Document N2KJj87r946k6Bg0eD5wgv0DR

FILE NAME: Shree Digvijay (SDV) DATE: 1981 Oct 22 DOC#: SDV025 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Newspaper Article - J-M Tells Its Indian Affiliate to Improve Health Standards PAGE --GOi/iERSET U E R Sn JG riR -G A ZE T TE --O C T O B E R 22,1931 T E.t3 J tell1 s it By BARBARA COOK D E N V E R -- In response to "a great deal one-seventh of the plant's asbestos in 1900. Johns-M anville has the raw asbestos fiber by Shree Digvijay workers, J-M records indicate plant," according to an October 1979 letter. But in August 1980 thsese highest ble." projects the priority possi toifo ni"n coarrbeocut t inJfoohrmn sa- loewssnetrhshainp ain 10theperccoemnt cthoant sitshtee n tcloymppanroyd dheads Jvoichens-pMreasnidvniellte Msoennriooer reRcoerids cshoonwtesndJs-Mth'satctohne Manville's involvement pany, in an Indian asbestos ce from he the said, early dating 1960s, their Indian affiliate to improve health stan Harris wrote to Indian ment plant printed in an when J-M was consultant dards. officials " to draw your sistent efforts to exercise what 1united influenc" Indian m agazine which to companies around the "We are concerned served as the basis for an w o r l d w h i c h w e r e with the way asbestos article in last week's building asbestos plants. p r o d u c t s a r e u s e d attention to a num ber of they have with Since re c e n t ev e n ts which Digvijay. "Yes, we do could have a profound in have a policy, but our fluence upon the future policy is not a slamming Gazette, J-M officials opened their records this Sliree Digvijay was one around the world which of them. are giving asbestos a bad of the asbestos cement industry in India." of the door," he said. He noted that If J-M week to present a more The plant was sold to im age," Reis stated. complete picture of the the Indian company in After a J-M team situation. 3SG0 or 19C1 with the The letter describes JM's efforts " both in quits selling asbestos to India, other countries Jam es Reis, director highest technical visited the Shree Digvi stan jay plant in Septem ber determining the causal factors" leading to will quickly fill the g a r . of asbestos policy at J- dards and equipment of 1977, they wrote in a J-M M's Denver corportate the time, ho said. asbestos-related headquarters, said en The under 10 percent mplaenmt o rcaunrrdeunmtly: h"asThea idnigsetaescehsolaongdy itno d"eavsesluorpe vironm entalist Barry Castlem an's report on ownership as partial came about payment for very severe dust pro blem with asbstos fiber that asbestos can be min conditions at the Shree the technology. But J-M as well as cement. Most ed, milled, shipped and m anufactured into a Digvijay Cement Ltd. p l a n t Co. has no one on the board of the fiber handling and i n of directors and the usage is done by hand finished product in a safe Ahmedabad, India, ca r nature of the ownership and with shovels without m anner." ; The letter called for a ried in the June 13 issue "does not entail day-to dust control of any kind. of Economic and Polic- day operations," Reis F u r t h e r , t he I ndi a n tim etable for cleanup 1 taicl Weekly, "is not fac said. completion at Shree Government Environ Digvijay. tu a l, an d we h a v e Reis asserts that J-M ment Division has been repeatedly pointed that adheres to established In November 1930, a J- ' out to him th at." safety standards while recently tightening dust emissions (standards) M enviromnental control engineering team The Shree Digvijay doing business overseas. plant is described in the " Every bag of raw and Shree Digvijay has been told to either shape visited Shree Digvijay article as a classic ex fiber that J-M ships to In up or close down, with and issued four pages of detailed recominenda- ! a m p l e of w a n t o n dia has a warning label their management liable disregard of asbestos on it in six languages," for jail sentences." safety standards. J-M, he said. ' J-M offered technical tion for cleanup. , A De cem ber 1980 followup visit and letter the article stated, is the While it is true that the "exclusive se lle r" of f i n i s h e d a s b e s t o s Shree Digvijay products cement products do not assitance for the plant to clean up, and a January 1978 communi cat ion indicated that steps had i been taken to implement the the recommenda shipped to the Middle have warning labels, East and Africa. F u r there is no requirement from Shree Digvijay, says they followed J-M 's tions, and that further ther, asbestos products of that, even in the recommendations, steps were con with safety underway, equipment , d istrib u te d display no by J-M United States, Reis said, w a rn in g since products in which tacted dust control ex ordered. perts and had, in fact, ; labels, the article said. the asbestos fiber is According records ; "already entrusted cer from another visit on Yet Reis said the link bound a re excluded. between the two com "The danger is from the tain jobs to them ." J-M followed up the March 12, the Shree panies is not nearly as raw fiber which can get D igvijay next year with a com prgress" had "made cleaning up complete as the article into the lungs." Reie would suggest. said. "We have never been Although C astlem an pilation o f a sb e s to s an d health m aterials which the Indian plant manag- and that "most of the equipm ent which we recommended has at and are not now the ex has appeared in Manclusive seller," he said, ville with slides showing m e n t p r o n i s e d to lehst been ordered." disseminate " o all con with J-M providing only unhealthy handling of cerned peo[ < Shree Digvijay was in my again urged " to give --'Il'tfi'ZZZZ ZSZLJLrLZ W U 'ZI'Xj TX'SZTI. uti0 on 11 I b b l k t By BARBARA COOK shipped to the Middle E ast and characteristic in cigarette smoking nloewt esratlhesanin1971998n0etwsearlees,$1"0fomr aillllioonf | Even as it is being