Along with other trade unions, the largest private sector Canadian Union supports ban on asbetsos, a poisonous fibre which is being promoted as non-poison to the detriment of public health and environment. Each passing day is taking workers towards death but the Canadian asbestos industry and the Canadian government remains intoxicated with the the naked lust for money with criminal callousness towards human life.

The conference against Canadian asbestos was organised in Ottawa by the Canadian Union of Public Employees OHCOW Clinic, the Sierra Club of Canada, Mining Watch Canada, the New Democratic Party, the White Lung Association (USA) the Society of Occupational and Environmental Health (USA), the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat, The National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada (CAW-Canada), the largest private sector Canadian Union and the Global Ban Asbestos Movement.

One of the largest selling magazines India Today in its recent edition 29 September 2003 has quoted FSC (Federal Supreme Court), Brazil prominently in bold letters saying, "Chrysotile (white asbestos) fibre used in asbestos-cement products with the wet process did not produce and will not produce any disease.

Earlier also India today had carried a similar advertisement in September 2002, which we had countered point by point in a leading financial newspaper.

For the last 60-65 days, all the major national newspapers have been carrying full page/hal page advertsements saying "white asbestos is safe" espeacilly in Hindustan Times, Economic Times and Express Group of Newspapers.

Eternit Everest Asbestos Cement Manufacturer advertised itself in Nashik Kumbh, a religious Fair as well. Eternit Everest who are market leaders in Asbestos Cement Sheets in Maharashtra created three public information centres, in order to strengthen the emotional association of the brand during festival. To display their roofing sheets and e-boards these counters were fabricated with Everest products. These counters was also used for merchandising exercise, free religious booklets and product fliers are distributed free from theses counters with Everest branding.

Misinformation Campaign continues unabated. The Hindustan Times (HT) August, 2003...carried an ad saying white asbestos is safe. Earlier also HT carried such ads on June 30, July 8, July 16 and July 24.
In India white asbestos industry represented by V Patabhi, advisor Hyderabad Industries Limited and M L Gupta, Managing Director, Eternit Everest Limited in an advertorial in the September 12 2002 issue of India Today misinformed saying, “Chrysotile Asbestos is a magic mineral”. The Chrysotile Asbestos Cement Products Manufacturers' Association (CACPMA), an association of 14 large manufacturing companies has launched a misinformation campaign through its misinformation centre.

The advertisement claimed, "In a country like India various types of roofing is used by the underprivileged, comprising 80 per cent of the population who cannot afford concrete constructions. The most economical roofing available for the poor is chrysotile asbestos cement sheet". Asbestos is presently being used in a large-scale manner in consumer products, particularly in products used in public utility service including roofing sheets, pipes for water supply, pipes for soil, rain water and ventilation and brake linings.

The CACPMA claims that they use state of the art technology and asbestos cement products are manufactured under strict controlled conditions, according guidelines provided by the Union Ministry of Environment Forests. These claims of the CACPMA are ridiculous because what they are asserting in effect is that they can control wind erosion and normal and tear. On 21st July, 2003 Brigadier (retd) A K Sethi wrote a letter to Toxics Link, a member of BANI attaching the special features which appeared in The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with advertisements which appeared in The Hindustan Times on 30 June, 8 July, 16 July and July 24 to the effect that white asbestos is safe. Later again the advertisements appeared again on 1 August, 2003 in The Hindustan Times and on 5 August on 2003 in The Economic Times. These advertisements have reportedly been carried in all editions of these newspapers. According to Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow, "even a single fibre, on reaching the right place in a cell can cause irreversible damage - leading to asbestosis, lung cancer or mesothelioma." The occurrences of asbestos related diseases include cases where women have died after 6-7 years of the first exposure as was reported by the government doctors, it adds.

White Asbestos Cement Manufacturers led by Brig. A K Sethi who works in close association with The Chrysotile Institute of Canada is the person who behind al these ads.

