Fwd: [ipenlistserve] Press Release: NHRC Approached for Listing of Chrysotile Asbestos & Endosulfan in UN List of Hazardous Chemicals List
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yuyun ismawati
Jun 20, 2011, 6:54:11 PM6/20/11
to indonesia-...@googlegroups.com, Selamet Daroyni, dyah paramita, Rossana Dewi R, Noor Jehan, YLKI Huzna Zahir, Shoim Sahriyati, Yomi Fernando, Nova SLP, mariaha...@gmail.com, Paola Cannucciari, Stephen Palmer, Christian Fritz - BICG, ra...@airkonpratama.com
Dear kawans,
Chrysotile asbestos masih banyak dipakai di Indonesia sebagai bahan atap, pipa dan gasket untuk rem kanvas. Untuk yang rem kanvas mungkin masih bisa ditolerir, tapi untuk bahan atap dan pipa sudah tidak layal lagi. Ada banyak alternatif yang lebih aman sekarang.
Indonesia mengimpor chrysotile dari Canada, Brazil, dan Rusia. Pengimpor/pemakai terbanyak adalah Bakri group. Dalam pertemuan persiapan Rotterdam Convention COP5 di Jakarta bulan lalu, KLH ditekan oleh Bakri group untuk tidak memasukkan Chrysotile dalam daftar Prior Inform Consent Rotterdam Convention yang sudah didesak oleh banyak NGOs di berbagai negara.
Bakri group berargumen bahwa chrysotile adalah jenis asbestos yang "aman" dan belum pernah ada kasus kematian di Indonesia akibat asbestos.
COP5 Rotterdam Convention sedang berlangsung sekarang di Geneva, 20-24 Juni 2011.
Chrysotile asbestos dapat menyebabkan kerusakan paru dan pencetus kanker paru2. Di Indonesia ditambah lagi dengan rokok dan buruknya kualitas udara, sekolah2, fasilitas2 kesehatan, orang miskin dan pekerja2 at the bottom of the pyramid adalah yang paling rentan terhadap ancaman chrysotile karena atap asbes dipakai di tempat2 yang non-permanen, murah, public facilities.
Endosulfan, di Indonesia sudah dilarang tapi Gita Pertiwi masih mendapatinya di Sumatra Utara tahun 2010. Bulan lalu endosulfan akhirnya masuk daftar kimia yang dilarang dalam Stockholm Convention on POPs (Persisten Organic Pollutants) dan sekarang akan di push lagi untuk Rotterdam Convention agar import-export material B3 seperti endosulfan dan asbestos todak lagi dikirim ke negara berkembang.
Terlampir juga Kertas Posisi Public Interest NGOs yang tergabung dalam ROCA (Rotterdam Convention Alliance, www.rocalliance.org), termasuk IPEN, yang dikoordinir oleh Women in Europe for Common Future (WECF).
Saya harap kawan2 ada yang bisa menaruh perhatian pada isu asbestos dan mungkin Green Building Council Indonesia bisa mengharamkam juga asbestos dalam kode bangunan hijau Indonesia.
Best regards from the toxics field of Palu,
Yuyun
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gopal Krishna <krishn...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 9:45 PM
Subject: [ipenlistserve] Press Release: NHRC Approached for Listing of Chrysotile Asbestos & Endosulfan in UN List of Hazardous Chemicals List
To: mediavigil <media...@yahoogroups.com>
Press Release
NHRC Admits Application for Listing of Chrysotile Asbestos &
Endosulfan in UN List of Hazardous Chemicals List
New Delhi/Kolkata 20/6/2011:Environmental groups demand listing of
Chrysotile Asbestos and Endosulfan in UN List of Hazardous Chemicals
List at the UN's fifth meeting of Rotterdam Convention on the Prior
Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and
Pesticides in International Trade that commenced today in Geneva,
Switzerland. India's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has
admitted an application with regard to the same. The same is attached.
Chrysotile asbestos
Chrysotile (serpentine forms of asbestos) is being proposed to be
included in the PIC procedure as an industrial chemical in the
conference. Its listing is based on the final regulatory actions to
ban or severely restrict its use due to its impacts on health as
notified by Australia, Chile and the European Union.
