CHENNAI: Some of the dust kicked up when the French warship Clemenceau was in Indian waters seems to have settled like a cloud on the country's asbestos cement manufacturing industry.

The Asbestos Cement Products Manufacturers' Association wants to clear the air and establish that the industry, providing low-cost roofing and plumbing solutions for low-income households (80 per cent of asbestos cement is used in rural areas), is "safe." It has clarified that the decommissioned war ship probably contained toxic "blue" (Crocidolite) and "brown" (Amosite) varieties of asbestos banned in India.

Association chairman S.A. Bhimaraja says the Indian industry uses only imported Chrysotile (white) fibre as raw material for asbestos cement sheets. "White" asbestos, he says, is different in chemical composition from the "blue" and "brown" varieties.

No risk

V. Pattabhi, consultant for building products, who has years of experience in the asbestos cement industry, says while the other two varieties are known to cause conditions such as asbestosis, mesothelioma (malignancy of the mesothelium, a protective sac that sheaths most of the body's internal organs) and lung cancer, there is no quantifiable risk of mesothelioma occurring in workers exposed to the Chrysotile fibres.

Safety depends on the type of fibre being used and the process it goes through. Indicating the threshold levels for different processes, he says the asbestos cement industry uses only eight per cent of Chrysotile in the cement-asbestos-fly ash mix. The whole automated process is "wet" to ensure no dust arises. Factories strive to keep the level of asbestos emission under the permissible 1 fibre per ml of air limit.

The association says the industry has been under constant scrutiny of the Ministries of Environment and Forests and Industry and Labour. In 2004, the Central Labour Institute, under the Ministry of Labour, undertook a national study on the `Health status of workers in the asbestos industry' in eight Chrysotile industrial units. A total of 702 workers in the age group 20- 50 were covered, and none showed any sign of asbestosis. But environmentalists contend that asbestos, irrespective of the variety, is a carcinogen. Representatives of the asbestos industry, however, say they have had no complaints from consumers.

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