Seoul Metro plans to remove asbestos containing materials in subway stations
The city-run subway operator Seoul Metro is planning to remove all materials that contain asbestos in subway stations. Earlier, 17 stations on three lines of Seoul's subway system had been detected with the presence of asbestos, the carcinogenic material.
However, there is no official license at the moment in South Korea to certify that a company is trained to clean up asbestos. According to the regulation passed by the Labor Ministry, a company must possess the official authorization by the government to remove asbestos materials. Without having this license stating they have received the training, nobody is supposed to perform the task. So, experts think it will be an extremely difficult or almost impossible task for South Korean officials to remove all the asbestos materials in subway stations safely.
Seok Mi-hi, the CEO of ETS Consulting said, "No South Korean company exists right now to remove asbestos on the walls and ceilings of a subway station with the guarantee of safety." ETS Consulting is provided with its own equipment to examine and displace asbestos. "Foreign companies with such expertise should help Seoul Metro to remove the asbestos," Seok said.
Right now there is no workforce in Korea to remove the asbestos. The asbestos materials should be stripped off in a way which minimizes the quantity of asbestos dust particles to scatter in the air. The job demands high skill however, there are no training programs in South Korea to teach this.
Also, they don't have much institutes to analyze and assess the asbestos content. A researcher at the Wonjin Institute for Occupational and Environmental Health said, "There are only three to five institutions in South Korea that can appropriately assess the content of asbestos."
Experts think the passengers and laborers should be addressed immediately regarding the problem. “The health of subway workers and passengers is actually in danger. But people are not as aware of the danger as they are for radioactivity,†said Prof. Lim Sang-hyuk of Wonjin Green Hospital.
