Document MJney04z5new2LMRaYyJ3aX79
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522
New Scientist 26 February 1981
Double standards: asbestos in India Informed eye-witness accounts of hazards in and around factories in the Third World are rare. Here Barry Castleman presents an investigation of two asbestos factories in India. Both are associated with Western multinational companies and both are far from safe
Few companies in the Third World have the medical and scientific expertise needed to control hazards in factories. Yet the medical literature is replete with hard-learned lessons about the damaging effects of toxic substances on industrial workers-lessons often learned in the factories of the same companies that now dominate the international mining and manufacturing scene. So one might expect subsidiaries or affiliates of large multinationals in Third World countries to observe higher standards of environmental safety than local industries.
At least this is the aim of many of the multinationals that operate in the Third World. For example, Dr Harold Gordon, the medical director of Dow Chemical, says: "The rule is that we abide by the local standards or the Dow standards, whichever are the most stringent."
But this article paints rather a different picture in the case of two other multinationals. It is based on visits to two Indian asbestos plants-the Shree Digvijay Cement Company's plant in Ahmedabad and Hindustan Ferodo in Bombaylast year. The visits revealed hazards in
Barry Castleman is an environmental consultant 1n the US. This account 15 based on visits to India last year.
This child is playing on a dump of asbestos. The asbestos came from the Shree Digvijay Cement Co's factory in Ahmedabad. The plant also discharges asbestos in waste water (right). ln the US and in Britain, these practices would be irregular because of the hazards they create for the people near the factory and around both factories that would not be allowed in the West.
Asbestos-cement building panels and pipes are popular in India-in 1977, 11 plants there made 420 000 tonnes of asbestos-cement sheet and 81 000 tonnes of pipe. One of these plants is owned by the Shree Digvijay Cement Company. The factory is almost 20 years old and the American asbestos corporation Johns. Manville helped build it. Johns-Manville supplied Shree Digvijay with "technical know-how, designs, drawings, specifications, and planning data and with all other technical information and engineering assistance including the erection and supervision of the project". Johns-
Manville owns some shares in the company.
Early in the 1970s, Shree Digvijay began exporting its products and appointed Johns-Manville as its sole selling agents for the Middle East and Africa. In addition, Johns-Manville supplies Shree Digvijay with raw asbestos fibre. Although Johns-Manville does not own the Indian company, it is tied to it by a myriad of business connections.
More i m p o r t a n t l y , it is JohnsManville's stated policy that: "We will reserve the right to refuse to sell asbestos fibre to customers who fail to meet applicable government regulations on asbestos exposure and therefore en- 1
danger the Jhoehanlst-hMaonf vitlhleeirtoeumnpwloayrreaens-,
and expose .
In
those
countries
where
A house built of scrap asbestos (left) near Shree Digvijay and asbestos dumped outside the Rane Brake factory
adras, 25 per cent owned by Cape
ted liability there are no
governmental
regulations
on
asbestos exposure [India is one), ac-
in M
ht). Below, a peddlar
Industries (rig
road
cepted industrial hygiene practice shall
trundles asbestos pipes along the from Shree Digvijay
apply." The road
to
the
Shree
Digvijay
plant
was lined oten. Abothhigshidwesallbysurarsobuenstdoesd-
asbestos cocmh pmanaidees-iistsupeldaina thmaet mtohre-
andum
whi companies would accept warning
cement was the factory.
Outside,
untreated
waste
water emptied into a trench piled with
asbestos labels piecemeal,
country
by
country,
public pressure
solid asbemstotshewapsltaenot nliettiethreedr sthidee.nSeioglhidwaste fro where houses stand-indeed
were made from
afonrd, winarcnoinugntrliaebs ewlshewreas too great to ignore, would lobby for the mildest possible warning.
bourhood shoumnkes ofoftheasbheosutoses-scement pipes and
No such pressure seems likely in India. Neither are Shree Digvijay's workers
scraps of corrugated asbestos-cement sheets. Children played on the wastes
likely to imitateCJaolhifnosr-nMiaanwvihlloe'sbfroorumgehrt
aroTuhned tUhSeir Ehonmvierso.nmental Protection
employees in law suits against
the
company
for
more
Agency (EPA) requires that suspended waste water from American
thaJonhansb-Millaionnvildloelmlaruss.t have known about
solids plants
in making
asbestos
cement
be
tightly
says it will
the consequences of exposing the public and workers to asbestos for a long time.
controlled. Bt yas1b9e8s4t,ost-hceemEePnAt factories in
demand tha the US discharge
no
asbestos
at
all
in
te water-they must recycle all
In 1967, 1h7e flautnagl c(pasleeus roafl mcaenscoethreolifomthae,
lining of t a disease
caused
almost
exclusively
by
the small
their their
was process
water.
