French defend toxic ship, got WTO to ban asbestos import

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 7: This story could have a lesson for India. The players are the same: France and Canada. France, the country that’s sending the asbestos-laden ship, Clemenceau, to India. Canada, the country that exports nearly 90% of its asbestos—an estimated 1 lakh tonnes—to India each year.
Both these countries had a dispute over trade in asbestos which was resolved by the WTO in 2001 in favour of a French ban.
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WTO said that no “safe use” of asbestos was possible even in a developed country like France and the country was right in banning its use, manufacture and trade.
In 1997, France banned all forms of asbestos fibres and products prompting Canada, one of the largest producers and exporters of white asbestos, to go to WTO’s Appellate Authority against what it called a barrier to ‘‘free trade.’’
France won the bitterly contested fight where a wealth of scientific evidence was presented to show why a country cannot permit ‘‘safe, controlled’’ use of asbestos.
WTO, the biggest votary of free trade, agreed with the ban on the grounds of ‘‘protecting human life or health’’. It said: “Safe use in the general population at risk is impossible’’ given the extremely large numbers of persons concerned, the difficulty of assessing the risk, the complexity of individual and collective protection. It even identified Mesothelioma lung cancer cases in fitters, carpenters, plumber, boiler makers, painters, decorators, welders, dockers, metal sprayers, electric engineers, industrial designers and technicians.
Flying in the face of all this, A K Sethi, president of the trade body, the Asbestos Cement Products Manufacturers Association, said white asbestos used here is safe because it is mixed with cement in a ‘‘wet process.’’
The WTO panel was not convinced about this argument: ‘‘When asbestos cement is used for occupational or domestic purposes, it is usually sanded, crushed or sawn, thus, releasing its carcinogenic fibres into the environment in the form of dust.’’
All drainage and irrigation pipes in India contain asbestos. So do all roof fittings, electric fittings and pipes. ‘‘These involve peeling, cracking and crumbling which would release asbestos fibre,’’ explained the panel.
Asbestos is a fibrous mineral and according to doctors, causes lung impairment and even a severe form of lung cancer. India today is the largest importer of asbestos under Open General Licence. Despite the Supreme Court’s directions to regulate and monitor the trade for health hazards, the Rs 2,000-crore asbestos industry has no regulatory apparatus in place with no record of how many are suffering from asbestos-related illnesses. A PIL in the Supreme Court documents 500 cases.
But regulation, too, wasn’t a solution, said the WTO as it upheld the ban. ‘‘Available scientific data show that a high mortality rate persists despite the so-called safe use of asbestos. Safe use policy is based on an at-source control system which is never possible in practice,’’ the WTO panel said.

Friends plan rally to fund teen's cancer treatment

MECHANICVILLE - At the age of 19, Linda Wells has already undergone three major operations and three sessions of chemotherapy since she was diagnosed with a rare type of stomach cancer three years ago.
"Right after her road test to get a driver's license, she was officially diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma," said Mark Wells, Linda's father. "She hasn't been able to drive since then."Linda has been treated at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, Albany Medical Center Hospital and a chemotherapy center in Latham, but there is no known cure for her rare disease and the efforts, thus far, have been futile."Linda has been through so much," said Annie Wells, Linda's mother. "It is hard for her to get through each day. The chemotherapy was brutal on her body and makes her deathly sick."Linda, who had ambitions in high school of becoming a pilot, spends most of her days "hanging out with friends," she said."I have been putting off going to college because of the disease. I am taking this one day at a time."The disease is a stomach-lining cancer which has caused several tumors to grow in Linda's body. The family is hoping to find treatments in Nevada that will help fight the cancer. "After my last session of chemo, I started looking for other types of treatment," said Linda. "I found an all-natural treatment center in Nevada, and I have done a lot of research about the center. The methods there seem totally different from the types of treatment I have had so far. I am very hopeful. But I have no choice but to be optimistic."Linda would be under the care of Dr. James Forsythe of the Cancer Screening and Treatment Center in Reno for about a month. These treatments, which would cost about $2,000 each week, are experimental and will not be covered by the family's medical insurance. Local efforts have begun to help the Wells family.The Leonardo da Vinci Lodge, located at 320 Broadway, Rensselaer, has scheduled a fund-raiser for Friday to help the family with the costs of the new treatments. The lodge is an organization for the community, explained Don Butler, the lodge's vice president."The family has quite a predicament, and we would like to help them in any way we can," he said.The fund-raiser will include a 50/50 raffle, door prizes, catered food and three local bands. Everything has been donated, so the event will yield 100 percent profit, said Butler. "The response to help this family has been overwhelming," he continued. "We are lucky to have such a generous community."Organizers request a $10 donation for each adult. They are already expecting about 200 people to attend the event.Linda is planning to begin her treatment in Nevada at the end of the month. She will be at the facility by herself. The family is expecting to pay about $10,000 for the experimental treatments."We have to try something," Linda's father said. "The disease is not getting any better by itself."

