DANGEROUS CARGO: The French ship Clemenceau was in the centre of a controversy recently.

Life-giving liquid flows in death-laden pipes. This could be the statutory warning carried by water distribution authorities in the country’s cities and towns. Yet the innocuous looking asbestos pipes transporting water have failed to raise a storm like the dismantling of the asbestos-laden French ship Clemenceau at Alang did. This is because the issue lacks an international political angle ? a Third World country burdened by toxic wastes from a developed nation.

Notwithstanding the lack of controversy, various experts agree that ingestion or inhalation of asbestos is hazardous. The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) in the US says that more than seven billion asbestos fibres per litre of water can cause an increased risk of benign intestinal polyps.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases in the US points out that people who ingested higher level of asbestos showed increased incidents of cancer, though the report did not conclusively link the two. Even the Indian Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow, warns that the muscle structure of molluscs (invertebrate creatures like snails and oysters) living in water with asbestos fibre gets damaged. A senior researcher at the centre says that the fibres could lead to malignant growth in human intestines. Moreover, they affect female fertility by affecting the ovaries. The fibres are also more persistent than DDT molecules and once they enter the body they refuse to leave it.

Supporters of the asbestos industry, on the other hand, argue that the fibres in the pipes cannot find their way into stored water because they are compactly mixed with cement. A crisis arises only when the pipes are cracked, they add.

Cracked pipes, however, are very common. The vibration caused by heavy vehicles on roads can cause fissures in the pipes. Those involved in the manufacturing of asbestos products, however, react on expected lines. “If asbestos pipes develop cracks the engineers should be blamed because the pipes have to be laid at a particular depth,” says Brigadier (retired) A.K. Sethi, who is the executive director of the Asbestos Information Centre as well as of the Asbestos Cement Manufacturers Association.

“Water in cracked pipes can also be contaminated by organisms found in the soil and not from asbestos per se.” To substantiate his contention, Sethi claims there studies have found asbestos to be safe if ingested. “The harmful effects are more pronounced in the case of brown and blue asbestos, and these are not used in India,” he adds.

But not all are convinced. Says Gopal Krishna, co-ordinator of the Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI), which has been fighting against asbestos use since 2002, “The ingestion of asbestos fibres from water in the pipes might not cause a problem, but inhalation is certainly dangerous. Pipes in and around the house are often cracked or broken. These release asbestos fibres in the water used in the household for watering plants and washing clothes. Once the water evaporates, these asbestos fibres are released in the atmosphere, which are hazardous to the residents.”

Backing this claim, Dr J.C. Suri, who heads the respiratory medicine department in New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, says, “Prolonged inhalation of asbestos fibres can cause a lung disease called asbestosis, which leads to lung fibrosis and lung cancer.”

Krishna says that asbestos mining has been banned in India since the 1990s. Following the ban, India has been importing a large quantity of asbestos from Canada, which ironically has prohibited its use at home.

Government agencies seem to be confused at best and seem to be in complicity with the asbestos industry at worst. While the Union health ministry proclaims asbestos fibre to be a carcinogen, the environment ministry disclaims the fact. Krishna argues, “Either asbestos is a carcinogen or it’s not. It cannot be both.”

The government’s support to the asbestos industry is evident from the setting up of a manufacturing unit in Rae Bareilly. “It was given a licence within a record period of three weeks. The procedure normally takes at least six months,” alleges Krishna.

It’s not as if alternatives are not available. In fact, over 40 countries have banned asbestos. Even the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is averse to its use. The European Union, too, issued a directive in October 1999 prohibiting the use of asbestos. These countries have replaced asbestos pipes with iron and PVC pipes.

But in India, despite relevant data and reports, the hazard goes unchecked because of a lack of political will to take up public health issues with the urgency they deserve.