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Asbestos Use.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 July 2004

Tuesday, 6 July 2004

Questions (419)

Jim O'Keeffe

Question:

450 Mr. J. O’Keeffe asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the extent to which asbestos pipes are being used in public water supplied throughout the country; if any health risks can arise therefrom; if asbestos continues to be used in new pipe work; and if not, when this practise was discontinued. [20359/04]

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Written answers

While no statistics are available in my Department as to the length of asbestos cement piping used nationally, the 1996 report of the greater Dublin water supply strategic study showed that this piping accounted for over 11% or 656,000 metres of water mains in the greater Dublin region. Local authorities, as part of their complete information systems projects in the water infrastructure sector, are currently compiling comprehensive data on their water supply networks, which would include details on the extent of asbestos piping in their areas. This work is ongoing and is expected to be completed by the end of 2006.

Asbestos cement piping to the specifications defined in Irish Standard 188, which require, inter alia, bitumen lining and coating, was widely used in the provision of new local authority water mains for over 30 years. This type of piping was also extensively used internationally for water mains and is a well established and accepted piping material for this purpose. Nevertheless, in Ireland, asbestos pipes are no longer used in new installations for water mains or sewer pipes and have not been used for this purpose in the past 15 years or so.

The risk associated with asbestos relates to the inhalation of airborne asbestos particles. In this regard, there were risks associated with working with asbestos material and exposure to airborne particles, which has led to a decline in the use of asbestos material. The World Health Organisation's position, in regard to asbestos in drinking water, is that there is no consistent evidence that ingested asbestos is hazardous to health and that there is no need to establish a health based guideline value for asbestos in drinking water.

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