Seismic Shift in India’s Asbestos Dialogue
For years, India’s domestic market for asbestos fiber was blessed by the government’s prioritization of economic growth and favorable fiscal policies, including a basic customs duty on asbestos imports of just 10%.1 According to official data, between 2020 and 2025 annual asbestos imports totaled 1,987,636 tonnes(t) – making India the world’s largest asbestos consumer. All the asbestos used in India is sourced from overseas producers, with Russia the largest supplier by far. In recent years, up to 70% of all Russian asbestos exports went to India; without sales to Indian customers, it is possible that Russia’s entire asbestos industry could collapse.
In the last decade, the world’s most populous country grew by 10.4%, giving India a population of 1.48 billion (2026). People need homes, roofs, sewage and water pipes; the asbestos lobby argued that its products were ideally suited to build the new India, “one of the fastest-growing major global economies” in the world. As asbestos stakeholders mobilized their resources to drive market demand, NGOs, which in former times had worked to expose industry’s disinformation, had been silenced by ever-tighter sanctions imposed by the Modi government.2 With such favorable conditions, it seemed like asbestos demand in India was inviolable.
What the industry had not bargained for, however, was the diligent and methodical work of Indian campaigners, academics and scientists who amassed evidence and published papers documenting the adverse impact of the commercial exploitation of asbestos on workers, consumers, members of the public and the environment.3 The researchers provided the logs and branches for the bonfire and the touchpaper which ignited the blaze was provided by the media. It came on September 17, 2026 in the shape of a British documentary entitled: Inside one of India’s most toxic towns – polluted by a British company.4 Although the program was relatively short (~22 minutes), its contents were devastating.5 Commenting on the footage of his overwhelmed biennial free medical clinic in Kymore, Dr Muralidhar Venkiteswaran said: “all these people will die suffering.”
 Image created by Ben Alford. |
The reactions to the broadcast which appeared in Indian newspapers and on social media landed like a bombshell.6 In the chaos which followed, unprecedented actions were reported:
- questions were asked in the Madhya Pradesh State Legislature about asbestos pollution in the Kymore and Kalhara areas of the Katni district in Madhya Pradesh and the provision of medical care for residents affected by asbestos-related diseases;7
- the Leader of the Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Legislature Umang Singhar visited Kymore to investigate the asbestos health crisis caused by the “million tons of toxic asbestos waste” polluting the town; he subsequently filed a formal complaint with the National Human Rights Commission;8
- the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) ordered the Chief Secretary of the State of Madhya Pradesh to undertake the production of an asbestos audit on contamination near the Kymore factory and at landfill sites. According to a statement by the NHRC, Indians had “a right to life, health and a safe environment”;9
- the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) announced an investigation into asbestos waste at a landfill site in Kalhara village, near the site of the Kymore asbestos factory;10
- a formal complaint was submitted by a private citizen to the MPPCB calling for an immediate investigation into the potential public and occupational health risks posed by asbestos contamination in Kymore and the surrounding area.11
It is somewhat curious that this issue became mainstream news in 2026 when a report commissioned by British barrister Krishnendu Mukherjee had documented horrific levels of environmental contamination in Kymore more than a decade previously.12
 Friable asbestos debris at surface between residences in Kymore village 2016. Photo courtesy of Environmental Consulting Occupational Health. |
 Surficial Debris in fields near residences. 2016. Photo courtesy of Environmental Consulting Occupational Health. |
 Housing in Kymore constructed with asbestos roofs and walls. Asbestos in poor condition with signs of degradation. 2016. Photo courtesy of Environmental Consulting Occupational Health. |
Commenting on the experts’ findings, in 2016 Mukherjee wrote:
“there are nearly 600,000 square metres of waste, which would cost up to $88m to make safe. … at present thousands of people remain exposed, and will continue to suffer the health consequences in the future. In a country where the use of asbestos has rapidly increased, Kymore provides a salient lesson that the legacy of the asbestos industry remains for generations.”13
A decade after those words were written, nothing has been done about the contamination.
Rough calculations undertaken for this article using data sourced from India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the United States Geological Survey estimated that between 1960 and 2026, total asbestos consumption in India exceeded 12 million tonnes. Usage in the UK of 6+ million tonnes produced the world’s worst mortality incidence of mesothelioma, the signature cancer associated with asbestos exposure. Decades after asbestos was banned, 5,000+ Britons people still die every year from asbestos-related diseases.