Worried about asbestos? Just follow this guide

Mumbai, January 6: What exactly is asbestos?It is a generic name for a group of mineral fibres that is very resistant to heat and chemicals. ‘‘Asbestos is used widely in the manufacturing industry,’’ says Dr P R Arun, a toxics researcher with the India Centre for Human Rights and Law.
The fibre is often microscopic, a few hundred times thinner than human hair, virtually indestructible—and durable.
Though one variety, blue asbestos, is banned in India, it can still be found in old insulation material—and, of course, in old ships that come to India’s wrecking yards.
Do you own any?Most probably, yes. Because the widest use of asbestos is in asbestos cement, which is used to manufacture flat sheets and building boards.
There’s also some asbestos in various laminated products, in friction material like automobiles’ brake and clutch lining and brake pads, some kinds of coating paints, thermoplastics, some vinyl floor tiles, sewage and water supply cement pipes etc.
It’s also used in heavy equipment, petro-chemicals, nuclear power plants and thermal power plants.
So, can your car’s brake pad cause cancer?No, don’t panic. Asbestos is considered safe when bound together with substances that prevent the fibres from entering the environment.
‘‘Some particles could fly from an asbestos-cement roof, but only the fine particles—5 to 10 microns thick—produced in industrial or mechanical process like in factories or ship-breaking yards would reach the lungs,’’ says Vijay Kanhere of the Occupational Health and Safety Centre, a decades-old organisation that tests workers for various occupational health hazards.
Last year, Kanhere and a surgeon tested workers from an asbestos factory in Mumbai.
So naturally, mine workers and labourers in factories where raw materials include asbestos fibres would breathe air containing the carcinogenic fibres.
What’s the health risk?Exposure to the fibre over a period of time causes a gradual build-up of scar-like tissue in the lungs, a condition called asbestosis that several factory workers have been diagnosed with.
Besides, asbestos exposure could cause lung cancer, mesothelioma (a cancer of the lining of the chest and abdomen) or cancer of the gastrointestinal tract, if ingested.

