Ban Asbestos Movement Gains Momentum in India
A whirlwind schedule from March 3-6, 2011 provided the opportunity for Professor Annie Thébaud-Mony, Director of Research at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, to meet asbestos victims, campaigners and medical professionals in Indian asbestos hotspots. A report by Jagdish Patel provides information regarding activities in Mumbai and Ahmedabad including details of interviews, field work, meetings, roundtables, site visits and lectures.
Professor Thébaud-Mony, who was invited to India by the Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai to present her research on occupational cancer, has studied asbestos issues in Europe, Latin America and Asia. This trip offered her a unique chance to speak to asbestos victims and observe first-hand the conditions they endure in a country where there is scant financial, legal, government or medical redress for injured workers.
 Annie Thébaud-Mony (with microphone, left) at asbestos workshop in Bom Jesus da Serra, Bahia, Brazil with ban asbestos campaigners Fernanda Giannasi (Brazil) and Sugio Furuya (Japan). |
Professor Thébaud-Mony, who has worked closely with grassroots activists around the world, is calling for an International Criminal Court for Labour and the Environment to be set up so that negligent corporations, company officials and governments can be held accountable for the harm they have done by permitting the use of asbestos.
March 22, 2011
