Asbestos News

A regulatory body in India recently warned the government about its allegedly contradictory position on chrysotile asbestos.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is warning a number of government ministries about its position on asbestos. According to the Hindustan Times, the government has worked to ban the mining of asbestos in the country but allows some of the naturally occurring carcinogen to be imported.

Exposure to asbestos has a number of serious health consequences such as the development of asbestosis, lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma, a rare and deadly cancer that attacks the thin membrane the lines the chest, abdomen and many of the body's internal organs.

The NHRC alerted the labor, commerce, fertilizer and chemical and environment ministries about its contradictory stance in a notice.

"Citing [the] contradictory position of the Government on the issue, the complainant Gopal Krishna of Toxics Watch Alliance has alleged that though the mining of asbestos has been technically banned by the government, it allows its import and that too [is] from the countries which do not prefer its domestic use," the agency stated, reports the news source.