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Asbestos kills Europeans, Australians and Japanese but not Indians
By Gopal Krishna
Published in toxicslink.org, 06/01/2006
The adverse impact of asbestos use has been further established
with major Japanese manufacturers having admitted scores of asbestos-related
deaths amongst former employees, customers and local people. But the extent
of the human tragedy due to asbestos exposure remains uncovered in India.
This is despite the fact that the Union Ministry of Health informed the Parliament
in 2003 that studies by the National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad,
have shown that exposure to any type of asbestos can lead to the development
of asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.
White asbestos continues to be in use in India although other kinds such as
blue and brown asbestos are banned. About one lakh (0.1 million) workers are
directly exposed and 3 crore (30 million) construction workers are being subjected
to asbestos dust on a day-to-day basis. Besides the workers, even common citizens
are at risk.
Asbestos is used mainly for water pipes or as roofing sheets in the construction
industry. It is also used in the manufacture of pressure and non-pressure pipes
used for water supply, sewage, irrigation and drainage system in urban and rural
areas, asbestos textiles, laminated products, tape, gland packing, packing ropes,
brake lining and jointing used in core sector industries such as automobile,
heavy equipment, petro-chemicals, nuclear power plants, fertilisers, thermal
power plants, transportation, defence, etc.
Japanese scenario
On June 29, 2005, a spokesperson for Kubota Corporation, an industrial equipment
manufacturer based in Osaka, Japan confirmed the asbestos deaths of scores of
former employees. Kubota Executive Taichi Ito told reporters, “We followed
laws and regulations properly (at that time), but it is extremely regrettable
that the health of local residents was harmed.” The next day, officials
at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry announced their intention to look
into the labour conditions, which led to these deaths. The news about the death
of 86 former employees of Nichias Corporation due to asbestos-related disease
since 1976 attracted media attention throughout Japan on July 5, 2005. There
are several other Japanese companies, which have recently disclosed asbestos
deaths amongst their workforce.
Currently, Japan has banned asbestos use in principle, except in cases where
there are no substitutes. Asbestos is, therefore, still used in gaskets for
machinery, insulating plates on switchboards, seals at chemical plants and ropes
for industrial use.
Responding to the recent factual reports of asbestos related deaths, Japanese
Health Ministry plans to ban all use of asbestos by 2008.
Indian scenario
Even as Japan announced a set of measures to ease public anxiety about asbestos,
plans are afoot in India to lift the ban on asbestos mining. Asbestos is being
promoted freely whereas developed countries keep away from it.
Asbestos fibres are proven to be carcinogenic. The Indian Government's signal
to promote asbestos has outraged environmental, labour, consumer and human rights
groups in the country. Grants of fresh mining leases and renewal of existing
mining leases for asbestos are presently banned in India on health grounds but
the Union Ministry of Commerce continues to import asbestos from countries like
Canada. In Canada, there is a no home use policy for asbestos. It has lost its
case in World Trade Organisation (WTO) where it argued for trade in white asbestos.
Asbestos has been banned in almost 40 countries, which includes Australia, Uruguay,
European Union, Honduras and others. But as per the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM),
a subordinate office of the Union Ministry of Mines, asbestos is safe for Indian
workers and citizens.
Unmindful of the fact that ‘poison’ does not become ‘non-poisonous’
as a result of advertising, public relations campaigns and dubious scientific
studies, the Canadian Government has announced its continuing support for safe
and responsible use of white asbestos. It renewed its funding to the Montreal-based
Asbestos Institute for the promotion of white asbestos throughout the world.
It has announced a contribution of $775,000 for the promotion of asbestos. Consequently,
the asbestos industry has flooded national dailies and channels with sponsored
features, advertisements and studies to promote what it calls the ‘safe’
and ‘controlled use’ of white asbestos cement.
Status of asbestos in Government records
According to National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH), Union Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India exposure to asbestos causes
asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.
In India, the total use of asbestos is 1.25 lakh tonnes, out of which a more
than 1.0 lakh tonne is being imported. Significant occupational exposure to
asbestos occurs mainly in asbestos cement factories, asbestos textile industry
and asbestos mining and milling. NIOH has carried out studies in all these industries
and generated baseline data. Following is the summary of these studies:
Asbestos cement factories
There are 18 asbestos cement factories located in different parts of the country.
