Asbestos – A mineral which was once known as magic for mankind, but later, was accused of being the reason behind thousands of deaths. What’s puzzling though is despite majority of nations banning its use, India is the world’s top importer of it.
The male member of my family is more important than me.” Kakuben – a resident of Talwadina Chhapra slum in Amraiwadi – was exposed to asbestos while washing clothes of her husband who was a worker at an asbestos factory in Ahmedabad. While he was being treated with an asbestos related disease, poverty forced her to avoid treatment. There are hundreds of families like Kakuben’s in our country. If asbestos is really harmful, then we are breathing it right now!
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), “Asbestos is a group of naturally occurring fibrous minerals with current or historical commercial usefulness due to their extraordinary tensile strength, poor heat conduction, and relative resistance to chemical attack.” As per a factsheet released by the organisation, 107,000 people die each year due to asbestos-related diseases.
Even though banned in over 50 countries, India is the largest importer of asbestos. According to Ministry of Commerce, GoI, in FY2013, India imported $349.01 million worth of asbestos. But during the last fiscal year, imports slipped by about 36.6%. Imports have started to surge again, with the figure reaching $170 million just in the first six months of FY2015. Russia is the largest exporter of asbestos to the world and India. About 60% of this chemical imported into India comes from Putinland. Other countries that export asbestos to India include Brazil, Kazakhstan and China.
Technically, India has banned mining of asbestos by placing a moratorium on new asbestos mining in 1986. The government, hence, has stopped granting new licenses and renewing old licenses. But according to Asbestos Cement Products Manufacturing Association (ACPMA), there are two active asbestos mines in Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa district.
Look out of your window and you will find a lot of asbestos products. The cement roofing of the house next to you could be made of asbestos. The cement pipe in your backyard also has asbestos. In fact, AC (Asbestos Cement) roofing sheets cover thousands of houses in India. Why? Because these sheets are considered to be cheaper and reliable. 6-8% asbestos Chrysotile asbestos fibers are mixed with the cement and encapsulated to manufacture cement roofing sheets or pipe. Even though ACPMA propagates that the uses of asbestos in West is ‘irrelevant’ to India, where warm climatic conditions negate its bad effects, others disagree. Amit Thakkar, Proprietor, Sun Refractories tells us, “We simply uses asbestos because it’s cheaper and there are no proper regulation or certification to regulate the asbestos industry.” Thakkar’s company is involved in removing asbestos by EPA approved methods, by glove bag or poly covering and creating the negative and positive pressure systems and buildings of decontamination units.
More than you and us, it is the labourers who work in the industry whose lives are at risk. WHO says all form of asbestos are carcinogenic to humans and it estimates that about 125 million people in the world are exposed to asbestos at the workplace. In January 1995, the Supreme Court of India directed, “All industries and the official-respondents to compulsorily maintain and preserve health records of each workman for a period of 40 years from the date of beginning of the employment or 10 years after the cessation of the employment, whichever is later.”
“Most of the labourers, working in the organised asbestos industry, are contract workers and casual workers. They are hired through contractors. This is to outwit the Supreme Court order to prepare health record for 40 years,” Krishna of BANI adds. Because of the mobility of the workers, the documentation naturally becomes difficult. And this is a smart strategy adopted by the industry to get away with the compensation cost.
Krishna predicts that asbestos will be banned in the next six months or so. But once banned, the work load will increase. “All the buildings that have asbestos (in any form) will have to be documented and registered, so that, these buildings can decontaminated from Asbestos. A registrar needs to be created for victims of asbestos-related diseases. Thirdly, a compensation regime for consumers, workers of the asbestos factories and their respective families will have to be worked out.” adds Krishna.
Whether it’s banned or continues to be imported in large volumes, the fate of this cement ingredient will only be decided in time. For now though, for commodity traders, the margins – though in low-digits – appear appealing.