In Kymore, India, more than 5,000 people have been diagnosed with illnesses directly connected to asbestos exposure, while over 1.1 million tons of soil remain contaminated. Cleanup is estimated at about £100 million, but no full cleanup is planned.
Turner and Newall opened India’s first asbestos factory in Kymore in the 1930s. During a September 2025 visit, Professor of General Surgery Muralidhar Venkiteswaran said he identified 1,200 new cases of asbestos-related disease.
Turner and Newall went bankrupt in 2001 after lawsuits in the U.K. and U.S. A small compensation fund was created for Indian workers and their families, but none was allocated to remove the waste. Indian law says polluters should pay, yet Turner and Newall no longer exists. The current factory owners say they follow international standards inside the factory and do not dump asbestos in the town.
