British companies export 'deadly' asbestos to India, other countries from offshore offices

Inside a UK asbestos factory in 1994 before the mineral was banned

By Rajiv Shah
“The Sunday Times”, which forms part of the powerful British daily, “The Times”, has raised the alarm that though the “deadly” asbestos is banned in Britain, companies registered in United Kingdom, and operating from other countries, “are involved in shipping it to developing nations”, especially India. India, Brazil, Russia and China account for almost 80% of the asbestos consumed globally every year, it adds.
Giving the instance of a one such company, CJ Petrow & Co (Pty) Ltd, which has offices several countries across the world, the top newspaper says, “Every month thousands of tons of the substance are shipped by or on behalf of CJ Petrow & Co (Pty) Ltd from Sverdlovsk Oblast, an asbestos mining area in the Russian Urals”. 

It adds, “Most of it ends up in India, the world's second-largest consumer of asbestos behind China, where it's used by the construction industry to make roofing sheets and as insulation for brake linings.”
According to the report, “Import data reveals that in February, 2,128 tons of ‘chrysotile raw asbestos’, worth $1.21m were shipped from Russia by or on behalf of CJ Petrow & Co (Pty) Ltd to the Indian ports of Nhava Sheva, near Mumbai, and Mundra.”
The report says, “Data obtained by ‘The Sunday Times’ from Russia's customs and excise service reveal that, in 2015, CJ Petrow & Co (Pty) Ltd was responsible for 741 shipments of chrysotile asbestos, totalling 65,324 tons and valued at $38.7m (£30.8m), to India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Mexico.”
And, “between August 1 and September 28 last year, it arranged 104 shipments, totalling 3,283 tons of asbestos and worth $1.33m destined for India, Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka.”
“The Sunday Times”, which along with “The Times” won “the daily and Sunday newspaper of the year categories at the British Press Awards for “writing, reporting, investigations and campaigns”, in its report titled “Revealed: the Scottish links to asbestos trade”, says, ironically, the company’s owner, based in “Highland town of Nairn, Ion Petrow” and his family are locally highly respected for their interests in community development.
Thus, the company has been a sponsor of the Nairn Book and Arts Festival, but says the report, unknown to the festivalgoers, Petrow family businesses across the world have been “shipping asbestos to the developing world.” Blaming Petrow for this, the report says, “As well as being a pillar of the community, Petrow is a director of one of the world's biggest traders in the deadly mineral, estimated to cause 107,000 deaths annually.”
Banned in 66 countries across the world, says the report, for “many Scots, asbestos and its lethal effects represent a chapter from the nation's industrial past best forgotten, when shipyard and other workers suffered painful, lingering deaths after their lungs were exposed to its deadly fibres.”
Apart from India, the report says, other shipments go to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Mexico and Indonesia. Thus, records show, on January 30 and May 15 this year, the company shipped 54 tons of chrysotile fibre from St Petersburg to Charleston, South Carolina, from where it was transported by sea to Mexico.

UN recommendation to ban hazardous chrysotile asbestos was blocked by Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Zimbabwe, India and Syria, meaning it can still be traded without restrictions

Pointing out that “Russia is the material's largest producer, responsible for 650,000 tons, with 220,000 coming from Kazakhstan and 100,000 tons each from Brazil and China”, the report says, “In 2015 almost half of the asbestos mined in Russia, 313,000 tons, was traded by UK-registered companies, including one based in Scotland, according to Russian customs documents.”
Giving the instance of another company, the report says, one of the biggest traders in Russian asbestos has been Minerals Global Trading LLP, "formerly based at an industrial estate unit in Wood Green, London”.
“Reported to control Orenburg Minerals, Russia's biggest producer of asbestos, and Kostanai Minerals, Kazakhstan's main producer, it arranged the export of 263,660 tons of asbestos, worth a total of $71.4m for use in India, Indonesia, China, Mexico, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in 2015”, it adds.
Noting the role of Indian policy makers in opposing ban on asbestos across the world, the report says, “Despite a report by the World Health Organisation that all types of asbestos cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, cancer of the larynx and ovary, and asbestosis (fibrosis of the lungs), chrysotile is not listed as a hazardous substance by the Rotterdam convention on the prior informed consent procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade.”
In 2006, the UN-backed convention's chemical review committee called for chrysotile to be included in its list of "hazardous substances" that includes other variants of asbestos. “Its recommendation was blocked by Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Zimbabwe, India and Syria, meaning that chrysotile can still be traded without these restrictions”, regrets the report.
“Despite being banned by the Supreme Court of India in January 2011, chrysotile continues to be used widely due to a lack of enforcement and ignorance of its lethal effects”, the report says, quoting to Dr Abhishek Shankar, chairman of the clinical cancer committee of the Asian Pacific Organisation for Cancer Prevention.