How asbestos firms brush cancer, disease under industry carpet

When 68-year-old Mangabhai Patel tries to breathe, it’s like he’s breathing through a straw—constricted and extremely painful. Suffering from asbestosis, a severe form of lung impairment, he’s one of the few surviving victims of this lethal form of asbestos exposure spending his last days in a hospital in Ahmedabad.
His crime: He worked for the thermal power plant, Ahmedabad Electric Company (AEC), now a Torrent Power plant. His typical day involved stopping leakages from pipe-joints and carrying asbestos blocks, ropes and belts from the stores to the factory floor.
Company doctors failed to diagnose his condition. It was only in 1996 when the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Occupational Health concluded he was suffering from TB and asbestos-related illnesses. Armed with this, Mangabhai filed a writ petition in the Gujarat High Court asking for compensation from the company.
The Court passed an order on May 8, 1997 to pay Rs 10,000 as interim compensation to Mangabhai. With no family to support and even provide him medical assistance, he is one of the rare cases still fighting for compensation. Most of the others give up even before they start.
For the asbestos industry, people like Mangabhai are, effectively, invisible. With no regulatory structure in place to diagnose and monitor for mesothelioma—the lung cancer caused by asbestosis—industries are getting away. Even hospitals aren’t equipped to diagnose the disease. Result: compensation, the one stick to hold industry accountable, is a far cry.
This is evident in case histories of 500 asbestos patients that form the basis of a pending PIL in the Supreme Court asking for a ban on the use, import and manufacture of asbestos.
That punitive litigation helps is evident in the US where consumption of asbestos is now down to 2% of what it was 20 years ago—in the same time, the industry coughed up $11 million on Mesothelioma litigation involving 600,000 claims.
India is the only country in the world where consumption of asbestos is increasing by 12% each year as it imports a large chunk of what is produced in the world. Yet, the clean-up is yet to begin, making it the most attractive place for newer asbestos units.
This despite the fact that 10 years ago, the Supreme Court acknowledged the hazardous nature of asbestos and directed government and industry to:
• Maintain health record of all workers for 40 years
• Set up facility for membrane filter test at work place to diagnose illness at early stages.
• Ensure health coverage with Employees State Insurance Act or otherwise
• Regularly review permissible limit of asbestos fibre in the factories
• Special monitoring in small-scale factories
• Compensation to the affected to the tune of Rs 1 lakh.
Forget factories, even hospitals do not have the facility to diagnose lung cancers that are asbestos-related. The Occupational and Environmental Health Centre at LNJP, one of the busiest hospitals in Delhi, was set up in the late 90s for this purpose. So far, not one case has come to the centre.
‘‘For asbestos cases, doctors have to go to the patients. I am never allowed to visit any factory,’’ said Dr T K Joshi who heads the unit.
By the time he gets to a patient suffering from mesothelioma, it’s usually too late—average life span is reduced to six months to a year after detection.
No hospital in the country has the facility or the training to test for mesothelioma.
Patients do not come to institutes when they fall ill, they come to ordinary hospitals, explains Joshi.
For the 500-odd cases that have been attached to the PIL, S R Kamath, who is member of the Central Pollution Control Board on asbestos, scanned thousands of X-rays.
When diagnosis is tough, compensation is tougher. So far, less than 100 people have been awarded damages. Most employers claim their staff are insured with Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).
‘‘They (ESIC) have even turned down patients that I have certified as suffering from mesothelioma,’’ said Kamath.
Experts say that instead of chasing compensation—a chunk of which goes as lawyers’ fees—there are several cases of the sick taking a token sum from the employer and striking a deal to get their relatives a job in the company after they die. In the process, they are never counted as those suffering from asbestos-related diseases.
The Pollution Control Board recommended that compensation be increased to Rs 4 lakh so there is more incentive for the sick to pursue their case and hence be counted. But that’s only on paper—like the Supreme Court’s directives. A study by the Institute of Public Health Engineers showed that health records of asbestos workers is not being maintained. The industry has found a way around it — they contract labour instead of putting them on payroll.

Senate has chance to help sick veterans

California has more active residents serving in the military today than any other state. It’s no surprise, then, that we have a strong history of supporting our military community. I hope Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Barbara Boxer can continue this tradition and provide aid to sick veterans by voting for the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution (FAIR) Act when it comes to the Senate floor in early 2006. There are roughly two and a half million veterans in our state alone. During the years between the Second World War and the Vietnam Conflict California was a major center for military shipbuilding and repair. From 1941 to 1974, for example, Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco and its annexed site concentrated on building craft and modifying or repairing naval ships and submarines. Unfortunately, the military and private shipbuilders used asbestos in ship construction up until the mid 1970s. When inhaled, this material can cause horrible life-threatening diseases like asbestosis and mesothelioma. Decades later, many veterans are now being diagnosed with these asbestos-related diseases. They face staggering medical bills because their avenues for obtaining compensation are limited. Under the law, veterans exposed during their military service can’t sue their employer, the federal government. The Senate has a chance this January to finally help these sick veterans while also aiding all victims who suffer from asbestos-related diseases. When the FAIR Act was considered in the Judiciary Committee, Senator Feinstein, who sits on that panel, worked hard to get this important bill, which would establish a defendant-financed asbestos victims’ trust fund, approved. The FAIR Act would once and for all pave the way for quick payments to flow to victims, including US veterans exposed during service. Asbestos litigation has become a sinkhole for almost all of those involved. The courts are inundated with lawsuits and can’t act quickly to help sick victims. Government action is necessary. There are over 730,000 people who have filed lawsuits nationwide. These cases drag on for years and as a result, critical compensation is delayed. In effect, the FAIR Act would remove the problem from the overloaded courts. By establishing a standard procedure for all those who are sick from asbestos exposure, the FAIR Act would save on administrative costs and ensure that the money would go straight to victims, and not to trial lawyers. And sick veterans would be able to apply for compensation without affecting their current Veterans Administration Benefits. The VFW and more than a dozen other national veterans’ organizations support this legislation because it is the only solution to the asbestos litigation crisis that will ensure sick veterans receive the compensation they need and deserve. Brave men and women have answered the call to service in our country and now they deserve our help and support. Senator Feinstein is to be commended for her work on this critical legislation for vets. I urge both Senators Feinstein and Boxer to consider the benefits this legislation will provide to sick veterans and vote yes for the FAIR Act.

