Abstract
The Italian economy has been battered by the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic. European Union and Italian government economic recovery funds will provide special economic recovery loans aimed toward energy saving and the consequent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to meet the Paris Agreement climate goals. In, Italy, millions of square meters of asbestos cement (AC) roofing cover industrial and civic buildings. Removal of this asbestos containing material (ACM) would contribute to three pandemic and economic recovery objectives: job creation, reduction of greenhouse gasses (thru energy savings), and public health improvements. Though asbestos was used for its excellent thermal insulation properties, we provide calculations that demonstrate that the cement binding in AC roofing negates the asbestos insulation function. Therefore, replacing AC roofing with roofs made with alternative materials with better thermal transmission coefficients can contribute significantly to energy savings, reduce the risk of asbestos-related morbidity and mortality, and establish substantial economic activity.
The Current Situation
Asbestos was banned in Italy by law 257 of March 1992. The ban stopped the mining, the use of asbestos as a raw material, as well as its trade. Estimates at that time showed that more than 30 million 1 tons of asbestos-containing material (ACM) was installed for various reasons in the national territory. Since then, the rate of remediation has been approximately 1 percent of the total quantity per year.2,3
Asbestos reclamation companies operating in Italy are required to provide annual reports of asbestos removal to the Public Administration. These reports have generated rather reliable estimates of asbestos removal. Almost thirty years after the asbestos ban, just over a quarter of the total estimated quantity present in 1992 has been removed. About 23 million tons are still in use throughout the national territory and are yet to be reclaimed. 4 Obviously, the remediation process is very slow and needs to be accelerated, in particular for the ACM. Although the asbestos cement (AC) products are made of one of the most durable and stable construction materials, they have been in place for at least thirty years according to industry accounting.
Nevertheless, the AC products installed on the roofs degrades over time due to the erosion of the cement binder caused by the acidity and mechanics of rainfall as well as wind abrasion.5,6 This leads to a release of asbestos fibers into the environment which are mainly carried away by rainwater. These can accumulate in the gutters in the form of free fibers and then, once dry, can easily disperse in the air. The ubiquitous presence of airborne asbestos fibers has been confirmed by numerous monitoring efforts carried out before the 1992 ban,7,8 and also in recent times. 9 The ban has resulted in a reduction in pollution, but not its complete elimination. Before the issue of this law, the primary sources of environmental asbestos air pollution, excluding those relating to industrial emissions, came from the wear of raw asbestos used in friction materials of motor vehicles and from the reinforced concrete covers. 4 The production of friction materials and asbestos cement products benefited from a two-year derogation in the 1992 law; therefore these two materials began to be marketed without asbestos from 1994. The friction materials in use at the time gradually ran out and therefore the covers are the primary remaining anthropogenic outdoor source. The other remaining ACMs are usually located indoor and quantitatively and numerically negligible compared to AC roofs.
The order of magnitude of background pollution from airborne asbestos fibers is about 0.0001 ff/cc, 10 and is an order of magnitude below the quality standards of air for Western Europe established by the WHO in 2000, 11 therefore the health risk for the exposure of the general population can be considered very low, although the principle of maximum precaution and prevention must always be taken in serious account. However, it should not be forgotten that the permanent presence of ACM can always constitute a risk of occupational exposure for bricklayers who, unaware of the risk, can intervene without precautions on these materials.
Asbestos-Related Health Problems
In fact, presently in Italy, building workers face the greatest health risks associated with ACM, especially for those who conduct maintenance work without the necessary health risk and exposure prevention information.12,13 The latest data from the National Mesothelioma Register 14 shows the greatest risks for work-related mesotheliomas are among construction workers who can experience significant exposures with a consequent increased risk of contracting asbestos-related diseases. However, the construction sector is also made up of other industrial divisions at risk, such as thermo hydraulics, building insulation, and electrical work. Often the construction companies in Italy employ workers of non-European Union (EU) origin who lack the necessary health risk information and are subject to serious injuries or fatalities due to falling through while walking across these fragile AC roofing slabs. This is called “breakthrough”. In fact, fatalities from such breakthrough accidents are estimated to represent about 7 percent of all workplace accidents, excluding those due to motor vehicle accidents for commuting from home to work.
Substitution Versus Encapsulation/Confinement
The Italian law also allows the temporary remediation of these materials through encapsulation and confinement treatments, 15 which are basically conservative maintenance interventions. These approaches pose the risk of environmental fiber release, do not necessarily reduce the risk of breakthrough, and by their nature are only temporary risk management approaches. These interventions have limits and problems that must be addressed over time and that never free the owner from the continuous maintenance surveillance that must be carried out on these materials annually. In particular, the encapsulating paints used on roofs have a sealing duration of several years which also varies depending on the exposure to various atmospheric conditions. Therefore, the treatment must be continuously monitored and periodically renewed.
