EcoLur
Asbestos pipes are laid in Litchq village, through which people get water both for irrigation and for drinking. Since 2005 asbestos has been banned for use in Europe. The mining of asbestos is prohibited in the USA, Australia, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, and South Africa. The reason is threat to people’s health, i. e. diseases that asbestos generate – asbesthosis, lung cancer, pleural or peritoneum mesothelioma. Litchq Village Head Hovik Mirzoyan also mentioned more frequent cases in cancer diseases. “…How many times we asked to help us, we wanted to overcome this situation. We receive our drinking water through asbestos pipes for over 7-8 years, but these pipes are designed for irrigation. We had no idea how much these pipes are dangerous. Only after pipes were connected to houses to get drinking water, we learnt everything. Water runs from tape together with asbestos fibers. It’s true we were explained its amount is not to that extent we imagined. Nevertheless, hazard exists and we relate it with asbestos. For example, our village is small, but we had 26 cases of cancer during 25 years and we relate these deaths with the pipes…I applied to appropriate bodies, they came and made analyses…moreover, we have a military unit here…Defense Ministry sent a specialist, people from sanitary and epidemiological service. As a result, we were told there is no hazard…On 9 September I was reelected and made a decision to change the pipes. We have already changed 800 meters of iron and we will also change 1 km of pipes: about 700-800 meters of pipes are left to be changes and they we will be sure,” said Hovik Mirzoyan. He didn’t mention where the changes asbestos pipes are stored. Dismantled pipes pose more hazard, as asbestos fibers are released in case of non-professional dismantling. Unfortunately, Sanitary and epidemiological inspection, which is supposed to respond to the dismantling of pipes in the village, didn’t react in any way. It should be mentioned that in 1999 Armenia ratified the Basel Convention, which lays down asbestos is a toxic waste and recommends to adhere to necessary procedures for the utilization of asbestos wastes. Nature Protection Ministry successfully reports in international forums how the Basel Convention is implemented, but nobody knows what happened to over two-kilometer-long dismantled pipes in Litchq Village.
November 27, 2012 at 08:39