sued by thousands of persons in this country Africa. Ironically, these products bear no warning labels, yet JohnsManville is being sued for billions of cases. "The state of medical knowledge theory boils down to the issue of 1980, net sales by overseas sub sidiaries w ere 18 percent higher than for 1979," according to company wrehlaotedhadviseeasceosn, ttrhaecJteodhnsa-Msbaensvtoilsle- dwoolrlakresrs bwy itthhocuasnacnedrsanodf aAsmbeesrtiocsains froearessoeneaabbliyliftyor--esetehaabt lies,thwahteansbweasstoist figures. , Corp. reportedly continues to be in for not having affixed warning labels volved in the sam e unhealthful pro- . on products sold in the US until 1954, insulation products presented a hazard and therefore gave rise to a duty to warn. We know that J-M "To avoid the cost of regulations j and lawsuits for damages, m ultina tional firm s have looked to develop duction and distribution practices of asbestos products overseas, especial it says. started to label all its insulation pro ing nations as sa n c tu a rie s to ly in Third World countries. In an article recently published in It appears to be a tenuous situation for a company which is claiming ducts in 1954, so th a t's not an issue. As to w hether the com pany should m anufacture cheaply, and as a `last frontier' for developing new India in a weekly described by the In prior lack of m edical knowledge as a have done so earlier, M arkusson said m a r k e t s ," th e E c o n o m ic a n d dian Consulate in New York City as a leg al defense a g a in st pending that " because we believe it first Political Weekly article explained. "highly respected and reputable weekly m agazine which covers asbestos litigation in this country. Johns-Manville notes in its own becam e a duty in 1964 -- and the medical literature supports that In a M ay 28 Insight interview with senior J-M vice president E arl economic and political issues, it was reported that Johns-Manville 1980 annual report th at since the mid1970s, the company has sold asbestos belief -- J-M satisfied its duty and Parker and Markusson regarding JM's defenses, M arkusson d iso w r-^' 1 provides the raw m aterials for, and fiber in the United States " only in thus didn't, as a m atter of law, place a defective product on the m arket. the " sophisticated user theuiy, is " exclusive seller" of, asbestos pro pressure pack, block form or other S ducts manufactured and distributed sim ilar condition, and not in loose Environmental consultant Barry Castleman, who co-authored the In which focuses on the knowlege of the employer a t the tim e of exposure. " In term s of w arnings, th ere is under conditions which are illegal and known to cause cancer in the fo rm ." j Dennis M arkusson, the com pany's dian article, in a telephone interview accused J-M of " selling asbestos nothing about asbestos that Johns- Western world. assistant corporate counsel in charge without warning of risk, while know M a n v i l l e c o u l d h a v e t o l d The Shree Digvijay Cement Co. Ltd. of Ahmedabad produces 50,000 of asbestos litigation, notes hi Insight ing it full well." 81 J-M 's quarterly publication for in sophisticated m aunfacturers back then th at they didn't alread y know." tons per year of asbestos-cem ent vestors, th at J-M's safety practices " It's a continuing p attern ," he add ed. "I t 's w hat they've always done. Regarding punitive dam ages for pipe sheet and its " foreign col and warning labels since 1954 a re a What they're doing in India is w hat the future, M arkusson said: laborator" is the Johns-Manville Cor main defense against the suits. they've alw ays done in the United " If the notion is to punish, then at poration, the June 13 issue of Economic and Political Weekly There is a long latency period St3bcs." betweeen exposure and m anifesta As most Americans now realize, some point it goes beyond punishing and becomes an abuse of due process Stdt6S> Shree Digvijay has been a "steady tion of asbestos-related diseases, from 15 to 30 years, and M arkusson and m any local residents tragically know full well, breathing asbestos or at least nonsensical. If it's intend ed to deter, then th at wouldn't apply custom er" for Canadian asbestos says that a " vast m ajority" of the fibers causes lung dam age and m ay in asbstos cases because in m ost fiber mined by Johns-Manville, ac disease m anifested in the 1970s was lead to cancer. cases the products a re n 't m anufac cording to the article, which goes on to describe how asbestos-laden solid the result of exposure in the '40s and '50s, "before m edical knowledge w as Indeed, J-M is defendant or co tured anym ore." defendant in nearly 6,000 asbestos Except overseas, w here the profit wastes and process w ater are advanced enough to alert industry to lawsuits lawsuits brought by present is still to be m ade and life apparently dumped outside of the A hm edabad the scope of th e problem ." plant "in a completely wanton m an or form er insualation, shipyard and factory workers and other persons is still cheap. For, as the Indian article points ner." " Children play on the waste "If you condense all the legal theories, you end up with basically alleging dam age to their health from out, "Even in the apparent vacuum of governm ent regulation, it is ap dumps, and workers ae not informed , of the lethal dangers of the dust," it three: the foreseeability defense bas ed upon the medical knowledge a t the tim e of exposure, use of asbestos by exposure to dust from asbestos fibers or asbestos products m anufatuered or sold by J-M and other defendants. palling that these giant asbestos companies conduct business under such conditions in India and i|| csoe"lnlJteiornhunoesfs-.MSahnreveilleDiigsvitjhaey epxrcolduusi.cvtes b`syophtihsteicatpedl auisnertsi,f'fandwnhegi clihgenci es fitYabeltethoeneo.vDeressepaistemfaarckt etthiast aJ-pMro's elsew here." .