A worker, who was being exposed to asbestos on a daily basis and was repeatedly assured by factory owners and doctors that everything was fine, was diagnosed with asbestosis by a central agency
During a Diwali break from his hectic factory work last year, 34-year-old Yogesh Sawant suddenly woke up from sleep and mumbled to his wife: ‘Ata Mala He Nahi Karaicha Ahe’ (I don’t want to do this work anymore).
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Yogesh Sawant with his family. Sawant, who struggles even to pronounce asbestosis, said no one at the factory told him what he was exposing himself to. Pics/Sameer Markande
When this happened, Sawant, who was working as a labourer in Ashadeep Frictions Ltd at Ambernath, had been undergoing tests for chest pain and breathing problems. Little did he know what was in store for him in the months to come. While the factory management and its medical team kept assuring him there was no cause for worry, Sawant kept exposing himself to the deadly asbestos dust in the factory loom.
Wokers at a unit in Ambernath MIDC
“The management and their medical staff kept saying there was no cause for worry as test after test came back negative for occupational diseases. But, at some point, he was convinced there was something fishy about the factory work he was doing,” Sawant’s wife Sarala said, with a faraway look in her eyes, sitting in their tiny home at Maralgaon in Kalyan.
Soon Pawar himself chips in, but stumbles over the word asbestosis. “I don’t even know how to pronounce it (asbestosis). For 15 years, I worked in that factory but nobody bothered to even tell me what I was dealing with,” he said.
The family was in for a rude shock when a team of experts from the Union Ministry of Labour descended on their home towards the end of last year and made Sawant undergo X-ray scans and blood tests. Two workers from the factory: Sawant and Manoj Saroj turned out to be the first confirmed cases of the deadly asbestosis disease in Maharashtra.
In all, 13 cases of asbestosis and silicosis were detected by the central agencies in Maharashtra last year alone even as over 2,44,890 tests conducted by 105 certified private doctors between January 2013 and May 30, 2014, reported no occupational disease, including the 13 later found positive by the central teams.
Worse, an inspection of Ashadeep by a state team of the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) on February 23, 2012, had found no violations or chemicals or other hazards at the factory. “No contravention. No violations. Cases filed,” it reads.
The factory management did not own up responsibility and allegedly held back details of the case from the government. And it did not provide adequate medical care and compensation to Sawant. In a letter (99/7/ NRDC/ 2013CLI), the central government was informed that the owner was dilly-dallying in giving compensation.
In another scathing letter (DISH/medical/13641-43/9), the agency noted to factory owner Prabhakar Shetty: “You were repeatedly directed to send these two cases to the Workmen’s Compen-sation Commission. But it seems you have refused to follow the directions completely.”
Meanwhile, a tired and frustrated Sawant dropped out of work without a notice in March this year. Since then, he has been spending as much as Rs 3,000 a month for his treatment. Saroj has shifted to his village for the time being. “I gave 15 years of my life to that company, but there has been no help from the owners,” Sawant told mid-day.
His final diagnosis reads: Asbestosis-profusion 2/3, t/t. The medical report advises ‘medical surveillance, and detailed clinical examination every six months’. “I have to make ends meet and cannot sit at home without any work. If my daughters get something at least, I’ll be happy. They should get some money so they can take care of themselves should something happen to me”
Embarrassment
Documents accessed by mid-day under RTI expose the neglected state of affairs within the state’s Directorate of Industrial Safety & Health (DISH), its failure to make owners comply with norms on workers’ safety and compensation, and put a big question mark on its ability to detect occupational diseases.
An internal report prepared following the visit of an expert team of the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH), confirmed cases which had been rejected by the state’s industrial safety officers. A report (DISH/Medical/3151-64/10), rips apart the private doctors who had failed to detect a single occupational disease.
“These doctors are repeatedly inspecting the factories with our own team that is monitoring situations in the factory. Yet, this visit by NIOH has exposed our weaknesses and left a big question mark over our inspections, supervision, and medical examination methods. This is a big embarrassment for Maharashtra,” reads the internal report prepared by DISH Director V S Moray.
The 100-odd private doctors are monitored by a single government surgeon, who not only authorizes but performs medical examinations as well. The lone government surgeon for Maharashtra, Dr Atul Band, conducted 2,500 tests last year and confirmed the 13 cases highlighted by the NIOH. “There is a clear nexus of private doctors and factory inspectors.
This nexus is just fooling the people of Maharashtra into believing that all is well in our factories and industries. But unfortunately that is not the case,” he told mid-day. When we repeatedly asked Moray to provide details of industrial cases detected by certified private doctors, Moray said: “This is confidential information and not in the public domain, as much as we want to keep things transparent.”
The NIOH inspection report accessed by mid-day under the RTI Act clearly reveals how factory owners and managers were allowed to go scot-free despite violating norms. The inspections revealed that 23 asbestos factories, host to 2,583 workers, and several other factories in the MMR region were not conducting the mandatory membrane filter test to monitor presence of asbestos fibre in the work environment, and were not even conducting awareness training programmes for the workers.
The inspections found M/s Ashadeep Frictions, M/s Graphics India (Ambernath), Eastwell Asbestos Industries (Ulhasnagar), Hyderabad Industries (Thane), Mechanical Packaging (Tarapur), Nella Asbestos (Dahanu) and Wilson Products (Kolhapur), not carrying out the all-important membrane tests.
Of the seven inspections in Thane, six factories had not organized training programmes for workers — M/s Champion Seals, M/s Mechanical Packaging, M/s Standard Clutches & Spares, M/s Standard Friction, M/s Ashadeep Frictions and Graphics India.
The inspections found that several other factories — where stone cutting, crushing and glass work is done and popcorn and rice puffs are made — were host to factors causing silicosis. In all, four cases of silicosis and nine of asbestosis were detected by NIOH.
DISH is doing a follow-up on all these cases. “All these were first found negative by private doctors. We have now ordered an inquiry on them,” said a senior official. According to data from the department, total compensation of Rs 8.46 crore had accrued and an ex-gratia amount of Rs 3.7 crore was paid last year to workers across the state.
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