White Asbestos and our Union Ministries
In India the issue is being handled by constituting one committee after another committee. The issue of white asbestos is not a question of one ministry alone there are several ministries involved. Therefore, an initiative to address the question of coordination between ministries involved to ponder over the ongoing dumping of asbestos toxic fibre is germane as 95 percent of chrysotile asbestos is coming from countries like Canada who have "no home use policy" in their own countries.
Response of Government of India is illustrated by the anecdotes below:

Labour Ministry
There are about 100,000 people engaged in asbestos industry. Experts fear that the world over, 550,000 workers will be affected by asbestos related diseases in the next 10 years; 240,000 of these will be in India alone. There is going to be a steady rise in the frequency of asbestos-linked cancers until at least 2010 or 2020 because they take years to manifest themselves. These figures send shivers up the spine, for they make it clear that any level of exposure can increase the risk of developing a cancer of the lungs.

On 26th February 2003 Union Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma at a meeting with civil society representatives agreed to look into the serious health hazards from all forms of cancer causing asbestos. On 20th March 2003 the representatives met Verma again to discuss the constitution of the committee but the minister did a volte face and asked whether there are Indian studies saying asbestos causes cancer. In the Lok Sabha, on 11th March, Md Saiduzzama questioned Minister of State For Science and Technology, Bachi Singh Rawat regarding research on safety of asbestos. Rawat replied, "ITRC and NIOH have carried out health and environmental monitoring related studies on asbestos. The efforts have led to working out mechanisms of toxicity of asbestos using in-vitro and in-vivo models; highlighting populations that may be occupationally vulnerable." On several other occasions members in both the houses of parliament have been raising the issue but the response from the government leaves a lot to be desired.

Consumer Affairs Ministry
Occupational health experts have called for banning the asbestos material at a meeting of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) called by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs on 18th and 19th February. Several occupational health experts, who participated in the meeting, demanded a ban, as they believed that there was no such thing as `safe asbestos', while representatives from the industrial sector insisted that there were ways of enforcing and ensuring safety standards in its use.



The Ad Hoc Group/panel on Issues related to Safety in use of asbestos Fibres/ Products met on 18 and 19th February in the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) headquarter but the meeting ended on a stormy note where occupational health experts called for immediate ban on asbestos. The meeting was called at the behest of the consumer affairs ministry. Every year one lakh workers are dying due to asbestos related cancers, says International Labour Organsiation (ILO). Asbestos poisoning reaches everyone from the worker mining it to the ultimate consumer of products containing asbestos, says Dr T K Joshi, occupational health expert, member of the BIS committee.

Mesothelioma and asbestosis caused from asbestos currently kill more people than any other single work-related illness. Diseases like asbestosis have no cure. The threat from inhalation of asbestos fibre was known as far back as 1924. The profound tragedy of the asbestos epidemic is that asbestos related death is entirely prevented by not using asbestos, says Professor K J Nath, who attended the BIS meeting as a special invitee.

The experts have denounced the questionable recommendations of Ad Hoc Group/panel. In fact the consumer affairs ministry did not even bother to take the consent of the Ad Hoc Group/Panel members. On the question of whether any recommendation is to be made to the concerned authorities regarding banning use of asbetsos/asbestos product and the reasons for this, the recommendation says, “banning use of asbestos/asbestos products is not recommended.” It seeks review of existing safety standards as well as need of any additional safety standards”.

The fact that “the work of reviewing existing saftey standards based on latest available ILO recommendations, international practices and relevant literature was entrusted to Asbestos Information Centre with a request to submit reviewed standards within 3 months so that the same could be widely circulated with approval of Sectional Committee” is alarming because this a classic case of criminals and violators being entrusted the responsibility of setting up laws and rules. These recommendations does not have signatures of the Ad Hoc Group/panel members, two of the members Dr Joshi and Dr Qamar Rehman and other experts have severely criticized these recommendations because Asbestos Information Centre is an industry body. BIS standards for Bureau of Indian Standards which is a misnomer for Bureau of Indian Guidlines. BIS comes under Consumser Affairs Ministry and the Secretary to the Ministry, Wajahat Habibullah says, BIS standards are just guidelines which are recommendatory instead of being mandatory. If there are health hazards from asbestos from asbestos Health Ministry is supposed to look into it, he added.

