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Asbestos Interests: An Unholy Alliance
by author Trudy Peskett

Asbestos is so deadly that domestic use has all but disappeared and it has been completely banned in nine European countries. But tell this to developing regions, which are caught in a struggle between undeniable medical evidence and asbestos industry pushers largely from - you guessed it - Canada.

Asbestos is a fire-resistant, durable mineral that was used extensively in building materials until the 1970s. It was then discovered that inhaled asbestos fibres lodge in the throat and lungs, causing asbestosis, a serious lung disease that can lead to lung cancer or mesothelioma, a form of chest cancer.

Symptoms of exposure aren’t immediate, although long-term exposure may cause coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. In Your Home, Your Health, and Well Being (Ten Speed Press, 1987), David Rousseau notes, “Diseases caused by asbestos accumulation will not appear for 20 years or more.”

Not surprisingly, domestic asbestos use has been restricted since the 1980s. Health Canada’s Web site notes: “Consumer products that release asbestos fibres, as well as the sale of pure asbestos, have been banned under the Hazardous Products Act.

In addition, emissions of asbestos into the environment from mining and milling operations are limited under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.”

How is it that a country known for environmental regard supports the exportation of a toxic hazard to Asia, the Far East, and Latin America?

Between 1900 and 2000, Canada produced 61 million tons of chrysotile (white asbestos) and remains the world’s second largest producer. “The fact that Canada exports over 95 per cent of all the chrysotile it mines suggests that while chrysotile is supposedly safe enough for foreigners, it is not safe enough for Canadians,” writes Laurie Kazan-Allen in the September 2003 International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. Her report, “The Asbestos War,” details the too-cozy relationship between pro-asbestos groups and our government.

In 1984, asbestos mine owners and representatives from the Quebec and federal governments set up the Asbestos Institute (AI). Between 1984 and 2001, Kazan-Allen reveals, the institute received $54 million from three equal donors: the federal government, the Quebec government, and the asbestos industry. The links between this “independent” organization and vested interests remain well documented. On May 30, 2002, the Canadian government pledged another $500,000 to “promote the safe use of chrysotile at the national and international level.”

In 20 years, AI has pursued its mission by attending conferences, seminars - even encouraging foreign journalists to visit Canada, expenses paid. When France announced its decision to ban asbestos in July 1996, Canadian interests lodged a protest with the World Trade Organization that, ultimately, failed in 2001. With Western markets declining, the asbestos industry has focused on non-Westernized countries. For the most part, the Sierra Club of Canada notes, “[Canada] sends this Class 1 carcinogen to countries with few, if any, safeguards, where it is used by poorly trained and uninformed workers with little access to medical care or sickness benefits.”

Fortunately, where weak policy has failed, victim support groups have been instrumental in highlighting the problem. The real heroes, says Kazan-Allen, are campaigners out for justice. “They are not motivated by greed, their work is not backed by a war chest of $54-million Canadian dollars.”

For more on the asbestos hypo-crisy, read “The Asbestos War” at ijoeh.com.

Source: alive #256, February 2004