Skip to main content

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

Inside a UK asbestos factory in 1994
“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.
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.

Comments

TRENDING

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.