As the asbestos scandal at the notorious factory in Kymore continues to unfold, there are, however, glimmers of hope as evinced by developments at the National Green Tribunal, Supreme Court, government ministries, departments and provincial authorities.14
 Indian Ministry of Education social media posts 2025. |
Throughout civil society, public, professional and political opposition to asbestos is growing. More and more medical experts are willing to ask uncomfortable questions about the role played by asbestos in the country’s explosion of cancer mortality. According to official data, in 2024, 98,000 people in India died from lung cancer, a disease caused not only by smoking but also by exposures to asbestos and other toxins.15
In his timely commentary, by Dr. Edmond Fernandes, Director of the Edward and Cynthia Institute of Public Health – “a Mangaluru-based based academic and research institute focused on global health and policy” – wrote:
“the cost of acting now is real but finite. The cost of waiting grows with every sheet installed. India has shown on single use plastics and leaded petrol that it can phase out harmful materials. Asbestos is a far deadlier case having devastating consequences sweeping across generations. By banning it, India would protect its own workers and families, and would show a continent that development does not have to be built under a carcinogenic roof.”16
In 2026 it is hard to fathom why India – a country at the cutting edge of so many technological advances – remains the world’s dumping ground for asbestos. It is well past time for India to transition toward a safer technology and end the use of asbestos. By doing so, it will not only protect its own citizens but also the wider world that will benefit from the collapse of the global asbestos industry after India’s massive asbestos market has vanished.
October 23, 2026
_______
1 In a statement he made in 2006, the Director of Toxics Link Ravi Agarwal pointed out that asbestos had been made cheaper through government policies: “The import duty on asbestos dropped from 78 per cent in 1992 to 15 per cent in 2004… Incidentally, such duty benefits are not extended to other products that might serve as substitutes, such as poly-vinyl alcohol.”
Zaidi, A. Killer mineral. October 20, 2006.
https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/article30211245.ece
Singh, R., Frank, A.L. Analysis of the Indian Government’s position on the use of asbestos and its health effects. May 18, 2023.
https://theunion.org/news/analysis-of-the-indian-government%E2%80%99s-position-on-the-use-of-asbestos-and-its-health-effects
2 Indian asbestos stakeholders are represented by the Fibre Cement Products Manufacturers. Association – formerly the Asbestos Cement Products Manufacturers Association.
Website: https://fcpma.in/
3 The following are just a sample of these publications; there are many more!
Kapoor, S., Patnaik, S.K., Yadav, D., Kapoor, M. Asbestosis and Asbestos-Related Lung Cancers in India: An Urgent Call for National Policy Reform. December 2025
https://www.ovid.com/jnls/dypj/fulltext/10.4103/dypj.dypj_91_25~asbestosis-and-asbestos-related-lung-cancers-in-india-an
Mann, H., Sau, A. Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma in an Asbestos Industry Worker: A Posthumous Case Report from Haryana, India. December 2025.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41710678/
Singh, R., Frank, A.L. Analysis of mesothelioma cases and National Cancer Registry data to assess asbestos exposure in India. March 2024.
Allen, D., Kazan-Allen, L. editors. India’s Asbestos Time Bomb. 2008.
https://www.ibasecretariat.org/india_asb_time_bomb.pdf
4 Kymore was the location chosen in the 1930s by the British asbestos multinational Turner & Newall Ltd. (T&N) for the construction of India’s first asbestos product factory. From 1934, manufacturing operations at the plant run by Asbestos Cement Ltd., a T&N subsidiary, routinely disposed of asbestos waste in populated areas, on private land as well as at dumpsites. This practice was continued by the factory’s next owner: Eternit Everest Ltd., a subsidiary of the Belgium asbestos multinational Eternit, until the mid-1990s. The asbestos factory is now owned by an Indian company – Everest Industries Ltd. – which denied liability for the factory’s legacy waste.