The total cost of the initial application of the encapsulation is lower than that of removal. However the ancillary costs of the provisional work, especially after multiple encapsulation treatments may equal the cost of the removal. Often the preparation for these temporary treatments is complex because the AC is a fragile material that cannot be walked upon, requiring construction of catwalk systems.
Waste Materials Disposal
The cost of the confinement by overlapping another material of the same shape to be affixed to the AC is slightly lower than removal and installation of the new roof (obviously a lot depends on the materials used as confinement and those used as new covers). If the cost of removal is added to this cost, even if postponed, the overall cost is decidedly higher. In Italy in particular, use of the confinement strategy has declined significantly because of a series of problems related to landfill disposal. The CER code (European Classification of Waste) of the cover material is different from that of the AC slabs and landfills that receive the latter are not always authorized to collect materials with a different code. Furthermore, confined AC slabs occupy a greater volume than simple ones and this entails a significant price increase for disposal, as prices are based on the volume. In Italy, for some years treatment interventions on the AC have been overtaken by substitution because tax incentives have been guaranteed for the installation of photovoltaic systems on the roofs which needed the substitution of all covers. This indirectly advanced asbestos hazard abatement and remediation with significant increases in the amount of ACM removed. 4
Asbestos Removal Can Contribute to Economic Recovery Post-Covid 19 Pandemic
The Covid 19 pandemic caused the loss of one million Italian jobs. The EU Recovery Fund is making a huge loan available to Italy for economic and public health recovery that supports also climate change mitigation and adaptation. We are proposing one use of these funds that would allow an acceleration of the asbestos remediation process while at the same time meet the EU guidelines for these loans, such as activities aimed at greening the economy, particularly through energy conservation.
Currently about 20,000 workers work in the Italian asbestos remediation sector. This estimate derives from the data of the regions that annually send summary figures of remediation to the Ministry of Health. European funds are disbursed to citizens through a tax discount system that allows to recover part, or the entire cost of the work, over a certain number of years. If the AC removal would be included in the construction works already covered by the EU past pandemic funding, the process could be accelerated. For example, a doubling of the remediation carried out in one year would double the number of current jobs bringing it to 40,000. Usually a tax discount incentive is awarded to the building owner only upon presentation of an invoice that states that the work was performed in compliance with all regulatory requirements. Therefore a national program of AC roofing material removal based on this payment mechanism would be performed in compliance with all the rules and having a positive effect on the reduction of illegal disposal which usually is done to eliminate the cost of the legal one. There is no estimate of the quantity of ACM illegally abandoned on the sides of roads, in the woods and on the banks of rivers, but the cost of removing these materials and placing them in a regular landfill fall on the whole community, since these removals are paid by the Public Administration.
Health Education and Risk Management
ACM reclaimers have a special license which is issued by the Regional administrations only after having attended a training course on working methods and risk prevention, including a final exam. During the course of work, the employers must provide for periodic health surveillance of these workers, which consists of respiratory function tests to verify the suitability of their employees to wear heavy personal protective equipment.
During the removal of compact materials, such as concrete slabs, the pollution that is generated is normally below the European Threshold Limit Value (TLV) of 1 fb/cc with an average of around 0.03 fb/cc 16 and therefore with respiratory protection achieved with (N99) the inhalation exposure can be estimated around 0.001 fb/cc. However, it can be assumed that these workers are exposed to a concentration slightly higher than that of the general population or that of workers who do not handle ACM. This is essentially due to asbestos exposures caused by possible hygienic accidents which might happen when these work activities are carried out
Current Asbestos-Related Diseases
In Italy in the period 2010–2016, the average number of annual deaths due to asbestos-related diseases was 1573. Among these 1515 died from malignant mesothelioma and 58 from asbestosis. To these must be added the deaths from lung and ovarian cancer which have been estimated to be attributable to past asbestos exposure. These are respectively 2830 and sixteen cases/year. 17 These last two pathologies are estimates since currently no epidemiological surveillance is conducted specifically for mesothelioma. There are still no data on the reclamation cohort as no specific study has been conducted. However, it should be noted that the concerted asbestos reclamation effort first began about thirty years ago, and so the latency period for the development of mesothelioma from initial exposures has not yet been reached. 18
Since reclamation work is usually carried out with suitable individual protections, no case of asbestosis is expected as this pathology is linked to very high intensity and prolonged exposures. Buresti, et al. 19 have estimated that the cost, paid by the National Health Service (SSN) and the National Workers Compensation Authority (INAIL) for a single case of mesothelioma is around 58,000 € (∼ $68,000). The reduction in the incidence of mesothelioma cases through prevention procedures towards the complete elimination of the presence of ACM not only represents a benefit for the health of workers, but also a reduction in health costs for the benefit of the entire population. The savings would be around 88 million euros per year although this is a long-term perspective.
