Asbestos Cement Body Denies Health Risks

The Asbestos Cement Products Manufacturers Association (ACPMA), which represents manufacturers with combined annual turnover of Rs 2000 crore employing over a lakh people, has stated that the products made in India were safe because they used a fibre unique to the country and also used a process that ensured fibres did not harm either workers or users.

ACPMA chairman G Vivekanad in a statement put forward the defence on behalf of the industry. A ministry of environment and forest (MOEF) committee has accorded environmental clearance to new units to manufacture chrysotile asbestos cement sheets, he said.

The ministry of consumer affairs thereafter asked Bureau of Indian Standards to evaluate the adequacy of exising BIS recommendations on the safety in use of asbestos. ACPMA members have submitted studies proving low risk from fibre, the chairman stated.

The ACPMA chairman claimed that BIS had therafter decided to review the existing safety rules in use of asbestos in tune with international standards and to tighten compliance and concluded that there was no necessity to recommend a ban on use of asbestos.

India Association of Occupational Health (IAOH) has also never called a ban on use of asbestos contrary to some media reports, he stated.

ACPMA members used only white (chrysotile) asbestos to manufacture sheets and pressure pipes. Asbestos related diseases were caused by blue (amphibole) fibre, not used by Indian industry at all.

Criticism that workers or users were exposed to dust clouds of mixed fibres at workplace were unjustified was wrong because Indian products used cement to lock the fibre, he said.

Unlike overseas manufacturers which run plants producing goods containing loosely bound mixed fibres, Indian manufacturers used fly-ash, cement and water to lock fibre in cement.

The Canadian and Quebec governments came out, in February 2002, with a policy of promoting use of chrysotile fibre in Canada, he added.