Endosulfan
The conference will consider proposals to include endosulfan as a
pesticide in Annex III to the Convention as recommended by the
Chemical Review Committee at its second and sixth meetings. Endosulfan
is an insecticide which has been used for over 50 years to effectively
control several pests such as chewing, sucking and boring insects. Due
to its severe adverse effects on health and
environment, it is banned in at least 60 countries including the
European Union, Australia and New Zealand, and other Asian and West
African nations, and is being phased out in Brazil, China and the
United States. However it is still used in many other countries on
commercially important crops, such as coffee and tea.
An application was submitted to NHRC on 15th June, 2011 with reference
to its previous complaint of 15th April, 2010 (Complaint No. 41418).
The NHRC admitted the recent application on 16th June. The Complaint
No. is: 89772. The application urged NHRC to recommend to Government
of India to ask Government of India:
• To comply with the resolutions of WHO and ILO (2005 and 2006 seeking
elimination of future use of asbestos including chrysotile asbestos
worldwide
• To announce the compensation package for present and future victims
of asbestos diseases as it has done in the case of Silicosis and make
the asbestos companies criminally liable for knowingly exposing
citizens and consumers of asbestos products
• To take note of Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare
Ministry's statement in Rajya Sabha saying: "Studies by the National
Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad, have shown that long-term
exposure to any type of asbestos can lead to the development of
asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma'' on August 18, 2003
• To take cognisance of the order of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s bench of
Chief Justice of India dated January 21, 2011
• To take note of The White Asbestos (Ban on Use and Import) Bill,
2009 introduced in Rajya Sabha and the order of the Kerala State Human
Rights Commission dated 31st January 2009 banning the use of asbestos
in schools and hospitals
• To consider the deliberations of the International Conference on
"Emerging Trends in Preventing Occupational Respiratory Diseases and
Cancers in Workplace" at Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi in
March 2011 following which New Delhi Declaration Seeking Elimination
of all forms of Asbestos including Chrysotile from India on 24 March,
2011
• To take note of the fact that every international health agency of
repute including the World Health Organization, the International
Labor Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer,
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, and the American Cancer Society agree
there is no safe level of asbestos exposure. Most recently, the
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reconfirmed that
all commercial asbestos fibers - including chrysotile, the most
commercially used form of asbestos - cause lung cancer and
mesothelioma. In addition, IARC newly confirmed that there is
sufficient evidence that asbestos causes ovarian cancer and
reconfirmed asbestos causes laryngeal cancer
• To recall that the World Health Organisation's latest estimate notes
that asbestos already claims 107,000 lives a year. Even that
conservative estimate means every five minutes around the clock a
person dies of asbestos related disease. The ongoing use of the
asbestos fibre kills at least 300 people every day
• To respect the scientific process of the Rotterdam Convention and
approve the recommendations of the Chemical Review Committee to list
chrysotile asbestos in the PIC list of hazardous substances
• To refer to World Bank's Asbestos Good Practice Guidelines. These
Guidelines, as well as its earlier Environmental, Health & Safety
General Guidelines, require that the use of asbestos must be avoided
in new construction in projects funded by the World Bank around the
world. The Guidelines also provide information on available safer
alternatives to asbestos.
In such a backdrop, it is germane to ask as to why India still a
leading importer of chrysotile asbestos.
The application submitted that Canadian government which exports
chrysotile asbestos to India has removed it from Canadian Parliament
and its Prime Minister's Home. India has technically banned mining of
asbestos (including chrysotile) but allows import, manufacture and use
of asbestos based products which are proven to be deadly!
Earlier, NHRC has categorically observed that "...endosulfan has been
banned in over 60 countries including all the major industrial
nations, not because it was an inefficient pesticide, but because
independent studies there had confirmed that its commercial utility
was far outweighed by the great harm it caused to human health, to
flora and fauna, and to the environment. The governments of these
countries, therefore, put the right to health of their citizens, the
lives of future generations and the protection of the environment
above the commercial interests of the producers and users of
endosulfan” in its order dated 31st December, 2010. This creates a
rationale for Government of India to support listing of Endosulfan in
the UN's hazardous chemicals and pesticides list.
