Citizen Direct at India Together: Asbestos ban may go, protests

4 May 2005

Plans are afoot in New Delhi to lift the ban on asbestos mining as per the information given by the Minister of State for Coal & Mines, Dr. Dasari Narayana Rao in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on 29th April. Asbetos fibres are proven to be cancer causing and the Minister’s signal is not going down well with environmental groups in the country. Grant of fresh mining leases and renewal of existing mining leases for asbestos are presently banned in India on health grounds.

Asbestos is a fiber deemed carcinogenic in 40 countries. The new moves are having civil society groups wondering how it is deemed safe for Indian workers and citizens by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), a subordinate office of the Ministry of Mines. �We urge that the parliament should not revoke the existing ban on asbestos mining in India,� says J John of Centre for Education and Communication (CEC), a labour research organisation. “Are Indian workers specifically resistant to asbestos,” asks Pranjal Jyoti Gowsami of CEC.

Thirty 30 deaths are caused per day from asbestos-related diseases as per estimates based on US and European studies. White asbestos continues to be in use in India, although other kinds such as blue and brown asbestos are banned.

Industrial Toxicology Research Center (Lucknow) under the leadership of Dr.Qamar Rahman has conducted detailed studies in the illegal mining and milling area of Rajisthan. She has reported that workers exposed to very high asbestos fiber concentration at work places. They do not use gloves, masks and protective clothing. They use primitive manual way for grinding. “Clinical studies revealed prevalence of large number of cases of asbestosis. In some cases asbestosis was developing in less than five years. Under such alarming conditions lifting ban on asbestos mining would be a disaster for the workers,” says Dr Rahman.

When the inclusion of white asbestos (in the ban) was first proposed in November 2003, the Central Government opposed it in a manifest double speak. Only a few months earlier, in August 2003, the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare had informed the Rajya Sabha that Studies by the National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad, have shown that exposure to any type of asbestos can lead to the development of asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.

The Indian Association of Occupational Health had passed a resolution demanding an immediate ban on all the activities related to asbestos and its products on 13th April 2002. On 8th November 2004, preventable but incurable diseases caused by asbestos were taken note of by the India�s central trade unions who endorsed a resolution calling for its ban at a workshop organized by Toxics Link, an environmental organisation.

P K Ganguli of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said that at a time when there is a world wide movement to get asbestos banned and already the entire developed world has banned it, it was puzzling to note that Indian Government is planning to lift the ban. He warned that it would contribute to more cancer and occupational hazards among the workers in particular. “We demand that the government should desist from lifting the ban from mining of all forms of asbestos,” he says.

Human biology world over is the same. We are optimistic about the fact that ultimately the misinformation campaign of the industry will get defeated and public health hazard due to exposure to asbestos will get exposed, said Dr T K Joshi, director, Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, New Delhi. The UPA government�s Common Minimum Programme status that it “is firmly committed to ensure the welfare and well-being of all workers, particularly those in the unorganised sector who constitute 93% of our workforce”. On the other hand, the Union Ministry of Mines plans to lift the ban on asbestos fiber�s mining.

The Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI) is a national alliance civil society groups like Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti-Gujarat, Mines, Minerals and People-Delhi, Mine Labour Protection Campaign, Rajasthan, Banjara Development Society, Greenpeace, Toxics Link, People�s Training Resource Centre Gujarat, Occupational Health and Safety Association, Gujarat, Delhi Forum, Society for Legal Information Centre, PRASAR, Centre for Education and Communication etc, occupational health experts and academicians and concerned individuals.

BANI has appealed to legislators, Ministers in the present Government and members of the civil society to initiate action to get asbestos trade banned in right earnest and not get misled by vested interests in lifting the ban on asbestos. The urgency to circumvent incurable diseases caused by asbestos has been recognized in Europe and the US due to the history of past exposure to their citizens.

Gopal Krishna 4 May 2005

Gopal Krishna is with Toxics Link, New Delhi. Toxics Link is at H-2, Jungpura Extension New Delhi-110014. Ph: 91-11-24328006, 24320711. Fax: 91-11-24321747.

Citizen Direct is India Together’s channel for publishing reports from citizens who have detailed information about specific civil society concerns and matters, by virtue of their participation, association, or independent observation. These reports are therefore as witnessed and understood by the authors themselves; India Together accepts no liability or responsibility for them.
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