Asbestos bans that swept across the world during the latter half of the twentieth century changed the way the world consumes the dangerous mineral – but perhaps not for the best. Over the past several decades many developed nations have banned asbestos outright, and those that haven’t or are unable to – like the United States – have placed heavy restrictions on its use. The motivator for these types of actions is asbestos’s toxicity, but the bans and regulations may actually have helped to effect an increase in asbestos related diseases.
The Lancet, a British medical journal, recently published an article which touches on the growing asbestos related disease problems in developing nations. The article claims: “India’s surging consumption of asbestos, the industry’s hefty political and economic clout, and the country’s poor record of worker protection… [suggest that] a sizeable burden of asbestos-related disease is inevitable… [the health consequences] will be felt into the next century.”
Asbestos products have recently become more readily available to developing nations due to the stranglehold placed on the market by modern bans and regulations upheld in wealthier countries. What’s left of the asbestos mining industry, which consists of several large operations in Brazil, Russia, and perhaps most surprisingly Canada, are all too happy to ship a variety of asbestos products at discounted rates to Newly Industrialized Countries (NIC) like India. The skyrocketing Indian asbestos market in concert with their lack of asbestos safe handling restrictions could spell trouble over the next several decades.
Products that contain asbestos cause mesothelioma, a cancer affecting the tissue lining of the body’s organs, as well as asbestosis, lung cancer and more. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes that asbestos related diseases may claim as many as 90,000 lives every year. Diseases that are caused by asbestos can take 20 to 50 years to fully develop from the time of exposure, meaning that the repercussions of a changing asbestos world market will not be felt immediately.
The problem is exacerbated by a lack of asbestos education in developing nations and NICs. According to a 2007 article in The Tribune, a UK online magazine, awareness of asbestos’s toxicity in India is staggeringly low. The article claims that children in India play in and around asbestos laced cement products, that asbestos is allegedly used in some rice bleaching processes, and that most Indian consumers do not believe the material is toxic.
According to The Lancet, Arthur Frank, MD, PhD, the Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, stated: “We can expect a lot more death and disease [in India]. There is no champion for the working person, or for the elimination or reduction in the use of asbestos that I can see in the central Indian Government.”
