Document RJvZ91V6RodwN2VM7vkR8wwO8

FILE NAME: Shree Digvijay (SDV) DATE: 1981 June 13 DOC#: SDV024 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Article from Economic and Political Weekly Industrial Hazards Exported to India Industrial Hazards Exported Barry I Castleman Rakesh Madan Robert Mayes to India , Reprinted irom Economic and Political Weekly, Vol XVI No 24, June 13, 1981 Pagination as in original, advertisements excluded. Industrial Hazards Exported to India Barry I Castleman Rakesh Madan Robert Mayes 1U '-/* i / * ' --------- until 1964 [5], With juries sometimes awarding punitive damages to asbestos victims and new lawsuits being filed at the rate of over 5,000 per year, there is growing concern that even Johns- Mansville and other large companies may not be able to "meet their obliga been recommended in cases where as tion" [6]. ASBESTOS is the name for a family of bestos can't just be replaced by safer In Bombay, Hindustan Ferodo Ltd fibrous minerals that have found wide spread use in industry over the past substances [3]. In 1978, US health authorities esti produces brake linings, clutch facings and asbestos textiles. This company is century. This is due to asbestos' excel lent resistance to heat and chemicals mated that 50,000 new cases of cancer 74 per cent owned by the dominant and its tensile stiength. In 1977, ele will occur annually for 30 more years British asbestos company, Turner an ven facilities produced 420,000 tons of as a result of past exposures to asbestos Newall. In late 1979, exports to the asbestos-cement (A-C) sheet and 81,000 in America. The recognition of this UK were baited after shipments were tons of A-C pipe in India [1]. There catastrophe has led to bans on asbestos in moulded pipe insulation and other refused because they were not tnplepacked in polyethylene bags. Ins were more than one million tons of A-C pipe produced in the US in 1980, but products, and increasingly severe regu the plant, conditions resemble those in A-C sheet is hardly used at all in the lations on both the use of asbestos in British factories 50 years ago [4 5] US anymore (about 70,000 tons in 1980). work and asbestos pollution. The dec The workers are not infoimed a 011 line in US consumption of asbestos ac the hazards of breathing asbestos dust, Asbestos readily breaks down into a celerated in 1980 and asbestos cement which is present in visible concenba- microscopic dust when handled, and products reflect this. One company, tions in the plant atmosphere. Workers unfortunately the inhalation of asbestos Johns-Manville, has recently closed four are not informed by management when fibres is extremely hazardous. British asbestos-cement pipe manufacturing their chest X-rays reveal asbestosis. and American medical authorities pub plants. This is largely a result of pub Even the simplest housekeeping mea lished reports' of fatal asbestosis (a scai- lic concern over the contamination of sures are not employed: eg, dust on ring of the lungs) in the early 1930s, drinking water supplied via asbestso- the floors is dry swept, not wet mopped. among workers with as little as 6 to cement pipes. US consumption of A-C The same lockers are used for street 9 months of heavy exposure to the dust. pipes declined by one-third in 1980. clothes and the dusty work clothes, as The disease does not usually'manifest Sweden, for example, has banned as suring the contamination of the work itself in less than 10 years from the onset of exposure, and in its early bestos-cement [4]. ers' homes. Overwhelmed exhaust ven tilation is used to remove dust m some stages the main symptom is shortness To avoid the cost of regulations and processes. Suction ducts lead to a room of breath upon exertion. The shortness of breath aan eventually become in lawsuits for damages, multinational firms have looked to developing nations where the waste dust is collec ed canvas sacks. The wastes are transfer capacitating and lead to death. There as sanctuaries to manufacture cheaply, is no cure for asbestosis, and the only and as a `last frontier' for developing red to jute sacks which leak dust pro hope lies in preventing workers from new markets. fusely. When charged with such prac having to breathe the dust in the first tices in print, management has simply A survey in 1980 focused on asbes denied everything; claiming, for exam place. D B Banerji has found high con tos manufacturing activities in India ple, that there are "very clear notices centrations of airborne asbestos dust that had been constructed and operated that point the dangers [of asbestos] and diagnosed asbestosis in one-quarter in collaboration with the world's larg out" in the plant. "The labourers who oi the workers (with more than five est multinational asbestos corporations. carry the dust away from the ventila years on the job) examined in an asbes- In Ahmedabad, Shree Digvijay Cement tion system have only to remove and , tos-cement plant in India [2]. Company Ltd produces 50,000 tons per close the polyethylene hags In which In addition to asbestosis, which can year of asbestos-cement pipe sheet. Its the dust lies and take it to the stores 17]. be caused by years of lesser exposure fvoirlleeignCocroplolarabtoiorant,orthies thleargeJsothnass-bMesatons In a plant tour conducted in March as well as less than a month of^ intense company in the Western Hemisphere. 