It is also noteworthy that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
too has passed an order in Case No: 693/30/97-98 recommending that the
asbestos sheets roofing be replaced with roofing made up of some other
material that would not be harmful.
I submit that the Annual Report of NHRC 2003-2004 refers to a Report
entitled “Asbestos – Health and Environment – an in-depth Study
“submitted by the Institute of Public Health Engineers, India. The
study underlines that safe and controlled use of asbestos is not
possible.
It is relevant to point out that asbestos waste (dust and fibers) has
been treated hazardous in all forms and has been banned under
Hazardous Wastes Management Rules farmed under the Environment
Protection Act, 1986. In our country, approximately 50, 000 people die
every year due to asbestos related cancer. But so far Government of
India has failed to take a pro-people’s health position and a
scientific stand on the import of chrysotile asbestos whose mining is
technically banned in India.
It may be noted that Kerala State Human Rights Commission has
recommended ban on use of asbestos roofs for schools and hospitals. In
view of the above, NHRC has been approached to recommend to Government
of India to support listing of chrysotile asbestos in the UN list of
hazardous chemicals.
Over 450 participants, representing more than 110 governments,
intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations are expected to
attend the Conference. Under the theme “Rotterdam COP5: PICturing
Chemical Safety, PICturing Informed Decisions”, the
conference will consider measures to strengthen implementation of the
globe’s first line of defence for chemical safety.
The Rotterdam Convention entered into force in 2004. It built on the
voluntary Prior Informed Consent, or PIC, procedure, initiated by UNEP
and FAO in 1989, which gave way to the formalities of the Convention.
The Rotterdam Convention was adopted in 1998 and entered into force in
2004 and makes the PIC Procedure legally binding.
The conference will consider decisions on, adding chrysotile asbestos,
endosulfan, alachlor and aldicarb to the Convention’s Annex III,
triggering the exchange of information between Governments on
permissible importation and use of these hazardous chemicals and
pesticides. There are 40 other chemicals and severely hazardous
pesticide formulations already listed in Annex III.
Parties to the Rotterdam Convention will review progress on
cooperation with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and follow up on
the work of the Committee on Trade and Environment in Special Session
(CTESS) and the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) between the
Secretariat and the World Trade Organization.
The conference is the second of three conferences of the parties
scheduled in 2011 to consider synergies between the Basel, Rotterdam
and Stockholm conventions. Parties to the Stockholm Convention met
earlier this year and adopted a decision addressing joint activities,
joint managerial functions, joint services, synchronization of budget
cycles, joint audits and review arrangements
between the three global chemicals and waste agreements. An identical
decision will be considered by Rotterdam Convention’s parties at this
meeting, and by the Basel Conventions parties at the latter
instrument’s 10th Conference of the Parties, meeting in Cartegena,
Colombia, in October, 2011.
The UN's fifth meeting of Rotterdam Convention will conclude on 24th June, 2011.
For Details: Information and Public Relations Officer, National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC, India), Ph: 91-11-23382742,
Email: ion...@hub.nic.in
Gopal Krishna, ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA)/Ban Asbestos Network of
India (BANI), New Delhi Mb: 09818089660
E-mail: krish...@gmail.com, toxicswat...@gmail.com, Blog:
banasbestosindia.blogspot.com,
Web: www.toxicswatch.com
____________________________________________________________
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From: Gopal Krishna <krishn...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 9:45 PM
Subject: [ipenlistserve] Press Release: NHRC Approached for Listing of Chrysotile Asbestos & Endosulfan in UN List of Hazardous Chemicals List
To: mediavigil <media...@yahoogroups.com>
Press Release
NHRC Admits Application for Listing of Chrysotile Asbestos &
Endosulfan in UN List of Hazardous Chemicals List
New Delhi/Kolkata 20/6/2011:Environmental groups demand listing of
Chrysotile Asbestos and Endosulfan in UN List of Hazardous Chemicals
List at the UN's fifth meeting of Rotterdam Convention on the Prior
Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and
Pesticides in International Trade that commenced today in Geneva,
Switzerland. India's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has
admitted an application with regard to the same. The same is attached.
