Breakthrough? Causing asbestosis, lung cancer, India to get tremolite asbestos from China

Senior Vadodara-based health rights activist Jagdish Patel has forwarded to me an important news item. Emanating from Gansu Province, located in the northwestern region of China, and disseminated by Gansu News, which covers a range of topics, including regional development and economic activities, in the province, the news item, in "simple" Chinese with translation in English, says that there is "breakthrough" in exporting asbestos from China to India.

Hailing the breakthrough in foreign trade for the province's Akesai county for the first time, "showcasing" it as regional economic progress, the news of export to India comes six months after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a ban on the only type of asbestos, chrysotile, used in the United States. Banned in 65 countries around the world, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), an estimated 100,000 people die each year from “work-related asbestos exposure” because asbestos is considered carcinogenic.

Widely used in the construction of homes and offices throughout the USA and many other parts of the world until the later half of the 20th century, given that it is a very good electrical and heat insulator, and is strongly fire and corrosion resistant, the American environmental agency was reportedly grappling with banning all forms of asbestos for several decades. Less carcinogenic, chrysotile or white asbestos was allowed to be imported and used for tyre and brake manufacturing. Other types, actinolite, amosite, anthophyllite, crocidolite, and tremolite, were already banned.

The type of asbestos which will be exported from China is tremolite, which is considered toxic. "Inhaling tremolite fibers can lead to asbestosis, lung cancer, and pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma", to quote Wikipedia. While India banned asbestos mining way back in 1993, imports have continued. The Chinese news item, which appeared on December 22, happily announced "breakthrough in foreign trade exports for Aksay County, Jiuquan City" for tremolite asbestos.

Let me quote from the news item, sourced on Daily Gansu Network - Gansu Daily, which says, "According to Lanzhou Customs, recently, 50 tons of tremolite asbestos departed from Aksay County, Jiuquan City, to Lianyungang, from where it will be shipped to India. This marks the first export of tremolite asbestos from Aksay County and signifies a breakthrough in the county’s foreign trade exports."

Praising tremolite asbestos, "a fibrous mineral", the news item says, it has "excellent high-temperature insulation properties", and is "widely used in industries such as petroleum, chemicals, and machinery." It adds, "Aksay County is rich in energy and mineral resources, with tremolite asbestos reserves exceeding 45 million tons, accounting for about one-third of the national total."

The news item quotes Zhao Chundong, the head of Aksay Taige Chemical Development Co, Ltd as saying, “In the past, we were unfamiliar with foreign trade operations. Customs and related departments not only proactively introduced policies but also provided hands-on guidance in procedures such as export declaration, inspection, and certification.”

It also quotes Sun Chengyu, Director of Dunhuang Airport Customs, as stating that to "help expand the overseas market for Aksay asbestos and ensure stable supply chains, Dunhuang Airport Customs has partnered with local commerce and industry departments this year to form a foreign trade task force and a youth commando team. They provide one-on-one policy consultations and business guidance for enterprises."

Comments

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."

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.

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.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

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."

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

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.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Venkaiah Naidu. The most striking comment came from BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who stated : "When a train derailed in the 1950s, Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned. On the same morality, I demand PM Modi, HM Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Naidu resign so that a free and fair inquiry can be held. All that Modi and his associates have been doing so far is gallivanting, which must stop." Amidst widespread mourning, some fringe elements sought to communalize the tragedy. One post ...

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.

Search This Blog