India Update
Published by MAC on 2006-09-09
India Update
9th September 2006
Although most Northern countries long ago banned toxic levels of lead being added to paints (the US did so in 1978), a new study reveals that such products are being widely marketed in India, China and Malaysia.
Around half the samples tested by a four-nation scientific team contained lead levels thirty times the maximum permitted in the US. In around half the samples tested, lead concentrations were thirty times above the minimum safety level
""It's absolutely incomprehensible that paint manufacturers - particularly large companies with plentiful resources - would knowingly distribute a product that can be dangerous to people," comments Scott Clark, the team's leader.
Another foreign ship, laden with asbestos, has been allowed to dock for break-up in Gujarat, even though a high-level scientific committee has - finally - ruled that the world's deadliest industrial product has been taking a deadly toll on Indian ship-breakers.
The Andaman and Nicobar islands are slowly recovering from the devastating tsunmai which struck 18 months ago; now villagers are protesting the threats posed by stone quarries.