Chrysotile asbestos
Chrysotile (serpentine forms of asbestos) is being proposed to be
included in the PIC procedure as an industrial chemical in the
conference. Its listing is based on the final regulatory actions to
ban or severely restrict its use due to its impacts on health as
notified by Australia, Chile and the European Union.
Endosulfan
The conference will consider proposals to include endosulfan as a
pesticide in Annex III to the Convention as recommended by the
Chemical Review Committee at its second and sixth meetings. Endosulfan
is an insecticide which has been used for over 50 years to effectively
control several pests such as chewing, sucking and boring insects. Due
to its severe adverse effects on health and
environment, it is banned in at least 60 countries including the
European Union, Australia and New Zealand, and other Asian and West
African nations, and is being phased out in Brazil, China and the
United States. However it is still used in many other countries on
commercially important crops, such as coffee and tea.
An application was submitted to NHRC on 15th June, 2011 with reference
to its previous complaint of 15th April, 2010 (Complaint No. 41418).
The NHRC admitted the recent application on 16th June. The Complaint
No. is: 89772. The application urged NHRC to recommend to Government
of India to ask Government of India:
• To comply with the resolutions of WHO and ILO (2005 and 2006 seeking
elimination of future use of asbestos including chrysotile asbestos
worldwide
• To announce the compensation package for present and future victims
of asbestos diseases as it has done in the case of Silicosis and make
the asbestos companies criminally liable for knowingly exposing
citizens and consumers of asbestos products
• To take note of Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare
Ministry's statement in Rajya Sabha saying: "Studies by the National
Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad, have shown that long-term
exposure to any type of asbestos can lead to the development of
asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma'' on August 18, 2003
• To take cognisance of the order of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s bench of
Chief Justice of India dated January 21, 2011
• To take note of The White Asbestos (Ban on Use and Import) Bill,
2009 introduced in Rajya Sabha and the order of the Kerala State Human
Rights Commission dated 31st January 2009 banning the use of asbestos
in schools and hospitals
• To consider the deliberations of the International Conference on
"Emerging Trends in Preventing Occupational Respiratory Diseases and
Cancers in Workplace" at Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi in
March 2011 following which New Delhi Declaration Seeking Elimination
of all forms of Asbestos including Chrysotile from India on 24 March,
2011
• To take note of the fact that every international health agency of
repute including the World Health Organization, the International
Labor Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer,
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, and the American Cancer Society agree
there is no safe level of asbestos exposure. Most recently, the
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reconfirmed that
all commercial asbestos fibers - including chrysotile, the most
commercially used form of asbestos - cause lung cancer and
mesothelioma. In addition, IARC newly confirmed that there is
sufficient evidence that asbestos causes ovarian cancer and
reconfirmed asbestos causes laryngeal cancer
• To recall that the World Health Organisation's latest estimate notes
that asbestos already claims 107,000 lives a year. Even that
conservative estimate means every five minutes around the clock a
person dies of asbestos related disease. The ongoing use of the
asbestos fibre kills at least 300 people every day
• To respect the scientific process of the Rotterdam Convention and
approve the recommendations of the Chemical Review Committee to list
chrysotile asbestos in the PIC list of hazardous substances
• To refer to World Bank's Asbestos Good Practice Guidelines. These
Guidelines, as well as its earlier Environmental, Health & Safety
General Guidelines, require that the use of asbestos must be avoided
in new construction in projects funded by the World Bank around the
world. The Guidelines also provide information on available safer
alternatives to asbestos.
In such a backdrop, it is germane to ask as to why India still a
leading importer of chrysotile asbestos.
The application submitted that Canadian government which exports
chrysotile asbestos to India has removed it from Canadian Parliament
and its Prime Minister's Home. India has technically banned mining of
asbestos (including chrysotile) but allows import, manufacture and use
of asbestos based products which are proven to be deadly!
