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A symbol of masculinity, Hollywood icon Steve McQueen was in 1979 diagnosed, at the early age of 49, with mesothelioma, a kind of cancer. He tried many treatments, including a Mexican psychic healer, but died within a year. After an underprivileged childhood, he'd worked as a sailor and served in the United States Marine Corps, spending much time on ships where asbestos was widely used. After becoming successful as an actor, McQueen was an avid race-car enthusiast, wearing asbestos suits while racing. Over 80% of mesothelioma cases are caused by asbestos.
In 1995, a Japanese woman in her 50s living in Hyogo Prefecture was diagnosed with mesothelioma and had a lung removed. She was raised in a town near a factory that manufactured material for water piping using asbestos. According to research, of the 527 people that worked at that factory, 140 were later diagnosed with diseases related to asbestos and 71 died as a result. Additionally, 100 residents who lived within 1.5 km of the factory suffered from mesothelioma. Amid rising fears of the effects of working with asbestos, the Japanese government drafted a bill to help victims.
Asbestos has been widely used in Korea since the 1960s in building materials such as slate and heat insulators and the brake linings of cars. In 1993, a man in his 50s who had worked for 18 years in a fiber plant that used asbestos in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province received treatment for pain on the left side of his chest but later died. The Korean Ministry of Labor concluded that he had suffered from mesothelioma due to working conditions and his family received W35 million. He thus became the country's first known victim of cancer resulting from exposure to asbestos in the workplace.
Asbestos is inflammable, lighter than cork, as soft as a feather, as strong as glass fiber, and insoluble in both water and acid; it is thus called a dream mineral. As more is learned about it, however -- for example, once asbestos enters the body, it can be latent for 10-40 years before killing the victim within a year -- it becomes the mineral of the devil. In a random survey by the Ministry of Environment of 215 Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province residents who lived near asbestos mines now closed, 110 suffered from lung disease. The area had been the site of Asia¡¯s largest asbestos mine since the end of the Japanese colonial period; the mine was closed in 1983. With so many residents from the area suffering from lung disease, few live past the age of 70.
Two residents of Yeonsan-dong, Busan, who did not work at the nearby asbestos factory, Korea's largest, have been diagnosed with lung disease, becoming the first such cases of asbestos-related disease in Korea. Findings regarding the victims in Hongseong were confirmed recently. Workers are eligible for compensation, but residents must go through litigation. We must pass a rescue bill, as the Japanese did, and launch a serious investigation into the damage caused by asbestos.
The column was contributed by Chosun Ilbo in-house columnist Kim Dong-seop.
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