Return to the list
Panama - Final Regulatory Action
Crocidolite asbestos CAS number:
12001-28-4
Date circular:
12/12/2004

Chemical name: Asbestos, crocidolite, Trimagnesium;disodium;dihydroxy(oxo)silane;iron(3+)

Final regulatory action has been taken for the category: Industrial

Final regulatory action: The chemical is Severely Restricted

Use or uses prohibited by the final regulatory action:

All uses are prohibited

Use or uses that remain allowed:

None

The final regulatory action was based on a risk or hazard evaluation: Yes

Summary of the final regulatory action:

Law No. 12 of 14 June 2000, by which was approved the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, adopted in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on 10 September 1998. Law No. 1 of 10 January 2001, on medicines and other products for human health. Previous licensing no automatic and conditions for import. Executive decree #305 of 9 September 2002, ' That establishes the Automatic Licensing, in order to regulate the import of some potentially dangerous chemicals as chemicals or dangerous controlled materials and dictate other dispositions.'

The reasons for the final regulatory action were relevant to: Human health

Summary of known hazards and risks to human health:

Exposure through foods: In the rice dealt with tallow could be found concentrations until of 3,7 xx 1012 fibers per liter
Ocupational exposure and use results: The main sources of exposure are constituted by the manipulation, the transformation and the elimination of the dry asbestos or products that contain asbestos, whose fibers go into the air. The more elevated concentrations than have been mesured in the work of the mines or in the industrial manipulation were of 800 x 106 fibersm3 (VU, 8 MPT of h): CEE, 500 000 fibers/m3 for a length fiber > 5m.
Exposure to the environment: Concentrations on the air: near factories, mines or industrial centers, up to 600 000 fibres/m3, in the urban areas 10000 fibersm3. In the water they have found concentrations up to100 x 106 fibras/liter

Expected effect of the final regulatory action in relation to human health:

This product is subject to the Prior Informed Consent (CFP), which requires that the dangerous substances and the pesticides that have been prohibited or severely restricted do not have to be
exported, unless importing country agrees specifically. We are one of those countries that do not allow such substance and are forced to stop the national production of the substance for domestic use. It was prohibited by the Government of the Republic of Panama.

Summary of known hazards and risks to the environment:

When reducing the exhibition to the risk factor, the effects decrease on the direct exposed population (occupational) and indirectly (accidental, environmental or acquired) of the obsolete crocidolite to produce undesirable and irreversible effects.

Expected effect of the final regulatory action in relation to the environment:

This product is subject to the Prior Informed Consent (CFP), which requires that the dangerous substances and the pesticides that have been prohibited or severely restricted do not have to be
exported, unless importing country agrees specifically. We are one of those countries that do not allow such substance and are forced to stop the national production of the substance for domestic use. It was prohibited by the Government of the Republic of Panama.

Date of entry into force of the final regulatory action: 01/01/2001