Subject-Re: Making Delhi India’s first asbestos related disease free state
Dear Shree Vyas Jee,
This
is with reference to the messages dated February 20, 2017 from Shri
Rajeev Gupta, O.S.D. to Hon'ble Chief Minister pursuant to my
submissions to Shri Arvind Kejriwal Jee
dated February 19, 2017 and November 12, 2016 and my letter to Shri
Satyendar Jain, Hon'ble Minister of Power, PWD, Health & FW &
Industries dated 21 February, 2017 and response from OSD to Minister
(Health) dated Feb 22, 2017, we seek your considered
intervention to seek health reports about asbestos related diseases from
all the
hospitals in Delhi.
We wish to
draw your urgent attention towards the most recent paper titled
"Pleuroperitoneal Mesothelioma: A Rare Entity on 18F-FDG PET/CT"
published in Indian Journal of Nuclear Medicine, authored by researchers
from Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical
Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi and Department of Radiodiagnosis, AIIMS in
the 2017 Jan-Mar; 32(1): 75–76 issue. This paper authored by Dr Shamim
Ahmed Shamim et al provides credible information about a asbestos
related disease of a 40-year-old-female without any history of
occupational asbestos exposure presented with histologically proven
malignant pleural mesothelioma. Malignant mesothelioma is a rare tumor
that originates from the cells lining the mesothelial surfaces,
including the pleura, peritoneum, pericardium, and tunica vaginalis.(The
other co-authors of the paper are Dr Manas Kumar Sahoo, Dr Anirban
Mukherjee, Dr Girish, Dr Kumar Parida, Dr Krishan Kant Agarwal, Dr
Chandrasekhar Bal, Dr Madhavi Tripathi and Dr Chandan Jyoti Das).
It is
noteworthy that both workers and consumers are at fatal risk from the
killer asbestos fibers through the life cycle of the asbestos based
products.
According to
World Health Organisation (WHO), Elimination of asbestos-related
diseases should take place through the following public health
actions:
-recognizing that the most efficient way to eliminate
asbestos-related diseases is to stop the use of all types of
asbestos;
-replacing asbestos with safer substitutes and
developing economic and technological mechanisms to stimulate its
replacement;
-taking measures to prevent exposure to asbestos in place and during asbestos removal (abatement), and;
-improving
early diagnosis, treatment, social and medical rehabilitation of
asbestos-related diseases and establishing registries of people with
past and/or current exposures to asbestos.
As
per WHO, " All types of asbestos cause lung cancer, mesothelioma,
cancer of the larynx and ovary, and asbestosis (fibrosis of the lungs).
Exposure to asbestos occurs through inhalation of fibres in air in the
working environment, ambient air in the vicinity of point sources such
as factories handling asbestos, or indoor air in housing and buildings
containing friable (crumbly) asbestos materials." It underlines that
several thousands of deaths can be attributed to other asbestos-related
diseases, as well as to nonoccupational exposures to asbestos.
We
wish to draw your attention towards the interview of Dr. Frank,
Professor of Public Health and Chair Emeritus of the Department of
Environmental and Occupational Health at the Drexel University School of
Public Health, about the international research on asbestos he’s
championed since the early 1990s. He asserts, “The people who do treatment
research are oncologists and radiotherapists and surgeons, so they’re
not always as concerned with identifying what the cause was. That’s what
I do. I identify the cause of things.” The interview is available at https://www.mesothelioma.com/b
It
may be noted that in our country, the government does not record cases
of mesothelioma, and thus proclaims no one in the country develops the
disease. Dr. Frank asserts, “a lack of data does not mean a lack of
disease.” In fact, when speaking to a doctor from a major cancer
hospital in Mumbai, Dr. Frank learned that, in just one year, there were
32 cases of mesothelioma in that hospital alone. “A lot of the asbestos
cement factories — a major use of asbestos in India — are owned by
members of parliament,” he said. “You can draw your own conclusions.”
Dr. Frank has been visiting Delhi to conduct lung disease with focus on
silicosis, and asbestos related disease. You may consult him for the
protection of public health in Delhi.
Kindly allow me to
submit that to begin with you may seek a report from all the hospitals
about asbestos related victims attended by them and consider issuing an
order preparing a list of asbestos laden public buildings in Delhi. You
may also seek a report from Centre of Occupational and Environmental
Health (COEH), Delhi Government and Maulana Azad Medical College in this
regard because they have been holding international conferences on the
subject. A database of victims of asbestos related diseases, asbestos
laden buildings, an inventory of asbestos based products, a database of
hospitals which can diagnose the disease and a database of agencies
which are competent to decontaminate asbestos from existing buildings
will be help for the present and future generation of Delhi residents
and will pave the way for other states and the centre.
We submit that Shri PK Tripathi as
Chief Secretary, Government of Delhi informed Dr Barry Castleman, a
former consultant with WHO and World Bank that asbestos was banned in
Delhi and assured him that documentation of this would be provided. Shri
Tripathi said so in the presence of Dr T K Joshi and Dean AK Agarwal,
Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi in December 2012 following a
conference that was organized by Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi
organised by Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health in
partnership with Drexel University, School of Public Health, Collegium
Ramazzini, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Ministry of Labour and
Employment, Government of India and Heart of England, NHS Foundation
Trust.
We
submit that we had written to Chief Minister of Delhi on May 17, 2013,
May 10, 2007 and October 16, 2008 seeking urgent intervention in the
matter of a serious unprecedented environmental and occupational health
crisis in Delhi. Following the first letter Dr Anil Kumar, the then
Senior Scientific Officer, Government of Delhi invited me to discuss how
to respond to the imminent public health crisis.
We sincerely hope that the
current government's sensitivity towards public health will be better
than previous governments.
Therefore, we urge you to take cognisance of the findings of WHO, AIIMS and Prof. Frank in order to initiate
action to deal with asbestos related diseases of present and future
generations in right earnest. We will be happy to learn about the action
in this regard.
Warm Regards
Dr Gopal Krishna
Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI)
ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA)
Mb: 08227816731, 09818089660
