Document ERZ0M4y5JzKMXp1wRM486v0n

FILE NAME: Z//E DATE:: DOC#: /E DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION::Z/,ZZ/ ""'_" ___________________ A Sameeksha Trust Publication Rs 2.50 Vol XVI No 24 June 13, 1981 EXPORT OF INDUSTRIAL HAZARDS TO INDIA NEPALESE IN NORTHEAST LAW OF SEA: CHANGING SCENARIOS RISE OF SOCl,AL CAPITALISM IN USSR . POLITICS OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN WEST BENGAL SIGNALLING REAGAN FROM ISLAMABAD PERSPECTIVES Industrial Hazards Exported to India shipped to the Middle East and Africa. Ironically, these products bear no warn- Barry I Castleman ing labels, yet Johns-Manville is being sued for billions of dollars by thousands Rakesh Madan Robert Mayes of American workers with cancer and asbestosis for not having affixed warning labels on products sold in the US \ ASBESTOS is the name for a family of fib1ous minerals that have found wide,pread use in industry over the past century. This is due to asbestos' excellent resistance to heat and chemicals and its tensile strength. In 1977, elel'<"n faci!Hies produced 420,000 tons of a,hestos-cement (A-C) sheet and 81,000 tons of A-C pipe in India (1). There were more than one million tons of A-C pipe produced in the US in 1980, but A-C sheet is hardly used at all in the US anymore (about 70,000 tons in 1980). Asbestos readily break-$ down into a 1nicroscopic dust when handled, and unfortunately the inhalation of asbestos Jibrcs is extremely hazardous. British and American medical authorities pub]j,Jied reports of fatal asbestosis (a scarring of the lungs) in the early 1000s, .uuong workers with as little as 6 to ~J months of heavy exposure to the dust. The disease does not usually manifest itself in less than 10 years from the onset of exposure, and in its early ,tages the main symptom is shortness ol breath upon e)!'.ertion. The shortness oJ breath oan eventually become in(',1pacitating and lead to death. There i' no cure for asbestosis, and the only hope lies in preventing workers from having to breathe the dust in the first place. D B Banerji has found high concentrations of airborne asbesfos dust point to any level of asbestos exposure as being free from cancer risk. In the light of this, tougher standards have been recommended in cases where asbestos can't just lw 1cplaced by safer substances [3). In 1978, US health authorities estimated that 50,000 new cases of cancer will occur annually for 30 more years as a result of past exposures to asbestos in America. The recognition of this catastrophe has led to bans on asbestos in moulded pipe insulation and other products, and increasingly severe regulations on both the use of asbestos in work and asbe~tos pollution. The decline in US consumption of asbestos accelerated in 1980 and asbestos cement products reflect this. One company, Johns-Manville, has recently closed four asbesfos-cement pipe manufacturing plants. This is largely a result of public concern over the contamination of drinking water supplied via asbestsocement pipes. US consumption of A-C pipes declined by one-third in 1980. Sweden, for example, has banned asbestos-cement [4]. To avoid the cost of regulations and lawsuits for damages, multinational firms have looked to developing nations as sanctuaries to manufacture cheaply, and as a 'last frontier' for developing new markets, until 1964 [5]. Wrth juries sometimes awarding punitive damages to asbestos victims and new lawsuit5 being filed at the rate of c,ver 5,000 per year, there is growing concern that even JohnsMansville and other large companies may not be able to "meet their obligation" [6]. In Bombay, Hindustan Ferodo Ltd produces brake linings, clutch facings and asbestos teii;tiles. This company is 74 per cent owned by tlie dominant British asbesto~ company, Turner and Newall. In late 1979, exports to the UK were halted after shipments were refused because they were not triplepacked in polyethylene bags. Inside the plant, conditions re.,emhle those in British factories 50 yea1s ago [4, 5]. The workers are not info1med about the hazards of breathing asbestos dust, which is present in visible concentrations in the plant atmosphere. Worker~ are not informed by management when their chest X-rays reveal asbestosis. Even the simplest housekeeping measures are not employed e g, dust on the floors is dry swept, not wet mopped. The same lockers are used for street clothes and the dusty work clothes, as>uring the contamination of the workers' homes. Overwhelmed exhaust ventilation is used to remove dust in some processes. Suction ducts lead to a room where the waste dust is collected in and diagnosed asbestosis in one-quarter A survey in 1980 focused on asbes- canvas sacks. The wastes are transfer- of the workers (with' more than five tos rnanufacturing activities in India red to jute sacks which leak dust pro- y"ars on the job) examined in an asbes- that had been constructed and operated fusely. When charged with such prac- tos-cement plant in India [2]. in collaboration with the world's larg- tices in print, management has simply ln addition to asbestosis, which can est multinational asbe~tos corporations. denied everything; claiming, for exam- he caused by years of lesser exposure In Ahmedal;md, Shree J?igvijay Cement ple, that there are "very clear notices ,1s well as less than a month of intense Company Ltd produces 50,000 tons per that point the dangers [of asbestos] e>.po'1ire, asbestos causes a variety of }ear of asbestos-cement pipe sheet. Its out" in the plant. "The labourers who cancers in :nan. The inhaled. fibres migrate throughout the body, and cause cancers of the lung, ~tomach, and other sites. Otherwise-rare cancers known as foreign collaborator is the Johns-Manville Corporation, the largest asbestos company in the Western Hemisphere. Shree Digvijay has been a steady cus- carry the dust away from the ventilation system have only to remove and close the polyethylene bags in which the dust lies and take it to the stores [7]. me~othelioma have afflicted not only tomer for Canadian asbestos fibre mined In a plant tour conducted in March a.