Stalling one ship, letting a sea of asbestos flow in

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court’s Committee on Hazardous Waste meets in Mumbai to decide on what to do with French aircraft carrier Clemenceau—headed for dismantling in Gujarat—because of asbestos in it. The dispute is over how much is there: the French government says 50 tonnes, green groups say 300 tonnes.
Perhaps, it will help if the committee addresses the more serious issue: the nearly 1.5 lakh tonnes of asbestos that come into India each year.
Despite a ban on its use and manufacture by 40 countries (the whole of Europe, Japan and Australia), despite established scientific evidence of its carcinogenic effects—exposure causes the most painful form of lung cancer called mesothelioma—asbestos is thriving in India. It’s a Rs 2000-crore industry with 14 large players and 673 small-scale units. The reason: government policy and violations of apex court regulations.
Consider these:
• There are two types of asbestos, blue and white, depending on the nature of its fibres. Blue was the first one to be banned and India, too, banned it, a decade later, in 1995. Asbestos on board the Clemenceau is blue but the entire trade is now in white asbestos. Even this has been found to be carcinogenic—US and European studies estimate 30 deaths every day due to exposure to white asbestos. Flying in the face of this, the last Budget reduced Customs duty on asbestos to 15%—it was 78% in 1995-96.
• As early as 1995, the Supreme Court clearly indicated that asbestos is dangerous and its industry required regulations: maintaining the health record of all workers for 40 years, a “mesothelioma register,” which is yet to see the light of day. Now there is another PIL pending in the Supreme Court alleging non-compliance of these directions.
• But regulation of the asbestos trade is virtually impossible because being under Open General License (anybody who wants to import asbestos can import in any quantity), there is no way to monitor the amount that comes in. The No 1 exporter to India is Canada—which has enforced a limited ban at home—ships 90% of what it produces to India. Other exporters to India are Russia, Brazil and Zimbabwe. Last year 80,000 tonnes was imported from Russia alone.
• In India, asbestos is used for a range of consumer products — pipes for water supply, sewage, drainage, packaging material, brake linings and joints in automobiles. Its USP is its tensile strength and today it’s a key component in corrugated cement sheets.
• Countries which have banned it have now switched to substitutes: non-asbestos fibres like PVA, aramid and cellulose.
• Still the trade is stubborn in its defence. “The ban in Europe happened because of panic reaction after a spate of litigation when the health hazard of blue asbestos came to light. We have had time to see that the white asbestos is safe,’’ says A K Sethi, president of the Asbestos Cement Products Manufacturers Association.
‘‘It has been unequivocally established that the only safe way for handling any form of asbestos is its complete ban,’’ says T K Joshi, director, Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health at the capital’s LNJP hospital.
The Chennai-based Cancer Research Institute suggested that 3-4% of all lung cancer deaths are because of asbestos. Sethi claims that the fault lies with the “unorganised sector,” small units that make brake pedals and automobile joints. “The larger companies regularly monitor employees but it’s the smaller ones that are totally unregulated.”
Joshi disagrees. “More and more cases are coming into light which show that people who are suffering are carpenters, plumbers and construction workers who deal with asbestos in their products, not just those who work in the asbestos units. The symptoms take more than 20 years to manifest themselves and doctors are not trained to diagnose these.”