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India mulls ban

Sparks flew at a recent meeting of the ad-hoc panel set up to review asbestos norms. Experts in the committee were divided on the issue of banning asbestos in India. While the industry wanted the item out of the agenda, it was retained at the insistence of occupational health experts.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is believed to have convened the meeting on February 18-19 on specific instructions from the Union minister for consumer affairs, Sharad Yadav. However, BIS officials claimed that the meeting was called to merely "review safety standards relating to the handling and use of asbestos'. They added that they were not in a position to take a decision on the ban and that the meeting was "inconclusive'.

Ironically, the BIS is said to have come out with a set of recommendations from this very meeting. According to these recommendations, the Asbestos Information Centre

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