>hestos workers, but also workers in all th~ building trades, asbestos workers' families exposed to dust brought home on the workers' clothes, and ucighhours of asbestos plants, some of whcrn phi>e<l as children on asbestos 11 asle dumps. US health authorities ,tl'knowkclge that the evidence does not by Johns-Mansville. Asbestos-laden solid wastes and process water are dumped outside of the Ahmedabad plant in a completely wanton manner. Children play on the waste dumps, and workers a1e not informed of the lethal dangers of the <lust. Johns-Manville is the ex. clusive seller of Shree Digvijay products 1981, one of the present authors (Rakesh Madan) was informed that the dust is actually collected in canvas bags, then transferred to jute bags, which are loaded into an open truck and shipped to the dump in Deonar. Nowhere in the du~t collection pro- cess were polyethylene bags observed 1057 to be used. Amin,--the works direcfor, explained, "We have to use canvas bags so the air can pass through them to facilitate collection.'' Dmin~ two p'ant tours, no warning notices were seen in . the plant. Asbestos was~e was piled ou.tside the plant and exhausted by ventilation ducts along a major commuter train line. '\ management's assertion that "the factory has a good medical record" is a gri~ reminder that standards of health protection in the asbestos industry are rather' low. The Tim.es of India reported that Hindustan Ferodo had fired employees whose medical examinations ~hawed they were suffering from asbesto~is and noted "at le:ist 35 per cent of those still on their jobs 2re afflicted and yet are neither di~:;harged nor duly compensat!'d" [8]. Even in the apparent vacuum of '!Overnment regulation, it is appalling that these gi~nt asbestos companies conduct b:1siness under such condilicms iri India and elsewhere. Yet the eoncealment of the hazards of ashes tos is neither new to them nor accidental. A meeting of asbestos firms based in 24 countries was held in 1978 1o consider the matter of l'Sing warn- ing labels on their products. An internal m~morandum reflected their t:naniir\6ns inclination to avoirl the use of warning labels wherever possihle [4]: In those countries where it was felt it was still too early to start voluntary labelling, in fear of a possible _negative influence on sales, steps should be taken to prepare commercial people for the idea, making clear that in the absence of an industry's initiative we could run the risk of being imposed the 'skull arid crossbones' symbol for our products. In response to the bad publicity about health hazards the Indian asbestos industry is forming a trade assoc1at10n. The Indian companies will learn how to counter adverse reports at a meeting set for June 1981 in England. Needless to say, the asbestos industry i~ not the only purveyor of severe health hazards in India, though it is among the worst. Similar problems can be documented in other industries, including pesticides, dyes, and other chemicals. [9, 10] References [l] Asbestos Cement and Asbestos Products Industry, 19(i), The Stock Exchange Official Diif!ctory, Bombay, [2] Banerji lJ P, "Asbestos in an Asbestos Cement Factory," Indian I /nd11st Med, 14 : 159-166 (1968). 1058 [3] Bridbord, K et al, "Estimation of the Fraction of Cancer in the United States Related to Occupational Factors", US Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, DC, September 15, 1978. [4] Castleman, B I and Vera Vera, M J, "Impending Proliferation of Asbestos", lnternat f Hea/l!1 Serv IO: 389-403 (1980). [5] Castleman, B I, "Double Standards: Asbestos in India", New Scientist 89: 522-323 (Feb 26, l 981). [6] "Suits that Are Searing A~bes tos", Business Week, pp 166-169, (,\pril 13, 1981). [7] N Venkataraman, Managing Director, Hindustan Ferodo, letter forwarded to New Scientist editor M Kenward, by W P Howard, Group Public Relation,, advisor for Turner and Newall. Ltd (March 2, 1981), pubJi.,hed in shortened form, with reply b:o. B I Castleman anrl R Ma;es 111 Neu Scientist, April 2, 19!l I. f8] Rangan, R K, "Proof of Cancc1 Among Men in Asbestos L'nih", The Times of India, March 27. 1981. [9] Castleman, B I, "The Export o( Hazardous Factories to Developing Nations", lnternat f Health Serv, 9: 569-606 (1979). flO] Castleman, B I, "Double Standard in Industrial Hazards" Publ Health Reviews (in press, 1981). Did you make any GIFT last year? It may be chargeable to \ GIFT-TAX. Unless specifically exempted from the charge of gift tax by law. every gift is chargeable to gift tax. if the total value of the gifts made in a year exceeds Rs. 5,000. 30TH JUNE IS THE LAST DATE FOR FILING ' A GIFT TAX RETURN IN RESPECT OF THE GIFTS MADE IN THE PRECEDING YEAR. You can obtain the Return Form from your Income-tax Officer or the Public Relations Officer in the office of the Commissioner of Income-tax. IJ IS ALWAYS BETTER TO FILE YOUR RETURN WELL BEFORE THE.LAST DATE. PAV TAXES RIGHT: BUILD NATION'S MIGHT DIRECTOR OF INSPECTION (Research, Statistics. Printing 0 & Public Relation) .'!..... Income-tax Department, Cl) New Oelhi-110001 .0>.. "O