Calcutta, Oct. 2 :    Calcutta, Oct. 2:  Taking a cue from countries that have banned asbestos, the union environment ministry has set up an expert panel to review asbestos-related health hazards and asked it to submit a report in six weeks. The committee was formed following pleas from environmentalists to immediately ban use of asbestos pipes in supply of drinking water. Experts have been saying down the years that asbestos is highly carcinogenic and the chief cause of lung cancer. The eight-member panel has been asked to 'comprehensively examine related aspects and submit the report with suggestions.' Members on the panel include environment ministry joint secretary V. Rajgopalan, Central Pollution Control Board member-secretary B. Sengupta and directors of institutes dealing with occupational health hazards. In a recent memorandum, the environment ministry said: 'Many advanced economies have either banned or are in the process of banning manufacturing and use of asbestos due to its known health impacts. In India, occupational health surveys have indicated significant adverse impacts on workers in asbestos industries.' Acknowledging that 'more and more countries are phasing out the manufacture and use of asbestos products and replacing it with alternatives,' the ministry said there was urgent need to evolve a comprehensive policy on the asbestos sector. Environmentalist M.C. Mehta, who has been crusading against asbestos, said: 'All asbestos products, including asbestos cement pipes, have direct links with cancer. All such products should be immediately banned to save the lives of millions exposed to this hazard everyday.' The veteran Supreme Court lawyer was in the city to inspect storage facilities for cement pipes used in supplying drinking water. He said the incidence of diarrhoea, gastro-enteritis and jaundice in the state is directly linked to 'sub-standard cement pipes.' But Brig. A.K. Sethi, executive director of Asbestos Information Centre, disagreed. 'The contention that asbestos cement pipes used to supply drinking water are a sources of poison is totally incorrect and bereft of any scientific findings,' he said. Sethi said the issue has been reviewed at length by the World Health Organisation, which said 'the general consensus is that imbibed asbestos via drinking water supplies poses no assessable risk to the health of the consumer'. He also pointed out that the contention that dust from asbestos cement pipes during manufacturing and storing can cause cancer is 'a figment of the imagination and prompted by vested interests who wish to misguide the public and malign the asbestos cement industry.' The expert committee, working in tandem with voluntary organisations seeking a ban on asbestos, has been asked to evaluate and review the 'impact on public health from use of asbestos-based products and review the health status of workers'.