‘No asbestos case among staff in 20 yrs, nearby areas never tested.’ September 28, 2026.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/no-asbestos-case-among-staff-in-20-yrs-nearby-areas-never-tested/articleshow/134536157.cms
Asbestos waste from a former British firm blights Madhya Pradesh town: UK media probe. October 2, 2026.
https://www.counterview.net/2026/10/asbestos-waste-from-former-british-firm.html
Madhya Pradesh village sees "slow death" of hundreds of asbestos victims caused by now closed British, Belgian subsidiary. November 21, 2017.
https://www.counterview.net/2017/11/madhya-pradesh-village-sees-slow-death.html
5 ITV. Inside one of India’s most toxic towns – polluted by a British company. September 17, 2026.
https://www.itv.com/news/2026-09-17/inside-one-of-indias-most-toxic-towns-polluted-by-a-british-company?fbclid=IwY2xjawUkb5BleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBWJyaWQRMWQ1WWUyRHpnMnBwalFQWjVzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyM
jIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeYWxF31-ZsS51th49ttB0kqu3ydGuSW2VLf9cuI3XInZmQ0FY2fI85NQCPas_aem_MOJKJmDJnhmhfTGOORd0Vw
ITV. Inside the Indian town poisoned by tonnes of asbestos. September 17, 2026.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOdSX2b-grw
ITV. ‘Killing the next generation’: India.s furious reaction to deadly asbestos town revealed by ITV News. October 9, 2026.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTq_wzJxxig
6 Naveen, P. Kymore.s asbestos legacy: Thousands diagnosed, but govt has no health map. September 25, 2026.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/thousands-diagnosed-but-govt-has-no-health-map-british-giants-toxic-legacy-still-ails-mps-kymore-town/articleshow/134475890.cms
Cook, L. Thousands in India developed cancer, lung disease after British company.s asbestos dump. September 25, 2026.
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/asbestos-dump-health-issues-kymore-india/Urban Acres.
School’s exposure history remains undocumented. Kymore Asbestos Exposure Reveals a Dangerous School Records Gap. September 26, 2026.
https://urbanacres.in/kymore-asbestos-exposure-reveals-a-dangerous-school-records-gap/
Naveen, P. School on Brit factory’s premises at heart of asbestos exposure row. September 26, 2026.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/school-on-brit-factorys-premisesat-heart-of-asbestos-exposure-row/amp_articleshow/134498543.cms
Asbestos waste from a former British firm blights Madhya Pradesh town: UK media probe. October 2, 2026.
https://www.counterview.net/2026/10/asbestos-waste-from-former-british-firm.html
7 Jatav, L. कैमोर में एस्बेस्टस कचरे पर उमंग सिंघार ने उठाए सवाल, स्थानीय लोगों से मिले [Umang Singhar raises questions on asbestos waste in Kymore]. October 10, 2026.
https://www.abplive.com/states/madhya-pradesh/katni-kymore-asbestos-waste-umang-singhar-health-hazard-ann-3200048
Congress raises asbestos pollution issue in MP’s Kymore, seeks independent probe. October 10, 2026.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/congress-raises-asbestos-pollution-issue-in-mps-kymore-seeks-independent-probe/articleshow/134854604.cms
8 ibid.
9 ibid.
10 Naveen, P. TOI Impact: MPPCB starts probe into Kymore asbestos landfill, 700 more claims in the works. September 29, 2026.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/toi-impact-mppcb-starts-probe-into-kymore-asbestos-landfill-700-more-claim-files-in-the-works/articleshow/134550155.cms
11 Naveen. P. MP’s Kymore soil tests under scrutiny in asbestos case. October 17, 2026.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/mps-kymore-soil-tests-under-scrutiny-in-asbestos-case/articleshow/135008733.cms
12 Environmental Consulting Occupational Health (ECOH). ASBESTOS INVESTIGATION AND REMEDIAL OPTIONS ANALYSIS KYMORE VILLAGE, MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA. 2016.
https://ibasecretariat.org/asbestos-investigation-and-remedial-options-analysis-kymore-and-kalhara-villages-madhya-pradesh.pdf
13 Mukherjee, K. The Legacy of the European Asbestos Industry Continues in India. October 20, 2016.
https://www.ibasecretariat.org/km-legacy-of-european-asbestos-industry-continues-in-india.php
14 India Regulates Asbestos Use. September, 2026.
https://ibasecretariat.org/india-regulates-asbestos-use.php
Kazan-Allen, L. India’s Changing Asbestos Narrative. August 6, 2026.
https://ibasecretariat.org/lka-india-s-changing-asbestos-narrative.php
2025 Judgment on use of Asbestos Cement Roofing Sheets in Indian Schools. December 12, 2025.
https://ibasecretariat.org/2025-judgment-on-use-of-asbestos-cement-roofing-sheets-in-indian-schools.php
15 Fernandes, E. The silent killer over India's roofs: Why it's time to ban asbestos, September 25, 2026.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-blogs/wellbeing/the-silent-killer-over-indias-roofs-why-its-time-to-ban-asbestos/articleshow/134474687.cms
16 Ibid.