The EU Recovery Fund Could be Used to Remove AC Roofing Material
The European Commission is providing special recovery funding for all EU nations following the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. Italy will receive the highest amount, more than 200 billion €, to be disbursed following its presentation of a recovery plan that complies with the guidelines established by this commission which, among other aspects, seek provision for the transition to a green economy.
A tax incentive provided by the Italian government in 2012 to encourage installation of photovoltaic panels, for example, increased the reclamation of the AC roofs by about 40 percent in the Tuscany Region. While not having the data at national level, it is assumed that this increase also occurred at this level.
At current capacity, Italy lacks sufficient open landfills that can accept asbestos waste. Currently, 70 percent of Italy's asbestos waste is exported to landfills beyond its border, mainly in Germany.20,21 A primary obstacle to opening new landfills will be local opposition blocking decisions by local public administrations. Hopefully, arguments concerning the acceleration of AC cover removal and remediation will be convincing for policy-makers and will support quick decisions to open new landfills. Doing this in every single region would have significant advantages especially by reducing the cost of transport which would result in lower fossil fuels consumption, traffic-related fine dusts, and the reduction of road accidents.22,23
Thermal Insulation
But there is another reason that justifies a remediation of the reinforced concrete roofs: energy saving. 24 Historically asbestos was used widely for its excellent thermal insulation qualities. In particular, in many industrial processes that needed to keep the temperatures of the fluids constant within their production cycle, mixtures with high percentages of asbestos fiber were used to minimize heat dispersion. The AC is essentially made up of cement, as much as 87 percent by weight. The remaining 13 percent is asbestos fiber which served as a structural reinforcement to produce products with limited thicknesses. The asbestos cement slabs, commonly called “Eternit”, from the name of a large manufacturing company, as shown in the Photo 1, have a thickness of around eight mm and have been used, to a large extent, as a roofing material for buildings. The parameter that describes the thermal insulation capacity of a material is its thermal conductivity, which indicates the ability of the material to pass energy in the form of heat. We will show below that the AC cannot conserve energy as effectively as newer non-asbestos-containing materials
Typical asbestos cement slabs covering and an industrial building. Photo by Alessia Angelini.
The census or mapping of ACM, mandated in the Italian national territory by Law 257/1992 and Ministerial Decree 101/2003, has not yet been completed, almost twenty years after its launch, and will not likely be finished even in the next several years. Therefore, the percentage subdivision between the surface of AC covering industrial warehouses where work activities are carried out and the use in simple canopies for shelter from the rain is not known. 25 Consequently, at the moment it is not possible to quantitatively estimate energy savings on a national scale.
Energy Conservation and Greenhouse Gas Reduction
However, energy savings fits perfectly into the guidelines of the European Union to reduce pollution from fossil fuels, as well as to combat climate change. Therefore, we have made calculations to quantify the energy savings that would be obtained by replacing only the “Eternit” roofing with thermal insulation materials available on the market today, without taking into account other types of interventions (eg. on side walls). In order to perform these calculations, we are obliged to use some formulas and apply them to an example on a typical industrial building.
So, let's consider a generic industrial warehouse of about 700 square meters with “Eternit” roofing, located in the foothills of central Italy. We used eight working hours per day and assumed that it must be maintained with a heating system during the winter period from the first of November to the fifteenth of April, at a temperature around 291 K. The internal volume is separated by a structure consisting of a 10 cm thick pre-stressed reinforced concrete slab, covered in the upper part with a 1 cm thick bitumen roof paper sheath and the lower part, visible, finished with 2 cm of plaster.
The calculation of the energy expenditure that allows coverage is the product of the following equation: S indicates the surface of the roof expressed in square meters (sqm); ΔT the temperature difference between the external and internal face of the roof expressed in degrees Kelvin, K; U the transmittance calculated on the basis of the thermal conductivity coefficient (Δ) and the thickness (s) of the material used, and is expressed in Watt /sqm K.
The thermal conductivity (Δ) of the common AC sheets used in industrial and civil roofing is around 0.600 W/m K referred to 1 cm of thickness (the thermal insulation capabilities of this material are very poor).
The values of Δ of the different components of the false ceiling are:
1.91 W/m K for the reinforced concrete slab, 0.23 W/m K for the bitumen sheath, 0.9 W/m K for the plaster.
With these values, the transmittance U of the entire coverage is calculated, which is equal to 7.42 Watt/sqm K
By inserting in equation (1) all the parameters with the relative units of measurement, we arrive at the result that an “Eternit” roof with a thickness of 1 cm, for an area of 700 sqm, disperses: 93,492 watts of energy in the form of heat
Let's now proceed to the calculation of the thermal dispersion using, instead of the reinforced concrete covering, a suitable product available on the market for the same use and which, given its weight, could be supported by the same load-bearing structure.
