Document rxENKXav8R9rZq0xBRyJ2M40a

FILE NAME: Asbestos in India (IND) DATE: 1981 June 13 DOC#: IND012 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Journal Article - Industrial Hazards Exported to India AND POLITICAL A Samaeksha Trust Publication EXPORT OF INDUSTRIAL HAZARDS TO INDIA NEPALESE IN NORTHEAST LAW OF SEA: CHANGING SCENARIOS RISE OF SOCIAL CAPITALISM IN USSR POLITICS OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN WEST BENGAL SIGNALLING REAGAN FROM ISLAMABAD PERSPECTIVES Industrial Hazards Exported to India Barry I Castleman Rakesh Madan Robert Mayes ASBESTOS is the name for a family of fibi ous minerals that have found wide spread use in industry over the past century. This is due to asbestos' excel lent resistance to heat and chemicals and its tensile strength. In 1977, ele ven facilities produced 420,000 tons of asbestos-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 breaks down into a microscopic dust when handled, and unfortunately the inhalation of asbestos iibres is extremely hazardous. British and American medical authorities pub lished reports of fatal asbestosis (a scar ring of the lungs) in the early 1930s, among workers with as little as 6 to 9 months of heavy exposure to the dust. The disease does not usually manifest itself in less than 10 years from the onset of exposure, acid iu its early stages the main symptom is shortness of breath upon exertion. The shortness of breath can eventually become in capacitating and lead to death. There is 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 con centrations of airborne asbestos dust and diagnosed asbestosis in one-quarter of the workers (with more than five years on the job) examined in an asbes tos-cement plant in India [2]. In addition to asbestosis, which can he caused by years of lesser exposure as well as less than a month of intense (exposure, asbestos causes a variety of cancers in man. The inhaled fibres migrate throughout the body, and cause cancers of the lung, stomach, and other sites. Otherwise-rare cancers known as mesothelioma have afflicted not only asbestos workers, but also workers in all the building trades, asbestos workins' families exposed to dust brought home on the workers* clothes, and neighbours of asbestos plants, some of whom played as children on asbestos waste dumps. US health authorities acknowledge that tire evidence does not 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 as bestos can't just be replaced by safer substances [3]. In 1978, US health authorities esti mated 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 regu lations on both the use of asbestos in work and asbestos pollution. The dec line in US consumption of asbestos ac celerated in 1980 and asbestos cement products reflect this. One company, Johns-Manville, has recently closed four asbestos-cement pipe manufacturing plants. This is largely a result of pub lic 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 as bestos-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, A survey in 1980 focused on asbes tos manufacturing activities in India that had been constructed and operated in collaboration with the world's larg est multinational asbestos corporations. In Abmedalpad, Shree Digvijay Cement Company Ltd produces 50,000 tons per >ear of asbestos-cement pipe sheet. Its foreign collaborator is the Johns-Man ville Corporation, the largest asbestos company in the Western Hemisphere. Shree Digvijay has been a steady cus tomer for Canadian asbestos fibre mined by Johns-Mansville. Asbestos-laden so lid wastes and process water are dump ed outside of the Ahmedabad plant in a completely wanton manner. Children play on the waste dumps, and workers aie not informed of the lethal dangers of the dust. Johns-Manville is the ex clusive seller of Shree Digvijay products shipped to the Middle East and Africa. Ironically, these products bear no warn ing labels, yet Johns-Manville is being sued for billions of dollars by thousands of American workers with cancer and asbestosis for not having affixed warn ing labels on products sold in the US 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 JohnsMansville and other large companies may not be able to "meet their obliga tion" [6]. In Bombay, Hindustan Ferodo Ltd produces brake linings, clutch facings and asbestos textiles. This company is 74 per cent owned by the dominant British asbestos company, Turner and Newall. In late 1979, exports to the UK were halted after shipments were refused because they were not triple packed in polyethylene bags. Inside the plant, conditions resemble those in British factories 50 yeais ago [4,5]. The workers are not infoimed about the hazards of breathing asbestos dust, which is present in. visible concentra tions in the plant atmosphere. Workers are not informed by management when their chest X-rays reveal asbestosis. Even the simplest housekeeping mea sures 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 suring the contamination of the work ers' homes. Overwhelmed exhaust ven tilation is used to remove dust in some processes. Suction ducts lead to a room where the waste dust is collected in canvas sacks. The wastes are transfer red to jute sacks which leak dust pro fusely. When charged with such prac tices in print, management has simply denied everything; claiming, for exam ple, that there are "very clear notices that point the dangers [of asbestos] out" in the plant. "The labourers who carry the dust away from the ventila tion system have only to remove and dose the polyethylene bags in which the dust lies and take it to the stores [7]. In a plant tour conducted in March 1981, one of the present authors (Ra kesh 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 dust collection pro cess were polyethylene bags observed 1057 to be used. Amin,"the works direc tor, explained, " We have to use can vas bags so th air can pass through them to facilitate collection." During two plant tours, no warning notices were seen in the plant. Asbestos waste was piled outside 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 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 dulv 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 concalment of the hazards of asbes tos is neither new to them nor acci dental. A meeting of asbestos firms basd in 24 countries was held in 1978 io consider the matter of using warn ing labels on their products. An in ternal memorandum reflected their unaninius 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 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' sy+nbol for our products. In response to the bad publicity about health hazards the Indian a s 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, chemicals. [9, 10] dyes, and other [1] [2] 1058 References Asbestos Cement and Asbestos Products Industry, 19(i), The Stock Exchange Official Direc tory, Bombay. Banerji D P, "Asbestos in an As bestos Cement Factory," Indian I Indust Med, 1 4 : 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 Relation.i ad visor for Turner and NewaK, Ltd (March 2, 1981), published in shortened form, with reply bv B I Castleman and R Maves in New Scientist, April 2, 1981. [81 Rangan, R K, " Proof of Cancel Among Men in Asbestos Units" , The Times of India, March 27. 1981. 19] Castleman, B I, "The Export of Hazardous Factories to Develop ing Nations", Internat ] Health Serv, 9: 569-606 (1979). JIO] Castleman, B I, " Double Stand ard in Industrial Hazards" Publ Health Reviews (in press, 1981). nan 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. 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