Julio Godoy
PARIS, Jan 3 2006 (IPS) – The French decision to send the asbestos-contaminated aircraft carrier Clemenceau to India for disposal constitutes a violation of national and international rules, according to several environmental and health groups.
The Clemenceau sailed from the southern French port Toulon for the Indian naval yard Alang Jan. 1. The Clemenceau left after a tribunal in Paris turned down a legal challenge by environmental and health groups, including Greenpeace and French associations of victims of asbestos poisoning.
Greenpeace, Andeva, an association representing some 7,000 victims of asbestos poisoning or their relatives, and the environment group Ban Asbestos-France say the Clemenceau still contains at least 105 tonnes of asbestos, and that the shipyard at Alang, 1000km south-west of capital New Delhi is not equipped to deal with such a dangerous pollutant.
The groups filed a suit before an administrative court in Paris Dec. 26 demanding that the Clemenceau be decontaminated in France.
After their plea was turned down Dec. 30, the groups said in a joint statement that they will continue their legal battle before the Constitutional Court.
The asbestos in the Clemenceau constitutes dangerous waste and its export should be forbidden, they said in a statement. They said that if the Constitutional Court upholds their arguments, the Clemenceau can be turned back.
The French government is violating several agreements including the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, the European directive on hazardous wastes, the French code for protection of the environment, and a French decree on disposal of asbestos, says Andeva vice-president Michel Parigot.
The French government has played down the dangers. Most of the asbestos in the Clemenceau has been disposed of already, says spokesperson for the ministry of defence, Jean Francois Bureau.
We have already removed 115 tonnes of asbestos from the Clemenceau, he told IPS. It was the maximum we could do without damaging the ship s structure and its flotation capacity.
But Parigot told IPS that most of the dangerous material originally contained in the Clemenceau is still in the ship.
Parigot specifically referred to some 40,000 square metres of asbestos-contaminated floor tiles. The ministry of defence could not explain why this asbestos could not be disposed of in France, he said.
The Clemenceau still contains at least 105 tonnes of asbestos, Anne Thébaud-Mony, spokesperson for Ban Asbestos-France told IPS.
A private firm said in a statement that it had disposed of 70 tonnes of asbestos from the ship, but said it did know how much of the material the Clemenceau originally contained.
Parigot said the French government had failed to guarantee workers health in India. There is no plan of regular health checks for the Indian workers, nor an adequate plan for the disposal of the material. The workers have never been trained to deal with a material as dangerous as asbestos, he said.
Up to 40,000 workers are employed at Alang to dismantle ships by hand. Health and labour experts say the working conditions there are appalling and safety levels practically non-existent, the very reason that industrialised countries send contaminated ships there for dismantling.
Parigot said the Clemenceau s waste could have been taken care of in France. There were several offers by private companies here, but the French government never took them into consideration.
The 230-metre long Clemenceau, with a weight of 20,000 tonnes when fully loaded, could carry 45 aircraft. It was built at the French naval yards at Brest on the western Atlantic Coast between 1955 and 1957. The ship was decommissioned Oct 1, 1997.
The defence ministry sold the Clemenceau as scrap in 2003. But the buyer, a shipyard in Gijon in Spain, cancelled the sale after finding that the ship contained asbestos that had not been removed. The government tried to send it to Turkey for disposal but Greenpeace and other environmental groups stopped that move.
Under public pressure the government announced it would remove 90 percent of the asbestos, and sell it to a foreign shipyard. But the ship is being sent to India amid reports that it still contains large amounts of asbestos.
Asbestos, a mineral fibre which can be easily inhaled, is known to cause cancer and asbestosis, a fatal lung scarring. It was in common use in construction once for insulation and as a fire retardant. Asbestos has been banned in practically all industrialised countries for at least a decade.
Today, asbestos is most commonly found in older homes, in pipe and furnace insulation materials, asbestos shingles, millboard, textured paints and other coating materials, and floor tiles.
The French judiciary has been dealing with numerous complaints filed by victims of contamination by asbestos. According to an estimate by a French parliamentary inquiry of 2004, compensation for asbestos victims will amount to 25 billion dollars over the next 20 years.
