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NEW DELHI: An Indian NGO has claimed that asbestos,
long considered to be a dangerous substance is less harmful
that its substitutes like plastics and metals.
The NGO, Nature One, whose claims have been contradicted by
Greenpeace, has cited evidence and said asbestos cement pipes
and sheets can play a vital role in providing cost effective,
durable and safe and energy-efficient housing. In India a
Rs 1000 crore industry is languishing due to the perception
that asbestos is bad for health, says Nature One.
According to Nature One, asbestos is and occupational carcinogen,
implying that workers handling asbestos over a long period can
develop cancer. But it is not an environmental or ecological
hazard., says Nature One's Joy Manglani. However people
who work in Asbestos mines without proper safety measures have
a high risk of developing cancer or dying of lung disease.
But Asbestos is not a hazard when used in cement or as water
pipes, according to some studies. The World Health Organisation
had concluded in 1991 that with respect to asbestos cement pipes,
ingested asbestos was not hazardous to health and it is
unnecessary to recommend a health-based guideline for asbestos
in drinking water.
Even the US, which was the first to wake up to the hazards
of workers dying of asbestos exposure in the early 80's, has
stopped considering asbestos hazardous, says Manglani. Investigations
in the US have shown that the risk of cancer from asbestos
is buildings was so low that it was barely measurable. Apparently,
a person who spends his life inside a building rich with asbestos
is more likely to die of causes other than asbestos-related
cancer.
But despite a repeal of ban on asbestos cement pipes, and new
evidence that the risks were overestimated, asbestos is not
used in buildings in the US and is costing over $3 billion a
year, admits Joy Manglani.
According to Manglani, the manufacturing process for asbestos
cement products was environment friendly because it does
not involve any hazardous chemical reaction, no heating is required
and there are no effluents or emissions. Substitutes like ductile
iron and PVC were more dangerous. PVC pipes can release lead
and politicizes and corrosion from iron pipes can contaminate
water.
Refuting Nature One's claims, Greenpeace scientist, David Santillo,
said gastrointestinal cancer seems to be the most common factor
of cancer which correlates with exposure to elevated asbestos
fibres in drinking water supplies. "The magnitudes of the increases
cancer incidence are generally small, and it is always difficult
to eliminate confounding factors such as smoking, but some increase
does seem fairly consistent phenomenon, " Santillo says.
- Nivedita Prabhu
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