Cancer-causing asbestos exposed at 3 railway stations

Quote Originally Posted by Mainichi Shimbun
Insulating materials containing cancer-causing asbestos have been exposed at three railway stations in Japan, it was learned Tuesday.

Moreover, the Sapporo Municipal Government's Transportation Bureau is examining the ceilings at 13 stations on its Tozai and Namboku subway lines after it emerged that they may contain asbestos.

At Hakone-Yumoto Station on the Hakone Tozan Railway in Kanagawa Prefecture, insulating material containing asbestos on the ceiling of the concourse has been exposed since the station was renovated in 1974.

Railway workers covered the 720-square-meter ceiling with a sheet to prevent asbestos from being scattered.

Asbestos has also been found exposed on the 90-square-meter ceiling of the Jingumae Station building in Atsuta-ku, Nagoya, and on the beam of its bridge. The ceiling and the beam were sprayed with asbestos when the station building was constructed in 1978. The company will cover the asbestos in early September.

In another case, asbestos was found on the roof of the Machida Station building on the Odakyu Railway Line in Tokyo's Machida, the railway operator said. After finding that asbestos could fall through spaces in the ceiling, workers covered the spaces with sheets. The company is set to remove the asbestos from the roof.
This is quite appalling. I often use the Tozai line in Tokyo (the lobngest of the 13 lines), which means I am at risk of being contaminated by asbetos after 4 years of livingin Tokyo. It's even more worrisome that the Namboku-line should be affected, as it is the newest of the Tokyo Metro, built after asbestos was made illegal in Japan ! That means that all lines might in fact have stations with asbestos in them. They probably kept silent to avoid a mass panic of daily subway users.

This news comes just as the Japan Times exposes that Low level of asbestos exposure proved fatal