Ministry of Commerce
Union Ministry of Commerce held an informal consultation on 10 April, 2003 about the legal implications of WTO Appellate Body asbestos order. There were discussions about Article 3.4 of GATT and Article 20 of GATT. They focused on the four aspects of the order-one of them was likeness of the alternative products with white asbestos. The participants included lawyers from Luthra and Luthra, IIFT, TERI, Environment Minsitry officials, CII and others. There was a fear of using asbestos as a second environment and health issue in WTO after Turtle shrimp case. A technical committee was appointed by Ministry of Industry, Government of India, to go into the question of the facts of asbestos. The said committee submitted a report in January 1995. The technical committee consisting of 11 members considered various aspects of exposure to asbestos directly in the industry, mines as well as passive user of asbestos products by people. The committee also considered the restrictions on use of asbestos and asbestos products by 43 countries including India and submitted a report. They came to a startling conclusion that in India there is no prohibition on use of asbestos and asbestos products. From the finding of the technical committee about the situation prevailing in India, alarming facts were revealed that there was practically no or very little restriction in the use of asbestos related products.

In 1995, Canada exported 509,575 metric tonnes (MT) of chrysotile. Of this total, 42,936 MT went to India. India was the 4th biggest consumer in the world of Canadian white asbestos. There are too many ministries involved in resolving the issue of import and impact of white asbestos. There is callousness and lack of coordination between Environment ministry, labour ministry, consumer affairs ministry, health ministry and the commerce and industry ministry. They are under pressure from Rupees 2000 crore asbestos industry. The asbestos makers argue that it is a cheap material, ideal for use in developing countries. Asbestos attracts only 8 per cent government duty, while steel attracts 15 per cent. Ramco Industries for instance is raising its asbestos capacity at Arakkonam to 1.20 lakh tonnes from one lakh tonnes.

Of the total sales of asbestos cement products more than 50 percent is in rural sector, while 30 and 20 percent are in the industrial and urban sectors respectively. These are being used for over 50 years because they are fireproof, corrosion proof, good insulators for sound and heat and has 3000 applications. Asbestos cement products contains not more than 10 percent of the total raw material mix which include up to 27 percent of flyash and recycled pulp.

India has been reducing the customs duty on asbestos fibre in recent years (from 78 per cent in 1995-96 to 25 per cent in 1999-2000). At a time when there is a need to evolve a comprehensive policy on the asbestos sector as more and more countries are phasing out the manufacture/ use of asbestos products and replacing it with alternatives. A report of the working group of the sub-committee of the development panel for asbestos industry for the small-scale sector estimated that around 673 registered small units are engaged in the manufacture of various asbestos-based products.

Ministry of Environment and Forests

The Central government had constituted an eight-member expert committee under the Chairmanship of V. Rajagopalan, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. The committee was to formulate a long-term policy and strategy to deal with issues related to asbestos -- imports, mining, manufacturing, safety aspects of miners, use of products and health as also environmental considerations. The committee, which was set up in August 2001 to find out whether asbestos should be banned, is now defunct. The committee was scheduled to report to the policy implementation cell of the commerce and industry ministry by November 15 2001. On 13 March, 2003, when Dr Rajgopalan was asked about the status of Rajgopalan Committee report, he said, we have finalised the norms for the asbestos industry. When he was asked, if Environment Ministry is looking into the norms what is Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) doing, he said, BIS sets up norms for asbestos products and Environment Ministry does the same for the asbestos industry. We have not recommended any ban on asbestos, he added. When Environment Secretary, Mishra was asked about his reaction to white asbestos being banned world over, he said, white asbestos does not cause cancer. Later when an attempt was made to contact Dr Rajgopalan to enquire about the norms set up the committee, Dr PL Ahuja, additional director informed that the Rajgopalan Committee is non-existent as no extension was given to it after the expiry of its term. The same Dr Rajgopalan has recently been made the chairman of Central Pollution Control Board.

