmentalists present in the meeting vowed to call for measures from the city council to put a stop to the sale of asbestos in the market after Dobles expounded on the hazards posed by asbestos to human health.