Earlier, NHRC has categorically observed that "...endosulfan has been
banned in over 60 countries including all the major industrial
nations, not because it was an inefficient pesticide, but because
independent studies there had confirmed that its commercial utility
was far outweighed by the great harm it caused to human health, to
flora and fauna, and to the environment. The governments of these
countries, therefore, put the right to health of their citizens, the
lives of future generations and the protection of the environment
above the commercial interests of the producers and users of
endosulfan” in its order dated 31st December, 2010. This creates a
rationale for Government of India to support listing of Endosulfan in
the UN's hazardous chemicals and pesticides list.
It is also noteworthy that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
too has passed an order in Case No: 693/30/97-98 recommending that the
asbestos sheets roofing be replaced with roofing made up of some other
material that would not be harmful.
I submit that the Annual Report of NHRC 2003-2004 refers to a Report
entitled “Asbestos – Health and Environment – an in-depth Study
“submitted by the Institute of Public Health Engineers, India. The
study underlines that safe and controlled use of asbestos is not
possible.
It is relevant to point out that asbestos waste (dust and fibers) has
been treated hazardous in all forms and has been banned under
Hazardous Wastes Management Rules farmed under the Environment
Protection Act, 1986. In our country, approximately 50, 000 people die
every year due to asbestos related cancer. But so far Government of
India has failed to take a pro-people’s health position and a
scientific stand on the import of chrysotile asbestos whose mining is
technically banned in India.
It may be noted that Kerala State Human Rights Commission has
recommended ban on use of asbestos roofs for schools and hospitals. In
view of the above, NHRC has been approached to recommend to Government
of India to support listing of chrysotile asbestos in the UN list of
hazardous chemicals.
Over 450 participants, representing more than 110 governments,
intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations are expected to
attend the Conference. Under the theme “Rotterdam COP5: PICturing
Chemical Safety, PICturing Informed Decisions”, the
conference will consider measures to strengthen implementation of the
globe’s first line of defence for chemical safety.
The Rotterdam Convention entered into force in 2004. It built on the
voluntary Prior Informed Consent, or PIC, procedure, initiated by UNEP
and FAO in 1989, which gave way to the formalities of the Convention.
The Rotterdam Convention was adopted in 1998 and entered into force in
2004 and makes the PIC Procedure legally binding.
The conference will consider decisions on, adding chrysotile asbestos,
endosulfan, alachlor and aldicarb to the Convention’s Annex III,
triggering the exchange of information between Governments on
permissible importation and use of these hazardous chemicals and
pesticides. There are 40 other chemicals and severely hazardous
pesticide formulations already listed in Annex III.
Parties to the Rotterdam Convention will review progress on
cooperation with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and follow up on
the work of the Committee on Trade and Environment in Special Session
(CTESS) and the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) between the
Secretariat and the World Trade Organization.
The conference is the second of three conferences of the parties
scheduled in 2011 to consider synergies between the Basel, Rotterdam
and Stockholm conventions. Parties to the Stockholm Convention met
earlier this year and adopted a decision addressing joint activities,
joint managerial functions, joint services, synchronization of budget
cycles, joint audits and review arrangements
between the three global chemicals and waste agreements. An identical
decision will be considered by Rotterdam Convention’s parties at this
meeting, and by the Basel Conventions parties at the latter
instrument’s 10th Conference of the Parties, meeting in Cartegena,
Colombia, in October, 2011.
The UN's fifth meeting of Rotterdam Convention will conclude on 24th June, 2011.
For Details: Information and Public Relations Officer, National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC, India), Ph: 91-11-23382742,
Email: ion...@hub.nic.in
Gopal Krishna, ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA)/Ban Asbestos Network of
India (BANI), New Delhi Mb: 09818089660
E-mail: krish...@gmail.com, toxicswat...@gmail.com, Blog:
banasbestosindia.blogspot.com,
Web: www.toxicswatch.com
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
ipenn...@npogroups.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
ipennetwork...@npogroups.org
For all list information and functions, see:
http://npogroups.org/lists/info/ipennetwork
--
Yuyun Ismawati
IPEN Lead for mercury in ASGM
BALIFOKUS Foundation, Advisor
Indonesia Toxics-Free Network, Coordinator
Skype ID: yuyun.ismawati
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