hankyoreh

Seoul Metro, the city-run subway operator, said on January 22 that it will remove all asbestos-containing materials in subway stations after the Hankyoreh reported earlier this week that the walls and ceilings of many subway stations were coated with the carcinogenic substance.

However, experts say that it is almost impossible for South Korean officials to safely remove all asbestos materials in subway stations due to a lack of specialists trained to do so.

In addition, no official license exists in South Korea certifying that a company is trained to remove asbestos materials. Since 2003, the Ministry of Labor has passed legislation that would require a company or workers to receive the government's official permission in order to remove asbestos materials, in the form of a special license denoting they had received proper training to perform the task. However, no follow-up measures were set, so currently, only companies with an ordinary license for removing construction materials are doing such jobs.

Seok Mi-hi, chief executive officer of ETS Consulting, equipped with its own equipment to analyze asbestos and remove the materials, 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." Seok said foreign companies with such expertise should help Seoul Metro remove the asbestos.

In addition, there is no workforce here to remove asbestos. The task requires workers to strip the asbestos-contaminated material in a way that minimizes the amount of asbestos dust spread in the air. Therefore, workers' expertise is critical to removing the asbestos with safety. However, no training program exists in South Korea to teach such skills.

Also, there are only a few institutes set up to be able to analyze and assess the content of asbestos. According to Choi Sang-jun, a researcher at the Wonjin Institute for Occupational and Environmental Health, "There are only three to five institutions in South Korea that can appropriately assess the content of asbestos."

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]