Asbestos is a dangerous substance well known to cause various lung diseases, including mesothelioma, an incurable cancer linked to asbestos exposure. A proven industrial hazard, asbestos has been banned from use in the European Union, Chile, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil. In India, however, asbestos use is very much alivel. The country imported tons of the substance in 2006.
As in the U.S., the asbestos industry in India is busy trying to convince the government that at least one type of asbestos – chrysotile – is actually safe when used under “controlled conditions.” The Asbestos Cement Product Manufacturers Association has even helped to fund a study to reach that conclusion.
But that study has come under attack from occupational health experts. The new study ignores a 2005 paper by India’s National Institute of Occupational Health concluding that asbestos-related diseases are predicted among asbestos workers in the mining, milling and manufacturing trades, as well as in those with secondary exposures to asbestos containing materials. The study fails to consider consistent evidence that all types of asbestos cause cancer in laboratory animals. Its methods are such that it could never be published in a peer-reviewed journal. And the study failed to find sick workers in India’s industrial plants largely because the workers reviewed had worked in the trades for less than 20 years. Asbestos disease ordinarily takes decades from first exposure to develop.
While India’s asbestos industry continues to thrive, the health of its workers hangs in the balance.
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