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by Shehla Raza Hasan Kolkata, April 17, 2001 In a major drive to increase public awareness of the hazards associated with the use of asbestos, the National Campaign Committee for Promotion of Steel Consumption has prepared a paper which makes a proposal for banning supply and use of asbestos in India. Published as a special article in the Steel Scenario Journal (January-March 2001), the paper suggests that alternative materials to replace asbestos products are available in India and possibly work out cheaper from life cycle consideration. Here are some excerpts from the article. Nature & Use of asbestos The three most common types of asbestos are chrysolite or white asbestos, amosite, which is light grey or pale brown in colour and crocidolite or blue asbestos. Asbestos is used in numerous industrial applications as well as for insulation, fire proofing and sound absorption. Why is Asbestos a hazard? Asbestos is made up of microscopic bundles of fibres that become airborne when disturbed. These fibres then get into the body thorugh breathing and affect the lungs where they cause significant health problems. Since these fibres are quite tough, the body cannot break them down. Some of the diseases they cause are: Asbestosis: A chronic non-cancerous respiratory disease usually disabling or fatal for which there is no effective treatment. The time taken for the disease to become developed is often 25 to 40 years. Those who renovate/demolish buildings containing asbestos are the ones at significant risk. Mesothelioma: A cancer occurring in the thin membrane lining of the lungs, chest, abdomen. Linked totally with asbestos exposure with latency period being 15-20 years. This affects children mainly but people who work in asbestos mines, mills, factories and shipyards using asbestos as well as people who manufacture and install asbestos fall in the high risk category. Lung cancer gets exacerbated by cigarette smoking in the environment of asbestos. Other cancers found to have been caused by use of asbestos are those of oesophagus, oral cavity, stomach, kidney and colon. The latency period is often 15 to 30 years. The more one is exposed, the more fibres enter the body and is likely to fall into the risk category. While there is no ‘safe’ level of asbestos exposure, those who are exposed more over a period of time, are more at risk. The material is so widely used that the entire population is exposed to its threat to some degree. Air, drinking water, beverages, food and a variety of consumer products all may contain small amounts of asbestos. An additional threat is small amounts of the material released into the environment, as a result of wear and tear of asbestos products. As a result of these alarming findings, major countries around the globe have taken steps to ban the supply and use of asbestos. July 26, 1999 signalled the end of asbestos use throughout all member states of the European Union. From January 1, 2005, the introduction of new applications of asbestos and asbestos containing materials will be prohibited. Member states are free to implement restrictions before the 2005 deadline. Bans are already in place in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden. While similar steps have been taken in UK, the US has banned the imports of five categories of asbestos products and decided to phase out the use of asbestos over the next 10 years. The Indian Scenario India is one of the main producers of asbestos products but imports around 80 per cent of its requirements due to low indigenous availability. Currently there are 74 units engaged in the manufacture of asbestos products located mainly in the backward regions of Gujarat, Karnataka, M P an Andhra Pradesh. More than 50 per cent of this is utilised for the manufacture of asbestos cement sheets for roofing and classified as a consumer product. Moreover facilities for implementing safety/precautionary measures are nil. These include non-existent facilities in ports, mills and factories risk of contamination during transit of materials from the ports to the factories due to accidents, risk of inhaling the deadly fibres while the sheets are cut to match requisite sizes for roofing and other applications peculiar to one’s needs. Studies reveal that the average concentration of fibres and exposure to workers in the processing mills is much higher than the prescribed limit of two fibre/ml. This fact in itself is enough to justify a call for its ban. The paper goes on to clarify that a ban on asbestos sheets shall in no way impede the progress of housing plans as held by certain quarters, since the country has surplus capacity for the production of galvanised sheets which is the most suitable product for low-cost housing. Moreover this can be indigenously produced manufactured unlike asbestos roofing which requires imported raw materials. The paper therefore ends with a call to the government of India to adopt immediate, adequate and effective steps to ban the supply and use of the material in the country. |