Asbestos, a demon of the past

With the Supreme Court laying down that the ship cannot enter Indian waters until the court considers a report by a team of environment experts, it’s time to consider just what is at stake in the Clemenceau controversy. Take the case of Mangalbhai Patel, a worker in a power plant, who was diagnosed with lung cancer. Doctors in the public employees’ state insurance corporation (ESIC) mis-diagnosed his ailment as tuberculosis, while he had asbestosis, an incurable cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Such cases rarely come to the fore in India.
According to the ILO, over 100,000 people worldwide have died from exposure to asbestos while mesothelioma, an asbestos induced cancer, alone kills about 3,000 people annually in the US and 5,000 in Europe. Most unreported exposures and fatalities are in developing countries like India and Brazil.
Yet, ‘it’s safe’, cries out the powerful industry, which in India alone turns out almost 2000 crore, blaming workers for improper handling. Sadly, the Indian government has played ball, not only helping the import driven industry to expand (duty dropped from 78 per cent in 1992 to 15 per cent in 2004), but also by refusing to follow international norms, like ratifying the ILO asbestos convention 162.
Since the time when the first case linking asbestos with cancer was reported in 1924, over 40 countries have banned the material. Though demand has shrunk in developed countries, it is rising in the developing world. While per capita consumption in the West is less than 100g/year, in Brazil it has risen to 1400 g/y. Over two million mt of asbestos is mined worldwide annually, mostly in Canada, China, Russia and Brazil. It was used in over 3000 consumer items like coffee percolators, brake linings, water pipes, roofings, but in India it is, as cheap roofing, the ‘poor’ man’s material.
With a consumption of 125,000 mt, its use is rising at over 12 per cent annually. Most of it is imported without restriction (OGL) from Canada, which has a no home-use policy, while the rest is illegally mined.
A naturally occurring fibre, asbestos exists in six varieties. Today, mainly white asbestos or crysotile, is the most widely used one. The fibre’s virtual indestructibility and insulation properties made it the ‘wonder’ material of the 20th century but also made it deadly when inhaled. In India business interests seem to have overridden the overwhelming evidence of health effects of the material. Recently in April 2005, the Union minister of state for coal and mines informed Lok Sabha about the possibility of lifting the ban on asbestos mining in light of a study by the Indian Bureau of Mines which claimed that this is a safe activity. Later, India stalled asbestos’s inclusion in UNEP’s Rotterdam Convention, which merely mandates prior informational consent, before hazardous materials are traded.
Health data against asbestos, though, is damning, making the Indian stance more puzzling. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO body) states that all forms of asbestos cause cancer, which can manifest 15 to 40 years after exposure. While workers are at highest risk, even a single fibre inhaled could result in a cancerous condition.
In India, though health data is scarce, it is improving. A recent study carried out at Hindustan Composites in Mumbai reveals that “6,000 workers are directly exposed and nearly 100,000 workers indirectly exposed to asbestos (in India),” and that “...most of the affected workers in past years have either died or have been removed from employment due to lockouts.” The study found that “less than 30 cases of Asbestosis compensated in India among the 100,000 exposed workers.”
Earlier asbestos firms based in the US and Europe were prime players in the asbestos industry in India, but today the industry is run by Indian companies. The shift is mainly owing to international product related liability. Now over 13 large companies and over 650 small operations, employing over 100,000 workers, dominate the scene, the main products being cement asbestos sheets and pipes. They claim that ‘white asbestos’ is ‘safe’ and that the problem can be ‘managed’ through the use of the ‘wet process’ to limit airborne fibres in manufacturing facilites, and the training of construction workers. They recommend that carpenters who saw cement sheets, or building workers who handle sheets should be trained, despite the futility of the task. There have been attempts to stifle public debate. Full page advertisements claiming that asbestos is safe are regularly put out in the main national newspapers and magazines.
Unfortunately, alternatives have not been promoted, though they exist. Existing alternatives include glass fibre, carbon fibre, cotton, organic fibre, man-made mineral fibres and particulate mineral fillers, poly vinyl alcohol, cellulose, and paramid fibres.
Asbestos is a material of the past. Like DDT and PCBs, it held an early promise which soon revealed its bad face. India needs to vie for a sustainable future and not repeat the mistakes of a bygone era.
The writer is director, Toxics Link