Asbestos-related morbidity in India

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos-related morbidity in India, by T.K. Joshi, R.K. Gupta (International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2003).

The study

• Authors: T.K. Joshi, R.K. Gupta
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Published: 2003;9(3):249-53
• Cited by: 12 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

In India, locally mined asbestos is not enough for its current needs, hence a great deal of asbestos is imported from Canada. Asbestos products manufacturers have prevailed upon the government to reduce tariffs on imported material. The efforts of the health and safety professionals who joined with nongovernmental organizations to form the Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI) are being consistently sabotaged by the industry, using its influence and false propaganda that chrysotile asbestos can be safely used in a controlled manner. Weak legislation and lack of data are being exploited by the industry to convince policymakers that asbestos use in India has caused no major health problems. Despite this, the ban-asbestos movement has gained momentum and was able to persuade government to consider banning asbestos use. With the growing strength of the movement it is expected that asbestos manufacturers may find it increasingly difficult to manipulate the government in the future.

In plain English

This article was a review and commentary, not an original study. The authors described asbestos mining, use, health effects and laws in India, drawing on government reports and earlier studies by other researchers. They reported that India used around 100,000 metric tons of asbestos a year. About three-fourths of manufacturers' needs were imported, mainly from Canada, and there were 13 large-scale and 673 small-scale asbestos operations. They cited surveys by India's National Institute of Occupational Health that found lung impairment and X-ray abnormalities in 54.8% of milling workers and 19.5% of miners. They also cited a milling study whose highest airborne fiber count was 33 times the prescribed limit, and a study that found 15 cases of primary pleural mesothelioma among 76,239 surgical biopsies. The authors noted that the occupational limit under the Factories Act was 1 fiber per cubic centimeter, higher than in most developed countries. They also noted that the Ministry of Labour compiled no morbidity or mortality figures. The authors concluded that, based on the precautionary principle, asbestos should be banned in India.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: review and commentary on asbestos mining, use, health effects, legislation and policy in India, citing reports and studies by others; no original data collection
• Who was studied: India's asbestos mining and product industry: 13 large-scale and 673 small-scale asbestos operations
• Exposure: asbestos (including chrysotile) mined in India or imported, mainly from Canada, with annual consumption of around 100,000 metric tons
• Main results:
  • Annual consumption of asbestos in India was reported as around 100,000 metric tons, one fifth of it mined in India
  • Cited National Institute of Occupational Health surveys in Indian mines found lung impairment and radiologic abnormalities in milling workers (54.8%) and miners (19.5%)
  • A cited study of the asbestos milling process found airborne fiber concentrations above the Indian standard for chrysotile, with the highest count 33 times the prescribed limit
  • A cited study identified 15 cases of primary pleural mesothelioma among 76,239 surgical biopsies, of which 234 were pleural specimens (incidences of 0.02% and 6.4%, respectively)
  • A cited report described five mesothelioma cases in a rural sugarcane-farming community, where the authors of that report did not establish environmental or occupational exposure
  • Of eight major asbestos product manufacturing operations monitored by the Central Pollution Control Board, six were not complying with emission standards; for the other two, compliance could not be ascertained
  • The occupational exposure limit under the Factories Act, 1948, was 1 fiber per cc, compared with 0.1 to 0.5 fibers per cc in most developed countries
  • The import duty on foreign asbestos was 110% before March 1992, reduced to 80% from April 1992 and later to 50%
  • The Ministry of Labour compiled and reported no morbidity or mortality figures
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that, based on the precautionary principle, asbestos should be banned in India, with worldwide elimination of asbestos use and replacement by safe substitutes as the primary prevention strategy
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors stated that the paucity of data makes it difficult to estimate the burden of asbestos-related morbidity and mortality

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Chrysotile.

Related studies

• Scientific controversy and asbestos: making disease invisible — L. Braun, A. Greene, et al. (2003)
• A cross-country comparative overview of the asbestos situation in ten Asian countries — K. Takahashi, A. Karjalainen (2003)
• Canada accused of hypocrisy over asbestos exports — T. Kirby (2010)
• The asbestos war — L. Kazan-Allen (2003)
• Asbestos dispatches — L. Kazan-Allen (2004)
• An environmental survey in chrysotile asbestos milling processes in India — A.K. Mukherjee, H.R. Rajmohan, et al. (1992)

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