Chrysotile asbestos: Chemicals Ministry hostage to NIOH's old, 'discredited' study

By Gopal Krishna*
How can India's Ministry of Chemicals and the Ministry of Health take contrary positions at the United Nations (UN) on all kinds of asbestos including hazardous chrysotile asbestos when both ministries are headed by the same minister, Mansukh Mandaviya?
UN's Tenth Conference of Parties to Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for hazardous chemicals in International Trade which is underway in Geneva is considering listing of chrysotile asbestos in the PIC list of hazardous chemicals in compliance with the recommendations of the Chemical Review Committee.
But Indian Ministry of Chemicals remains hostage to an old discredited conflict of interest ridden study co-sponsored by Chemicals Ministry and chrysotile asbestos companies. Even this study does not say that chrysotile asbestos is non-hazardous. This dubious made-to-order study by the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH), a unit of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on chrysotile asbestos belittles India's stature among the world's scientific community.

Notably, this made-to-order study is proudly published on the websites of chrysotile asbestos industry association and the Ministry of Chemicals in total regard of what the World Health Organisation (WHO), the National Health Portal (NHP) and the Supreme Court of India is saying about chrysotile asbestos. The text articulating the position of ministry of health is attached.
There is a logic compulsion for India to support listing of chrysotile asbestos in the PIC list of hazardous chemicals because India's new Occupational Safety Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 recognises hazardous nature of all kinds of asbestos including the chrysotile asbestos and the diseases caused by it.
Having banned mining of all kinds of asbestos, having banned trade in asbestos waste (dust and fibers), having banned asbestos in talcum powder, having decided to make over 7,000 railway stations asbestos free and having outlawed use of asbestos in ships, it is high time India made it's position consistent with the recommendations of Chemical Review Committee, WHO and International Labour Organisation (ILO).
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*LL.M, PhD, with Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI)

Beyond the 'silent relocation' narrative in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts

By Dr. Mohammad Asaduzzaman* In recent years, a narrative has emerged from the rugged and forested terrain of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), portraying the region as the site of a “silent relocation” — a mass forced migration of Bangladesh’s non-Muslim ethnic communities into neighboring India and Myanmar.

The farmer's burden: How oil, war, and climate are rewriting the price of food

By Vikas Meshram The scorching flames of the Middle East conflict are now slowly reaching the kitchens of ordinary people. The true price of this war is paid in daily markets, vegetable shops, and in the shattered minds of farmers. Expensive crude oil, skyrocketing fertilizer prices, and rising agricultural costs are together creating the conditions for global food inflation — and this crisis is directly tied to what people eat and drink every day.

Ram, Bam and Bengal: Memories of a Left turn toward the Right

By Rajiv Shah The BJP ’s massive electoral win in West Bengal is being interpreted across political persuasions — except, of course, by the BJP itself — as the result of the alleged deletion of around 90 lakh voters from the electoral rolls during the controversial intensive revision process. This may well be true, given my own experience in Gujarat regarding the shoddy manner in which electoral revisions have often been conducted. In West Bengal, there also appeared to be a political angle to the exercise. But I am not interested in discussing that here, as enough has already appeared in the media on the subject.

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