A conscientização sobre os riscos do amianto: uma comparação entre os trabalhadores da indústria de fibrocimento e profissionais da construção civil

Abstract

The asbestos is a natural mineral that have some interesting properties for the industry, as low cost, mechanical and temperature resistance, incombustibility and elasticity. But is also known as the cause of serious diseases, like asbestosis, pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer. With that said, the asbestos has been abolished from many countries, but the chrysotile fiber still being used in Brazil, mainly on the fibrocement industries. However, the main asbestos final products – the tiles – are mostly used on the Construction Segment. The objective of this paper isevaluate the knowledge about the asbestos characteristic and the hazards by two industry sectors employees. The methodology used was the application of a quiz about this theme for workers of a fibrocement industry and students of the specialization course in construction management. The results found was that the fibrocement workers, that are daily exposed to these hazards, even with less study level sometimes, have more knowledge about the subject than the post graduate students, who maybe will be exposing their future employees to the asbestos. At the same time, a comparison was made with the asbestos Brazilian standards (appendix 12, NR-15) and the American one, and both show some points where they were stricter when using this compound.