Workers at Alang Shipyard hold a funeral for a deceased coworker. Courtesy of Greenpeace.org

New Dehli- An official committee has acknowledged that asbestos is taking its toll on the ship-breakers in Alang, Gujarat, the first time the Indian government has ever acknowledged the problems of the often controversial ship breaking yard.

The committee found that nearly one in every six workers that handles asbestos is beginning to show the early development of asbestosis, an irreversible lung disease.

Set up by the Supreme Court last February in the midst of dealing with Le Clemenceau, an asbestos laden French aircraft carrier set to be demolished, the 12-member Committee submitted a 200-page report last week.

The report concluded that ship breaking should be performed in a safe and environmentally sound manner. They also included provisions for worker safety, highlighting alarming statistics on asbestos exposure, the first time the Indian government has acknowledged any link.

The Delhi-based National Institute of Occupational Health was asked to study the health status of ship-breaking workers in Alang. They performed X-Rays on workers who handled asbestos which led them to an alarming conclusion.

“The X-ray examination showed linear shadow on 15 of 94 workers occupationally exposed to asbestos,” said the report. “These were consistent with asbestosis but could be caused by other lung conditions. All of these were cases of easly asbestosis and not associated with pulmonary function abnormalities’’.

Normally, it takes more than 10 years for full-blown asbestosis to develop but its onset is hastened with higher levels of exposure.

Most of the workers at the yard had worked for less than 10 years thus indicating higher levels of exposure than previously imagined.

Data on fatal accidents during the last 10 years show an average annual incidence of fatal accidents in ship breaking to be 2 per 1000 workers while the figure for the mining industry (widely considered to be the most unsafe) is 0.34 per 1000.

Alang is a 10-km ship-breaking yard in Gulf of Cambay in Gujarat. It is one of the largest in the world and last year disassembled 100 ships while providing employment to 5,000 workers. Conditions in their camps are a breeding ground for disease with no running water and no restroom facilities.

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