The
agency
will
also
that disposal sites for asbestos
atoswbenstoosf) MwaenrveillreepionrteNdewin Jersey. By
require waste are
fenced
off
and
warning
notices s piosstceodv, eroerd dthaailty twheith dsuomilpeodr
1973, there were 72 victims of the rare and invariably fatal cancer in this town
asbesto some other
material.
The
EPA
may
even
order widespurnedaderrethstericTtoioxnics Sonubtshtaenucsees
of asbestos Control Act-it
has
already
selected
asbestos-cemfoerntsppeipcieasl tahtatetnctiaornry. Adrtinakn-
ing water EPA conference
in
July
last
year,
it
be-
came obbvsitoituustetshafot rththereeasabreestmosa-ncyempeons-t
sible su materials
that
are
used
in
construction.
Shree Digvrnijianyg's laasbbeelsst,ostepllriondgucptseocpalre-
ried how
no wa to avoid
creatip.g
dust
when
they
use
the pipes andd shweoertk. iIntgis waseblle-sktnoos-wcnemtheantt
cutting an gives rise to
hazardous
asbestos
dust.
It is ironic htahvaet btrhoouugshant dssuiotsf aAgmaienrsi-t
can workers Johns-Manville
for
not
putting
warning
labels onunthtiel a1s9b6e4s.toYsept rSohdruecetsDitigsvoiljdayi'ns
the US asbestos-cement
products,
made
from
fibresantyh,act arJroihendsn-Mo alanbveilllse inso1l9d80t.o the
comp In 1978,
the
Asbestos
International
As-
sociation-an international group of
-,,, .i.
-;
.,.,;
.
:\* *";(
A~~-"'
1
+
".._\'.~~~:,~:~~
,.~;!
of 15 000 tspeloaprglee,stwmhaenreufJaochtunrsi-nMgapnlvainllte.
still has i There were
numerous
other
reports
strongly suggesting exposure to asbestos \
asWa hceanusDe roPf atuhilsKdaitsiena,seJ.ohns-Manville's
senior vicev-iprorensmideenntt, wfoasr shheoawltnh,piscatuferetys
and the en of Shree Digvijay's
plant,
he
said,
"That's
criminal". BauntvJiollhe'ns MbcoKaridn,neysa, ycshaiinrmhains
of Johns-M company's annual
report
for
1979,
"Asbestuoes pfirbirme areinlyjoytoedstorennegtohf iints obveesr-t
years d seas markets
where
most
of
the
fibre
is
used in asbestos-cement construction
materials." Last year the company sold
asbestos fibbareys, wHoinrtdhu$s1ta6n8 mFeilrloiodno. makes
In Bom asbestos brake
and
clutch
linings
and
asbestos textBilreist.ishTheasbpelsatnots opcoemnepdaniyn,
1956. The Turner and
Newell,
owns
74
per
cent
'
of the company. The picture of the plant
that a well-itntyfo. rmEexdploorctsal soofurcHeinpdauinstteand
is not pre Ferodo's products
stopped
in
1979,
partly
because thaeusleocsahlipdmemenatnsdtowBasrithaiignhwaenrde
partly bec refused-they
were
not
triple-packed
in
polyethylethnee bpalgans ta, soanlsyafwetoyrmkeerassuinre.the
Inside fluffing and
carding
areas
are
issued
with
respirators".bHeheirnedthae basubsesotnosadudsitrtisrloikade
the dust in the dry
season".
Workers
are
not
told
about the ahratzhaerdrsesopfiraastobress.toTsheayndreoceftievne
do not we an "inconvenience
allowance"
for
work-
ing in this section. The same source
says
that
simple
"housekeinepitnhge" pmlaenats:urfelsoorasrearneot "dermy--
ployed swept",
creating
dust;
the
same
lockers
hold ovewrahlilcsh aanrde tthhues wcoonrktaemrsi'naotewdn:
clothes, workers
receive
regular
medical
examin-
ations butwahroe cnaorrtytoalwdaythteherewsualsttse. dDuasyt
labourers that the ventilation
system
traps
have
no
protection; otheexyamaprelescoilvluersetrdatwe iathfudnudsat-.
These tw mental point.
The
life-saving
medical
and
engineedrinaglontgecwhnitohlodgayngtehraotusshteocuhldnolboe-
exporte gies is often
left
behind.
It
is
time
for
responsible members of the business
world to mitment
step forward and make a comnot to profit by such abuses. '.::;