The Toronto Star is running a two-part series about the Canada’s continuing export of asbestos, despite the fact that asbestos products are effectively banned within the country’s borders. India is the primary buyer for Canada’s asbestos, currently being exported at the rate of about 175,000 tons per year. The story of asbestos use in India is one that guarantees mesothelioma and other asbestos-caused diseases will continue to be a world health issue.
Indian manufacturing enterprises have discovered the value of asbestos cement as raw material for roof sheeting material. It is used in the vast slums around the nation’s urban centers for roofing, fencing and other uses. These shanty-towns generally have thatched roofs, vulnerable to fire, or stretched plastic or whatever else is available to provide some degree of shelter. Asbestos exposure is everywhere in the poor communities of India and its use is expanding.
Some manufacturers of asbestos cement products use modern technology to minimize workplace exposure. Others use outdated equipment that results in employees working amidst clouds of asbestos dust. And of course, there is no control over what happens to the thousands of corrugated asbestos cement sheets once they reach the slums. Broken and crumbling asbestos building products are common in India’s poor encampments.
The manufacturers and the government are matter-of-fact about the use of asbestos, recognizing that exposure to asbestos fibers floating in dust clouds can lead to asbestosis or worse. But asbestos is cheap and effective, so the expansion of asbestos cement plants and textile mills continues.
There is nothing in India that compares to the types of asbestos litigation seen in the United States, the UK and even Canada. Run a web search on asbestos suits in India and you’ll come up with a dozen firms that sell asbestos suits to be worn as fire protection gear. So long as the government supports the manufacture of asbestos products there will be little legal ground for asbestos liability claims for those of future generations that develop asbestos cancer because they were raised in a shantytown.
