Uzokwe's Searchlight

The issue of remodeling existing homes, in Nigeria, has brought with it a very unique challenge. Most homes built in Nigeria before the 1990s, were built with asbestos ceilings! That was before Nigerians became aware of the negative health effects of asbestos.

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Monday, October 29, 2007



Alfred Obiora Uzokwe

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BUILDING REMODELING AND THE ISSUE OF HAZARDOUS ASBESTOS CEILINGS IN NIGERIA


uring the late seventies and early eighties, when many Nigerians had practically pulled themselves out of financial doldrums occasioned by the civil war, the idea of buying used items seemingly became a taboo. The second-hand clothing market (okirika), which had boomed to no end, right after the civil war, began to fizzle slowly. Everyone wanted everything new, from clothes, to cars, to houses and more.


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This feel-good, live-good era did not last too long. Ibrahim Babangida's administration, which brought with it the word austerity, soon began to squelch the economic boom in the nation, with attendant squeeze on the pockets of Nigerians. As banks crashed, businesses collapsed and young graduates marched to the unemployment line, people were once again forced to begin an inward look for survival. Out of necessity, purchase and use of second-hand items soon came back into play and slowly began to flourish again. It was no longer anathema to buy and wear clothes from Okirika market! People who bought and used second-hand cars, motor cycles, refrigerators, generators and the likes were no longer the butt of jokes. Infact, used items procured from overseas were draped with the glamorizing sobriquet -"Tokumbo", a Yoruba name for someone born abroad.

It did not stop there. Ingenious Nigerians, with astute business minds, began to take advantage of the turn of events. Instead of importing new goods and items, from abroad, for sale in the country, they actually imported used and refurbished items, sold them to Nigerians at somewhat affordable prices. They were making a killing! No wonder, all of a sudden, Mercedes Benz cars, which used to be the exclusive preserve of rich Nigerians, suddenly swarmed Nigeria like locusts - the good, the bad and the ugly. I recall a visit I made with my son, to Nigeria, in 2004 September. He was shocked at the number of Mercedes Benz cars that plied the roads. He concluded that Nigeria had some of the richest people in the world. However, some of the cars looked so dilapidated that one wondered how they found their ways into the country. The point here, though, is that the acquisition and use of second-hand goods or items came to be accepted in the nation because inflation had made prices of every other thing unaffordable

Prices of building materials were also rising in geometric progression, making the construction of new buildings the exclusive preserve of the well-to-do. For example, the price of a bag of cement, in a very short time, rose from twenty naira to one thousand three hundred naira. The implication of this is not readily apparent until one considers that a teacher, in Nigeria, earns as little as 15 thousand naira a month! With one month's salary, a teacher can only afford as little as 10 bags of cement!

As a result of the above trend, the building sector is slowly experiencing the change that the automobile sector underwent. In lieu of the construction of new residential buildings, the average Nigerian now settles for rehabilitating existing ones. This is most prevalent in the villages were most people have older houses inherited from parents. Instead of demolishing the older houses to build new ones, they now settle for remodeling existing ones for far less money. Where a new one-storey residential building could cost as much as 12 to 15 million naira to build, the rehabilitation of a comparable existing one-storey building, could cost as little as 2 to 3 million naira with new amenities like modern toilets and bathrooms and long span aluminum roofing sheets.

The issue of remodeling existing homes, in Nigeria, has brought with it a very unique challenge. Most homes built in Nigeria before the 1990s, were built with asbestos ceilings! That was before Nigerians became aware of the negative health effects of asbestos. This situation is somewhat similar to what happened in the United States where asbestos materials were used for fireproofing buildings since the era of the Second World War. It was not until the seventies that the negative health effects became apparent. Till this day, many older buildings, in the United States, facing rehabilitation or demolition have asbestos. They are therefore subjected to some type of remediation via remediation experts. This is the problem that Nigerians face when they decide to remodel existing buildings. They are now aware of the health effects of asbestos and so always ask that the asbestos ceilings be ripped out during remodeling. Unsuspecting laborers are therefore saddled with the hazardous job of going room by room and stripping the asbestos ceiling boards. This may seem like a simple task but there is usually a latent price to be paid by the laborers and I will explain below.

