After water, the Bureau of Indian Standards has run into rough weather for setting standards for another item — asbestos. The first meeting of the ad hoc group for safety in use of asbestos products lasted for four hours and ended inconclusively.The reason for acrimony was that a group of experts was saying that when asbestos is being banned the world over, the BIS is laying down standards for ‘‘safe’’ use of asbestos. They pointed out that there was no ‘‘safe’’ limit for asbestos and the only safety is its ban.On the other hand, industry representatives stuck to their stand that there is no question of banning it as the fibre that is used in India is different from the one banned by EU countries.The meeting was convened at the behest of the Ministry for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, as per a Supreme Court order. ‘‘These NGOs are speaking at the behest of the steel industry and MNCs. If it is so bad, why has the US not banned it?’’ says A.K. Sethi, Executive Director of Asbestos Information Centre. According to them, the reason why EU banned it is because they were using blue fibre for insulating their homes.Asbestos is used for manufacture of pressure pipes, sewage and drainage, packing material, brake linings, jointings used in automobiles, heavy machinery and thermal power plants. India currently uses 1,00,000 tonnes of asbestos, imports nearly 20 per cent of this from Canada and 37,000 tonnes are annually mined within the country.A document that created a flutter in the meeting was a study by the Kolkata-based Institution of Public Health Engineers. According to the study, 36 countries have banned asbestos and even WTO has passed a judgement against it, upholding France’s decision to ban import of asbestos from Canada. The reason for the ban in these countries is that it is a known carcinogenic and causes asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.Among the experts who spoke in favour of the ban were T.K. Joshi of Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital, S.R. Kamath of KEM hospital, Qamar Rahman head of Toxicology division of Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow. The asbestos lobby was represented by the Asbestos Information Centre. ‘‘The profound tragedy of asbestos epidemic is that all illnesses and death related to asbestos were entirely preventable by not using asbestos,’’ says the IPHE report.Incidentally, just yesterday, according to The Washington Post, the Supreme Court in Washington ruled that workers who have non-cancerous asbestos-related disease can recover damages based on their fear of eventually developing cancer.
