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ASBESTOSIS DIAGNOSED IN SHIP WORKERS IN INDIA
Asbestosis is a disease caused by exposure
to asbestos that destroys the lungs and can eventually kill its
victims. One in six workers at the world's biggest ship-breaking yard
in western India shows
symptoms of asbestosis, a Supreme Court committee has said. The
committee based its findings on a survey of Alang workers conducted by
the National Institute of Occupational Health. Of 94 workers exposed to asbestos while working at Alang shipyard in Gujarat
state, 15 showed abnormalities "consistent with asbestosis" in X-rays,
according to the report. The workers examined in the study had been
engaged in removing asbestos from ship insulation linings.
Most seagoing ships end their lives at shipyards in India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan,
where they are broken up by unprotected workers. For major
industrialized nations, safety and environmental laws make
ship-breaking work hugely costly. But in the developing world, lax
enforcement of safety and environmental rules and a vast supply of
cheap labor can make ship-breaking a profitable proposition.
The Supreme Court of India
has been waiting for the report to help decide the fate of a cruise
ship sold by its French owners in 1979 and now named the Blue Lady,
which is docked at Alang and owned by Indian ship-breakers. The
committee set up by the Supreme Court reported its findings on August
31 but they have not yet been made public. Environmental groups say the
vessel contains carcinogenic asbestos and should not be broken up at
the shipyard.
Last year, France
recalled the decommissioned warship Clemenceau after a battle by
environmentalists who said it contained between 500 to 1,000 tonnes of
asbestos. France
said the ship only contained 45 tonnes of the material. Environmental
groups have said the court should refuse to allow the ship to be broken
up at the shipyard Alang, located on a remote stretch of coast nearly
200 kilometers (160 miles) northwest of India's financial center, Mumbai.
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