Ban-Asbestos-India: Environmental, labour & health groups denounce India-Canada Trade Agreement

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Environmental, labour & health groups denounce India-Canada Trade Agreement

Press Release

Environmental, labour & health groups denounce India-Canada Trade Agreement

Stop Revival & Expansion of Canadian Asbestos Mines

BANI Appreciates Canadian Journal of Public Health

New Delhi/ 25/11/2010: Instead of immediately banning the import of potentially deadly asbestos, the proposed free trade agreement between India and Canada will boost asbestos trade. In such a backdrop, talks on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the two countries is quite sad and disturbing and has been denounced by the environmental, labour & health groups. The groups demanded that ban asbestos trade must be deemed a pre-condition for future negotiations on CEPA.

On November 16, Canadian Minister of International Trade Peter Van Loan opened formal talks with Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on a strategic economic partnership between the two countries.

Despite Canada’s leadership in medical care and technology, it is an act of violation when an advanced country that strictly regulates the use of asbestos within its own borders, exports asbestos in India and around the world. Admittedly, India lacks the expertise to monitor and treat incurable illnesses that results from inhaling asbestos fibers.

Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI) expresses its support and solidarity with the protest from health and environmental groups against an attempt by Indian and other investors to revive a big Canadian asbestos mine. Jeffrey and one other remaining mine in the Quebec province of Canada produce chrysotile, or white asbestos, used mainly to reinforce cement used for water pipes and other building materials. Exposure to asbestos fibers causes incurable and fatal lung diseases. In India there is a ban on asbestos mining but trade, manufacture and use of asbestos products is yet to be banned. There is a ban on trade in asbestos waste as well.

The identity of the Quebec leader of the anonymous consortium of investors, who have offered to buy the Jeffrey mine for $15 million, on condition that the Quebec government gives them $58 million financing was hidden for quite a while now it is now known.

These prospective buyers of the mine are led by Baljit Chadha, a Montreal-based financier of Indian mineral extraction. The group also includes investors based in India, Financial Times reported on 24 November, 2010.

BANI condemns the naked lust of this consortium for profit and its criminal disregard for the disastrous heath consequences.

Environmental, labour and health groups are opposed to the approval of C$58 million ($57 million) in loan guarantees needed to convert the Jeffrey mine from an open-pit to an underground operation. They are urging the Quebec government not to approve the loan. The open-pit reserves are almost exhausted but the deeper deposits are among the biggest in the world.
Canada is the world’s fifth-biggest asbestos producer after Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Brazil. India is one of the biggest consumers of cancer causing asbestos fibers from Quebec, Canada. Revival and expansion of the mine would boost asbestos production from the 100-year-old mine from an estimated 15,000 tonnes this year to 180,000 tonnes in 2012 and an eventual capacity of 260,000 tonnes, or about 10 per cent of global production.

BANI expresses its deep sense of appreciation for an extremely powerful editorial by Prof. Gilles Paradis in the Canadian Journal of Public Health calling on Quebec's public health organisations to stop the Jeffrey mine and to demand a ban on the mining and export of chrysotile asbestos. Indeed Canada’s export of asbestos to developing countries like India is a racist policy. Prof. Paradis observes, “"There is an ethical imperative for Public Health Organizations and professionals, and in particular for Quebec's public health leaders, to become more vocal and active in the fight against chrysotile asbestos and to unite behind a common goal of banning production and export of all asbestos." (Editorial attached)

It is high time Indian public health organisations and journals took note of it as well and vocally endorsed the call for immediate ban on asbestos of all kinds including chrysotile asbestos.

For Details: Gopal Krishna, Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI), Mb: 98180989660,
E-mail-krishna2777@gmail.com, Blog: banasbestosindia.blogspot.com
Web: www.toxicswatch.com

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Ban on Asbestos is a Must

A study in a peer-reviewed journal had earlier estimated that there could be more than 6,000 workers affected by asbestosis (an untreatable lung ailment) and another 600 suffering at the minimum from asbestosis-related lung cancer in India at present. Occupational cancer from asbestos, the disease caused by emissions at the work place, poses an increasingly serious health problem. But the subject has attracted relatively little attention from industry, labour, public health bodies or the medical profession. Asbestos is one of the single largest sources of occupational cancer. Indian polticians are acting as if they are bonded workers of asbestos industry.

World Trade Center, New York collapsed Thousands of tons of asbestos became airborne.

Back in 1981, there was research coming out that Asbestos was cancer causing and this ad was in rebuttal to that research touting the benefits of using Asbestos. The text over the Twin Towers states, "When the Fire Alarm Went Off, It Took Two Hours to Evacuate New York's World Trade Center." I do not need to remind anyone of the images of September 11th and this ad. The copy below the ad goes on to mention all of the places that Asbestos was used in the World Trade Center. I can not not think of all of the innocent victims in the area that were exposed to all of the dust, smoke and inherent asbestos that was in the air after the buildings collapsed. The cloud of smoke went across the entire city and potentially exposed hundreds of thousands of individuals to asbestos. Hopefully there can be a cure or treatment for Mesothelioma before all of these potential victims are diagnosed.

Apex Court allocates meagre compensation for asbetsos victims

In 1995, the Supreme Court of India fixed Rs 1 lakh compensation amount and identified National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH) as the final authority to certify asbestosis cases. Compensations are given through the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). Two workers in Ahmedabad Electricity Company diagnosed as having asbestosis by NIOH have been compensated by Gujarat High Court. Twenty-five workers in asbestos jointing and packing industry at Mumbai were compensated by the Special medical board of ESIC. The court ruled that the industrial units must maintain a health record of every worker up to a minimum period of 40 years; insure workers under the Employees State Insurance Act or Workmen’s Compensation Act and give health coverage to every worker.

Asbestos Victims

Every day estimated 30 deaths in India is under way due to the ongoing trade and use of white asbestos. 'Asbestos' in Greek means 'indestructible'. Greeks called asbestos the 'magic mineral'. Asbestos is a generic term, referring usually to six kinds of naturally occuring mineral fibres. Of these six, three are used more commonly. Chrysotile is the most common, accounts for almost 90 per cent of the asbestos used in the industry, but it is not unusual to encounter Amosite or Crocidolite as well. Though Crocidolite asbestos is banned in India, it can still be found in old insulation material, old ships that come from other countries for wrecking in India. All types of asbestos tend to break into very tiny fibre, almost microscopic. In fact, some of them may be up to 700 times smaller than human hair. Because of their small size, once released into the air, they may stay suspended in the air for hours or even days. Asbestos fibres are virtually indestructible. They are resistant to chemicals and heat, and are very stable in the environment. They do not evaporate into air or dissolve in water, and they do not break down over time. Because of its high durability and with tensile strength asbestos has been widely used inconstruction and insulation materials - it has been used in over 3,000 different products. Where do we use it? In India, asbestos is used in manufacture of pressure and non pressure pipes used for water supply, sewage, irrigation and drainage system in urban and rural areas, asbestos textiles, laminated products, tape, gland packing, packing ropes, brake lining and jointing used in core sector industries such as automobile, heavy equipment, petro-chemicals, nuclear power plants, fertilizers, thermal power plants, transportation, defence.

Make India Asbestos Free

Ban-Asbestos-India

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Environmental, labour & health groups denounce India-Canada Trade Agreement

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