The Kymore asbestos plant has not tested nearby residential areas for asbestos contamination, while Everest Industries says its records show no asbestos-related disease among current or former employees over the past 20 years.
Anant Talaulicar, non-executive chairman of Everest Industries Ltd, which has operated the 92-year-old plant in Katni district since 2003, disclosed the position in response to questions about employee health, environmental testing and legacy asbestos waste.
Talaulicar said testing conducted inside the plant is carried out in accordance with legal requirements and that the records are submitted to the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board for compliance under the plant’s Consent to Operate. He said the testing is conducted by competent third parties, identified as Anacon or Resustainability.
Asked whether nearby residential areas, including Bhatia Mohalla, had been tested, Talaulicar said: “When it comes to testing of nearby areas, we have not done so as we are not required to do so.” He also said the company was not aware that around 150 Bhatia Mohalla residents had received asbestos-related claims or that the residents’ possible exposure had been examined.
On employee health, Talaulicar said: “There have been no asbestos-related cases in the last 20 years as per our records maintained at our Kymore Plant Occupational Health Centre.” The statement refers to records maintained by the plant and does not address whether residents outside the facility have been medically or environmentally assessed.
Questions also remain over asbestos waste left by earlier operators, including Turner & Newall, and how responsibility for that waste has moved across successive corporate owners. Talaulicar said Everest Industries did not have access to all legal documents specifying the responsibilities of the multiple buyers involved as the plant had changed hands over the decades.
He said legacy waste had been “safely sequestered” at the nearby Kalahara waste yard, which Everest Industries does not own, and that it was being managed in accordance with legal requirements. The company’s statement did not provide details in the supplied report about the quantity of waste, the site’s monitoring arrangements or the environmental tests conducted there.
The Kymore issue is linked to the wider asbestos legacy of Turner & Newall, a company acquired by Federal-Mogul. The T&N UK Asbestos Trust, established in 2006 after Federal-Mogul’s exit, said it has worked with Indian claimants since 2009. According to the Trust, it has settled 3,849 claims from Indian citizens, involving a total of £11.05 million.
The disclosure leaves two distinct records in view: Everest Industries’ account of occupational health monitoring within the plant, and the absence of testing in nearby residential areas identified in the company’s response. The next steps would depend on the relevant authorities’ requirements for environmental assessment, public-health examination and documentation of responsibility for legacy waste at Kalahara.