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.”

Ex-factory staff in fight over 'asbestos deaths'

FORMER crisp factory workers who fear they were exposed to cancer causing asbestos, are calling for an official inquiry after uncovering information about an industrial incident 20 years ago.
Ex-employees of Golden Wonder's Broxburn factory in West Lothian have long been concerned by the high number of deaths from cancer and respiratory illness among their ex-colleagues.

But there has been little evidence to link any of the deaths to the sufferers' work at the factory.
Now former worker Alex Horne, whose mother worked at the plant and died of lung cancer, has used the Freedom of Information Act to uncover witness statements from a 20-year-old incident.
The statements, which have convinced MP Michael Connarty to back the fight, suggest some factory staff might have been exposed to asbestos. Mr Horne hopes the testimony will be enough to convince the Health and Safety Executive to launch an inquiry into his concerns.
The 61-year-old, of Armadale, West Lothian, said:
"I never knew there was asbestos there and that my health might have been at risk. Over 100 people have died of various respiratory illnesses.
"My mother died of lung cancer in March after working there from 1973 to 1983. I'm fighting for my mum and for everyone in that factory."
The plant closed in 1985, shortly after the workers fear they may have been exposed to asbestos. W & J Furse, the contractors hired to remove lagged pipes containing asbestos from the factory's boiler room, was fined £200 in 1986 for not holding a licence to remove asbestos, and for failing to ensure the safety of its employees.
There was no evidence at the time suggesting Golden Wonder employees had been exposed.
However, in a letter written to the DHSS in 1988, Golden Wonder boilerman Charles Heggie said he was present when Furse workers were removing the asbestos, and was not provided with safety equipment.
The TUC said workers were concerned exposure to asbestos might have accounted for the high death rate amongst ex-employees. But no post-mortem examinations were carried out on any of the alleged victims, making it difficult to determine one way or another.
Mr Connarty, the MP for Grangemouth, said: "We need to establish whether there is a link between what happened in the boiler house and whether asbestos may have been damaging people's health in the factory."
A spokesman for Golden Wonder said: "We are making inquiries and will provide as much cooperation as we can."
Asbestos is dangerous because it splits into very fine dust particles, which can be inhaled. These particles can lodge in the lungs and, because they do not dissolve readily, may persist for years.
Inhaling high levels of asbestos fibres over a period of time can result in incurable diseases such as asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.
• Extract from letter sent by Golden Wonder boiler man Charles Heggie to DHSS on August 28, 1988: "I was working in the boiler house when the contractor was removing the now confirmed asbestos fibres. It was also confirmed on that date at a meeting with Golden Wonder management and health and safety officers that Alex Horne, John Purvis, John Fairly, James Rodger, Alistair Smith and myself were told that our names would be logged and forwarded to the nurse and management of Golden Wonder as we were all directly or indirectly involved in the removal of asbestos insulation. We were not provided with any safety equipment as we were told by the supervisors that the material was non-hazardous to health."
Extract from statement of Roger Dunn of the Health and Safety Executive on October 28, 1985 (released under Freedom of Information Act):
"I noted that the floor at the rear of the boilers appeared to be heavily contaminated with clumps of white and grey fibrous material, resembling asbestos insulation. Subsequently I met Mr Crawford, safety officer of Golden Wonder, and advised him that the boiler room should be cleared of all people to await analysis of the material for its asbestos content. The boiler room was vacated and the doors locked..."