Doctors in India are under pressure to label patients with asbestos poisoning as having tuberculosis or bronchitis and to underplay the health impact of asbestos, a public health team has said.
Many thousands of people in India suffer from lung diseases caused by exposure to asbestos, occupational health specialists said at a press conference last week, reiterating their demand for a ban on asbestos.
India uses around 125 000 tonnes of asbestos each year, which it imports mostly from Canada and Russia. Nearly all (90%) of the asbestos goes into the construction of roof sheets for homes for poor people.
Eight years ago the Supreme Court had ordered the asbestos industry to maintain health records of workers and to compensate people affected by asbestos poisoning. "But medical screening of workers is inadequate," said Dr Tushar Kant Joshi, head of occupational medicine at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital, New Delhi.
Under the court order the family of a worker who dies of asbestos poisoning should get 100 000 rupees (£1340; $2170; €1890). Medical boards of government insurance companies have so far compensated fewer than 30 workers or their families. However, the occupational health specialists said that 6000 people work in asbestos mines and industries and another 100 000 are at risk of exposure. Random screening indicates that lung disease attributable to exposure to asbestos shows up in the x ray pictures of 20% of these workers, they said.
However, doctors say that their diagnoses of asbestos poisoning are challenged by the industry. "The medical fraternity is under attack," said Dr Sudhakar Kamat, former head of respiratory medicine at the King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai. "Doctors are under pressure to interpret x rays as TB or bronchitis or other chronic conditions," he said.
Public health organisations in India have urged the government to ban asbestos, but the asbestos industry has denied that asbestos has an impact on health. The Asbestos Information Centre in India has launched a campaign to highlight the advantages of asbestos products and to "increase awareness of the superior safety attributes of asbestos products over untested alternative materials."
The World Health Organization has classed all types of asbestos as carcinogens, and studies have implicated asbestos in lung fibrosis and tumours. Asbestos is banned in 36 countries; most of Europe has banned asbestos, and its use in the United States is regulated. Regulation has led to a sharp drop in the demand for asbestos in the United States—from 670 000 tonnes in the 1960s to around 30 000 tonnes in the late 1990s.