The process of removal of asbestos ceilings often entails yanking out the panels or saw-cutting through them and pulling them off the ceiling. As they saw cut the panels, bits of the material become pulverized into fibers and float like powder into the air. In that state, the laborers doing the removal, as well as those observing the work, without the benefit of masks or other protective gears, continually inhale the fibers into their lungs. As they go from room to room, saw-cutting and removing the asbestos ceiling panels, the amount of asbestos fibers they inhale continue to add up. This was also the case when some of the ceiling panels were installed in the buildings many years ago during construction. Even though the panels come in standard sizes, sometimes, it became necessary for the workers to saw cut the panels to fit irregular spaces in the ceiling. During that process, most inhaled the deadly fibers.

Asbestos fibers are harmful when inhaled over a period of time. Two major lung cancers- asbestosis and mesothelioma have been linked to asbestos fiber inhalation. When the fibers are inhaled, they travel to the lungs and because they are not degradable, they stay there. After a while, sensing that foreign objects have invaded it, the lungs begin to make and secrete acid to "break down" the asbestos fibers. However, instead of breaking down the asbestos particles, the acid begins to attack the lung tissues, commencing an irreversible lung damage that culminates in metastasis and attendant cancer. The process takes place over a period of time so victims do not often know when the damaging health effect began.

Before one proceeds with this write up, it must be emphasized that one is not a health professional. As such, any one in need of more information about asbestosis or mesothelioma must consult a qualified health professional. The long and short of my treatise above, though, is that asbestos becomes harmful when pulverized into fibers and subsequently inhaled.

In the USA, where the use of asbestos in buildings has basically been outlawed for years, the lingering effects of exposure can still be seen in the many asbestos-related deaths. A report published in 2004 by Medical News Today, noted, "In the USA about ten thousand people die each year from diseases caused by asbestos." This is an alarming number for a nation that has taken positive steps to end the practice of using asbestos as an insulating material in buildings. One therefore wonders what the death statistics is in a developing country like Nigeria where most buildings have asbestos ceilings which were installed by unsuspecting workers without masks years ago. Causes of deaths, from specific diseases, are not tracked and recorded in Nigeria. It will therefore be difficult to know the extent of havoc asbestos has caused in Nigeria. All we know is that there are many cases of pulmonary-related deaths but no one has been able to trace these deaths to the exact cause.

The problem of asbestos fiber inhalation does not only rest with the workers who do the removal or those who installed them years ago. During building remodeling, when workers saw-cut and yank out the asbestos panels, the fiber particulates float into the air and later settle, like dust, on the walls of the house being remodeled. If the walls of the house are not properly cleaned, it will be the turn of the occupants of the house to be exposed to asbestos.

The safest approach when remodeling an existing house that has asbestos ceiling boards is to hire the services of Hazmat remediation experts. One is unsure of how many of these experts Nigeria currently has but there are some. Before they commence the removal of the asbestos panels, they encapsulate the enclosure with special drapes that preclude the escape of the fibers into the air. Some sophisticated experts, like those in the western world, have specialized equipment with a form of vacuum suction. As the asbestos panels are saw-cut and yanked out, fibers that float into the air are suctioned directly into the equipment and disposed of properly. Those doing the removal also have special oxygen masks they don to protect themselves and avoid inhalation. At the end of the removal, the whole building is completely wiped down before remodeling work proceeds.

Critics, I am sure, would opine that the cost of this type of remediation would be too prohibitive, especially for someone trying to save money by remodeling an old house instead of building a new one. My question for the critics would then be: how much price are you willing to put on your life?

HERE I STAND