Canadian Government

The Asbestos Institute now renamed as The Chrysotile Institute in Montreal received a total of $54 million from the Federal Government, the Quebec Government and the asbestos industry to promote "the safe use of chrysotile asbestos in Canada and throughout the world between 1984-2001.

The myth of so-called safe use has been shattered by none other than Martin Barratt, Second Secretary (Commercial), Canadian High Commission in India when he admitted that even the Asbestos Information Centre agrees that there are problems with the safe use of asbestos in the unorganised sector. Mr. Barratt is concerned that if a ruling is passed which states that subjecting a worker to asbestos is a violation of human rights it could have far reaching consequences whether or not it is binding.
“Canada is working with other countries to promote chrysotile asbestos. Indian government has worked diligently in cooperation with Indian Asbestos Information Centre (AIC) and the Canadian Asbestos Institute. AIC is a member of the Asbestos International Association which represents the interests of the asbestos industry worldwide, has been very active in promoting asbestos in India,” according to the information provided on March 4, 2003 by the Information Commissioner of Canada under Access to Information Act after a request was made on November 4, 2002.

It is shocking to note that our government is never diligent enough to safeguard the health and environment of its own citizens but remains dedicated to the business interests of the Canadian companies.

The conference on Canadian Asbestos: A Global Concern in Ottawa on September 12, 13 and 14 2003 culminated in the passing of a resolution seeking ban on all forms of asbestos and the formation of Ban Asbestos Canada.

The conference was organised by the Canadian Union of Public Employees OHCOW Clinic, the Sierra Club of Canada, Mining Watch Canada, the New Democratic Party, the White Lung Association (USA) the Society of Occupational and Environmental Health (USA), the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat, The National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada (CAW-Canada), the largest private sector Canadian Union and the Global Ban Asbestos Movement.

After the conference Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI) submitted a petition to the Canadian House of Commons through Mr Joe Comartin, member, Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. The petition sought immediate ban on white asbestos. Those trade unionists who attended the conference endorsed the call for the ban on white asbestos.

Mr Comartin wrote to the President of Indian and all the concerned ministers, "as a litigator and a parliamentarian I was particularly interested in the judgement of the Supreme Court of India, which led to a ban on asbestos mining in India after recognising the hazards of asbestos in the case of Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC) V. Union of India (reported in AIR 1995 Supreme Court)). Regrettably in Canada we do not have similar public interest legislation, as a ruling of this kind here would be very helpful in obtaining an absolute ban on the production and export of asbestos in Canada."

CIDA's assistance in promoting acceptance of building materials containing asbestos is not surprising. During 1970s, it provided Lines of credit for the purchase of industrial commodities including asbestos totalled over $250 million.

CIDA's 1991 Country Development Strategy for India shifted the programme emphasis to promoting environmentally sound resource management, supporting the government's economic and social reform initiatives, and fostering private sector development. India's Ministry of Finance identified Canada to help with its crucial tax reform programme. The need for improved infrastructure services is to be addressed through projects aimed at the institutional and regulatory reform. Regarding the environment, the first of the new generation of projects was the India-Canada Environmental Facility, a $ 72 million counterpart fund to support sound environmental management activities in the areas of water and energy conservation. One is yet to find out how much it goes in white asbestos promotion.

BANI has endorsed the call given by the conference to the Canadian government to withdraw its funding to The Asbestos Institute which is now renamed as The Chrysotile Institute. This institute has been supporting the Asbestos Information Centre in India and has been very active in promoting asbestos in India.