September 27, 2011, 7:05 PM KST at THE Wall Street Journal

Asbestos Scare at South Korean Ballparks

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•by Evan Ramstad

 The Wall Street Journal

Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, one of the five pro baseball stadiums where asbestos concentrations were found in the dirt.

Five of South Korea’s seven pro baseball stadiums have high levels of asbestos in the dirt, private environmental researchers announced over the weekend. And that has sent the government and Korea Baseball Organization into overdrive to figure out what should be done.

The KBO said the baseball parks are all owned by local governments and the league can’t make changes on its own.

“We asked each local government to check it out and to come up with measures if it turns out to be true,” a KBO spokesman said. “At this stage, we cannot figure out whether it is true or not, so we don’t have much to tell.”

There’s about a month left in the Korean pro baseball season, which is having its best year ever with record attendance and ticket receipts.

South Korean environmental rules since 2009 have prohibited the manufacture, import and use of products that contain more than 0.1% asbestos, a cancer-causing agent.

But a type of mineral used in sports surfaces, called olivine, has been mined from a former asbestos mine near Andong, in southeastern South Korea.

In tests in recent weeks by a civic group and environmental researchers of Seoul National University, high levels of asbestos have been turning up on sports grounds at high schools and the baseball stadiums. At Sajik stadium in Busan, home of the Lotte Giants, the asbestos concentration in the dirt samples was 1%.

Some of the schools were participating in a government project to use olivine on sports grounds, which was being promoted as environmentally friendly because it drains well. Following the recent tests, though, the schools have closed off their sports grounds and covered the dirt with tents, the Hankyoreh newspaper reported.

http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2011/09/27/asbestos-scare-at-south-korean-ballparks/