1981 one of the present authors (Ra- exposure, asbestos causes a variety of Shree Digvijay has been a steady cus 2 h Madan) was informed that the cancers in man. The inhaled fibres tomer for Canadian asbestos fibre mined d u t is actualiy collected m canvas migrate throughout the body, and cause by Johns-Mansville. Asbestos-laden so baas then transferred to jute b g , cancers of the lung, stomach, and other lid wastes and process water are dump S h a, loaded into an P< sites. Otherwise-rare cancers known as ed outside of the Ahmedabad plant in and shipped to the dump in Deonar. k mesothelioma have afflicted not only a completely wanton manner. Children Nowhere in the dust collection pro asbestos workers, but also workers in play on the waste dumps, and workers cess were polyethylene bags observe -all the building trades, asbestos work are not informed of the lethal dangers to be used. Amin, the works direc ers' families exposed to dust brought of the dust. Johns-Manville is the ex tor explained, "We have to use can ; home on the workers' clothes, and clusive seller of Shree Digvijay products vas bags so the air can pass through neighbours of asbestos plants, some of whom played as children on asbestos shipped to the Middle East and Africa. Ironically, these products bear no warn them to facilitate collection. Dunn8 two plant tours, no warning notices .waste dumps. US health authorities acknowledge that the evidence does not ing labels, yet Johns-Manville is being sued for billions of dollars by thousands were seen in the plant. Asbestos waste was piled outside the plant and point-to any level of asbestos exposure of American workers with cancer and exhausted by ventilation ducts along hbtejionfg tfhreise, ftrooumghcearncsetarnrdiaskrd. s Inhathvee asbestosis for not having affixed warn- a major commuter train line. 1057 A management's assertion that "the factory has a good medical record" is a grim reminder that standards of health protection in the asbestos in dustry are rather low. The Times of India reported that Hindustan Ferodo had fired employees whose medical examinations showed they were suf fering from asbestosis and noted "at least 35 per cent of those still on their jobs are afflicted and yet are neither discharged nor duly compen sated" [8]. Even in the apparent vacuum of government regulation, it is appalling that these giant asbestos companies conduct business under such condi tions in India and elsewhere. Yet the concealment of the hazards of asbes tos is neither new to them nor acci dental. A meeting of asbestos firms based in 24 countries was held in 1978 to consider the matter of using warn ing labels on their products. An in ternal memorandum reflected their unanimous inclination to avoid the use of warning labels wherever possi ble [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 b e 'ta k e n '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 and crossbones' syknbol for our products. In response to the bad publicity about health hazards the Indian as bestos industry is forming a trade association. The Indian companies will learn how to counter adverse re ports at a meeting set for June 1981 in England. Needless to say, the asbestos industry is not the only purveyor of severe health hazards in India, though it is among the worst. Similar problems can be documented in other industries, in cluding pesticides, dyes, and other chemicals. [9, 10] References [1] Asbestos Cement and Asbestos Products Industry, 19(i), The Stock Exchange Official Direc tory, Bombay. [2] Banerji D P, "Asbestos in an As-. bestos Cement Factory," Indian ] Indust Med, 14: 159-166 (1968). [3] Bridbord, K et al, "Estimation of the Fraction of Cancer in the United States Related to Occu- ..pational 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", Internat ] Health Serv 10: 389-403 (1980). [5] Castleman, B I, "Double Stand ards : Asbestos in India", New Scientist 89 ; 522-523 (Feb 26, 1981). [6] "Suits that Are Searing Asbes tos" , Business Week, pp 166-169, (April 13, 1981). [7] N Venkataraman, Managing Di rector, Hindustan Ferodo, letter forwarded to New Scientist edi tor M Kenward, by W P How ard, Group Public Relations ad visor for Turner and Newall, Ltd (March 2, 1981), published in shortened form, with reply by B I Castleman and R Mayes in New Scientist, April 2, 1981. [8] Rangan, R K, "Proof of Cancer Among Men in Asbestos Units", The Times of India, March 27, 1981. [9] Castleman, B I, "The Export of Hazardous Factories to Develop ing Nations", Internat ] Health Serv, 9: 569-606 (1979). [10] Castleman, B I, "Double Stand ard in Industrial Hazards" Publ Health Reviews (in press, 1981).