Follow the link below to listen to this Stonebreakers BBC Radio 4 clip from 4 January."In the last five years alone, sales of Indian granite in Britain have risen from 1,600 tonnes to 14,000 tonnes – that’s an eight fold increase. Suppliers say it’s cheaper to produce stone overseas, and that it costs more to transport from London to Aberdeen than to bring it by boat from India. Strict environmental regulations and higher production costs have reduced the British stone industry to just a few quarries, so British stone is less available and much more expensive than foreign varieties. But if production costs overseas are so much lower, what are the implications for the people who produce the stone - the stonebreakers who work in Indian quarries? While many British companies try to ensure their stone is ethically sourced, traceability is often impossible. The main concerns are for the health and safety of Indian workers, as well as about child labour."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/costingtheearth_20070104.shtml
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