For the calculation, a metal/polyurethane sandwich covering with an overall thickness of 3 cm is chosen, one of the lowest thicknesses among several of those easily available on the market. Remember that the thermal insulation is directly proportional to the thickness. Thus, by utilizing the thinnest and thus cheapest alternative, we are providing the most conservative estimate of energy savings from this substitution.
The value relating to the thermal conductivity of this material is equal to 0.030 and the transmittance U of the entire coverage is equal to 0.89 Watt/sqm K, therefore the energy dispersion, in the same environmental conditions and the building structure described above, amounts to
11,214 Watt of energy in the form of heat.
In percentage terms, the savings of heat obtained were 88.0 percent.
It is therefore possible to calculate the amount of fuel that could be saved annually in the case in question. For example: let's consider methane (‘natural gas’) as an energy source.
Energy dispersion with Eternit cover = 93 KW Energy dispersion with alternative insulating cover = 11 KW Working days with heating on = 110 /year Working hours with heating on = 880/ year
We know that 1m3 of methane, understood as a “Standard Cubic Meter” (SCM) produces an energy equal to 10.69 KWh and has a cost of 0.2 € per SCM, considering only the cost of the raw material.
Winter consumption with the old “Eternit” coverage expressed in energy and economic terms:
Annual energy loss 93 × 880 = 81,840 KWh Total consumption of methane 81,840 / 10.69 = 7655 SCM Cost of methane 7655 × 0.2 = 1531 €
Winter consumption with the new insulating coverage:
Annual energy loss 11 × 880 = 9680 KWh
Total consumption of methane 9680 / 10.69 = 905 SCM
Cost of methane 905 × 0.2 = 181 €
The methane savings would be equal to 6750 SCM equal to 1350 € considering just the cost of the raw material (methane). We then proceeded to estimate the cost of the entire reclamation operation and replacement of the “Eternit” sheets with the new ones for the building taken as an example. The total cost is roughly 31,500 €, although the exact amount would depend on other factors like the height of the buildings, the state of conservation, and the complexity of the work etc., nonetheless the savings of 1350 € (4.3% p.a. return on investment) in methane per year are a good incentive which pays for itself in 25 years.
Conclusion
The process of total elimination of the presence of asbestos in Italy is too slow. It is desirable that part of the funds provided by the European Community in the so-called Recovery Fund, allocated due to the Covid 19 pandemic, be invested to speed up this process, favoring the owners of buildings where these materials are present with tax incentives aimed at remediation for removal. Other ways of containing the possible release of fibers from these materials are also inconvenient from an economic point of view. If the pace of reclamation were to double compared to the current one, 20,000 new jobs would be created for reclamation workers to which other related workers would be added, for example roofers in the construction sector and those who physically build the new roofing slabs.
The historic use of asbestos in Italy before the ban was in large quantities, partly extracted from Italian mines 26 and partly imported and caused thousands of disease cases related to exposure in Italy. Nowadays, the knowledge of risk and working methods allow real prevention to be implemented, so much so that in the future the incidence of these asbestos-related diseases will very probably tend towards zero. 27
The other problem still present today is that relating to the fragility of the roof slabs. Anyone who, for many reasons, walks on the slabs without necessary precaution, can be victim of a fatal work accident due to breakthrough. A detailed analysis carried out by the Health and Safety Units in Tuscany has shown that fatal injuries, due to the breaking of the slabs while walking without protection, are on average two to three per year, which projected on the whole nation become from forty to sixty per year. Their substitution with sandwich insulated metal ones, in addition to improving thermal insulation, would prevent the break-through.
Aging of the plates can cause asbestos fiber dispersion into the atmosphere, 27 albeit minimal. Lastly, to these documented problems with asbestos roofing, we must also now add the problem of the bad thermal insulation offered by “Eternit” roofs.
If these benefits of energy savings, taking into account the high costs incurred for the indoor air conditioning, without forgetting the others that they bring with them, such as the reduction of the release of fibers into the atmosphere, the prevention of breakthrough accidents and the residual occupational exposures of construction workers, could be included into the government incentives, as happened a few years ago, the acceleration of asbestos reclamation could become real. This would fully become part of the transition to a green economy with eco-sustainable development.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
We thank Dave Mortimer for his invaluable contribution in the drafting of the text and assisting in English translation. We also thank Eng. Andrea Ricci for his invaluable contribution to the calculation of the thermal insulation of AC slabs.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Eng. Angelini and Dr. Silvestri are expert witness for Judges and Prosecutors in criminal and civil trials regarding occupational diseases
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