NIOH carried out environmental epidemiological studies in four asbestos cement
factories located in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Mumbai. The prevalence
of asbestosis in these factories varied from 3 to 5 per cent.
Asbestos textile industry
Making of asbestos yarn and ropes is done mostly in the unorganised sector
of industries with very poor safety measures. The prevalence of asbestosis was
9 per cent. This relatively low prevalence of asbestosis despite high environmental
levels was attributed to high labour turn over. Cases of asbestosis were observed
in workers having less than 10 years exposure in contrast to the reported average
duration of over 20 years.
The Industrial Toxicology Research Center, Lucknow, a body under Union Ministry
of Science and Technology, has conducted detailed studies in the illegal mining
and milling area of Rajasthan carried out Dr. Qamar Rahman. She has reported
that workers in these illegal mines are exposed to very high asbestos fibre
concentration at work places. They do not use gloves, masks and protective clothing.
They use primitive manual way for grinding. "Clinical studies revealed
prevalence of large number of cases of asbestosis. In some cases asbestosis
was developing in less than five years. Under such alarming conditions lifting
ban on asbestos mining would be a disaster for the workers," says Dr Rahman.
In a survey of U.P. Asbestos Limited, Mohanlalganj, Lucknow and Allied Nippon
Pvt Ltd., Ghaziabad (U.P), lung function impairment was found to be higher in
subjects exposed for more than 11 years. This was the result of a Central Pollution
Control Board sponsored project entitled ’Human risk assessment studies
in asbestos industries in India.1
The Directorate General, Factory Advice and Labour Institutes
(DGFASLI), Union Ministry Labour seems ignorant of these studies, which concluded
that even in controlled conditions, asbestos workers continue to suffer and
it made no material difference in their condition.2
Civil Society, Trade Unions and health experts seek
ban on asbestos
The Indian Association of Occupational Health had passed a resolution demanding
an immediate ban on all the activities related to asbestos and its products
on April 13, 2002.
On November 8, 2004, preventable but incurable diseases caused by asbestos were
taken note of by the India’s central trade unions who endorsed a resolution
calling for its ban. P K Ganguli of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said
that at a time when there is a world wide movement to get asbestos banned and
already the entire developed world has banned it, it was puzzling to note that
Indian Government is planning to lift the ban. He warned that it would contribute
to more cancer and occupational hazards among the workers in particular. "We
demand that the government should desist from lifting the ban from mining of
all forms of asbestos," Ganguli asserts.
The government has meanwhile reduced customs duties on asbestos. Earlier the
import duty on asbestos from reduced from 110 per cent to 50 percent in 1992,
thus reducing total import cost by 25-30 per cent. India has also been reducing
the customs duty on asbestos fibre in recent years (from 78 per cent in 1995-96
to 25 percent in 1999-2000). Fifty per cent of the sales of asbestos cement
are in the rural sector and 30 and 20 per cent in the industrial and urban sectors
respectively.
The Union Minister of State for Coal and Mines, Dr. Dasari Narayana Rao in a
written reply in the Lok Sabha on April 29, 2005 announced the possibility of
lifting the ban on asbestos mining in the light of mining industry supported
study of Indian Bureau of Mines.
Conclusion
Besides workers, even common citizens are at a risk of exposure from asbestos,
which becomes air borne through wind erosion and normal wear and tear. The epidemic
of illness and death due to asbestos that is plaguing the developed countries
with an estimated 30 deaths per day is being repeated in India. India is using
asbestos in exactly the same way as the developed countries did until about
1980. The danger from asbestos was documented in India as early as 1968.Although
there is indisputable evidence that asbestos causes asbestosis, lung cancer
and mesothelioma, asbestos mining, milling and manufacturing continues.
The result of widespread use of asbestos in the European countries, United States,
Canada and others has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and over a
trillion dollars in personal and property damage. But instead of learning anything
from the experience, in order to remain in business the asbestos companies from
the developed world have moved most of their operations to countries such as
India where there is little awareness about the hazards from asbestos.
The choice before the Indian Government is crystal clear - either it should
ban trade, manufacture and use of all kinds of asbestos or misinform the citizens
that asbestos kills Japanese, Australians and Europeans but not Indians.
Reference:
1 Reported in the Annual Report of Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (2001-2002),
India
2 http://www.dgfasli.nic.in/newsletter/jan_march_96.pdf
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