A paper in the November 2003 edition of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine (AJIM) concludes: "The Canadian asbestos mining industry has a long history of manipulating scientific data to generate results that support claims that their product is 'innocuous'".
International scientific organisations have been subject to repeated efforts by Canadian government officials and representatives of the asbestos industry to issue reports that would be favorable to the industry on questions of asbestos use and public health implications. In recent years these efforts have been met with international opposition from scientists, governments, unions, and environmental groups, and a pattern of improprieties, often involving the same individuals and tactics, has emerged.
The industry is not relying solely on propaganda, however. A report in British Medical Journal last year said occupational health doctors complain they are under pressure from the asbestos industry to label patients with asbestos disease as having tuberculosis or bronchitis.
A new EWG website makes public decades of secret documents proving that the corporations knew asbestos was deadly but continued to poison their workers and the public for the sake of profits. EWG Action Fund researchers found that fewer than two per cent of workers exposed to asbestos have asked for help paying medical bills. It says its research "shatters the bankruptcy myth," revealing companies tell the world they have been driven bankrupt by asbestos suits but tell their shareholders their bottom lines have not suffered.
In November 2003, the Canadian government derailed attempts to get white asbestos listed as a "prior informed consent" substance under the Rotterdam Treaty (1). Canada, with support from Russia, Zimbabwe and other pro-asbestos countries, marshalled sufficient votes to block until September 2004 consideration of a United Nations proposal which would seriously curtail imports of white (chrysotile) asbestos (Hazards 84).
The move was condemned by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). Clifton Curtis, director of WWF's Global Toxics Programme commented: "Chrysotile unequivocally met the Convention's requirements, and those governments opposing its listing blatantly disregarded the treaty obligations." However, Bernard Madé of government agency Environment Canada claimed Canada had not reached a decision on measures to effectively ban asbestos trade, but wanted further studies before reaching a decision.
In December 2003, however, the Canadian government gave a more tangible indication of its position. It announced it was to renew its funding for the industry lobby group the Asbestos Institute, with Can$775,000 (£340,000) three-year support. The terms of the funding agreement cover a continuation of the asbestos industry global marketing push, including "funding to cover the costs of activities in Canada and internationally" such as "communications material and information seminars."
Read the rest of the story here:
Selling Death and here:Lying about it
Note: Selling Death
Lying about it
Stumble It!
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Dear Milton:
Your piece on the Canadian leadership of the pro-asbestos global lobby was timely. It might be of interest to you that the current edition of the academic journal: The International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health is an Asbestos Special Issue which exposes the role of Canada in this toxic trade. The photograph on the cover of the journal is of Fred Beal, a Canadian citizen who died of asbestos cancer and the issue is dedicated to the memory of Fred and other Canadians who have died from asbestos disease.
All the papers in the journal can be read on-line, free of charge:
http://www.ijoeh.com
Laurie Kazan-Allen
Guest Editor: Asbestos Special Issue (IJOEH)
Coordinator: International Ban Asbestos Secretariat
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Jesse
In fact Martin Barratt, Second Secretary (Commercial), Canadian High Commission in India reported to his superiors in Canada that Asbestos Information Centre (AIC), a Canadian industry body in India accepts that “unorganised sector does use imported products that they acquire through agents.” “A ruling which states that subjecting a worker to asbestos is a violation of human rights could have far reaching consequences whether or not it is binding,” added Barratt.
Recently a news item in India "Claims on effects of asbestos refuted" based on Ramco Industries' Press Conference on 22nd July in Chennai, where S A Bhima Raja, president of Ramco Industries Limited, asbestos products manufacturer is reported to have agreed that asbestos was banned in Europe and the United States after studies showed that it causes mesothelioma, a rare form of carcinoma of the mesothelium lining lungs or abdomen or heart. He is reported to have said that the causative factor was the blue fibre of the asbestos which is misleading.
In India grant of fresh mining leases and renewal of existing mining leases for asbestos are presently banned in India on health grounds. Most of the asbestos used in the country is coming from Canada.
Ramco's contention that only Blue asbestos, which is banned in India, is the causative factor for asbestos related diseases is completely flawed as can be seen from WHO's Environment Health Criteria and also from WTO's judgment in the European Communities vs Canada case after France banned import of white asbestos from Canada. Both WHO and WTO have held white asbestos as cancer causing.
Echoing industry’s opinion Namo Narain Meena, Minister of state for Environment and Forests acknowledged the demand by some organisations for total ban on white asbestos in response to a question by Vanga Geetha, member of parliament on 19th July. On the issue of action proposed to ban use of white asbestos (popular name for chrysotile asbestos) to make environment free from pollution, Meena said, “as no scientific study establishing that the use of white asbestos causing lung cancer is available, it is not considered as desirable to ban the use of white asbestos.”
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH CRITERIA 203 of World Health Organization, says, “Exposure to chrysotile asbestos poses increased risks for asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma in a dose-dependent manner. No threshold has been identified for carcinogenic risks.”
Also the Union Ministry of Health has informed the parliament that studies by the National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad, have shown that exposure to any type of asbestos can lead to the development of asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, manufactures like Ramco Industries Limited are misinforming the media that asbestos does not cause lung cancer and other diseases.
As per the survey of U.P. Asbestos Limited, Mohanlalganj, Lucknow and Allied Nippn Pvt Ltd, Gaziabad, (U.P), the lung function impairment was found to be higher in subjects exposed for more than 11 years. This was the result of a Central Pollution Control Board sponsored project entitled " Human risk assessment studies in asbestos industries in India". This has been reported in the (2001-2002) Annual Report of Industrial Toxicological Research Centre, Lucknow.
Countries such as Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Australia, Japan, Uruguay, Honduras and South Africa have banned asbestos taking note of the cancer causing nature of asbestos.
Also thatched roof is being removed with asbestos in haste following the fire tragedy in a school in Kumbakonan, 350 km from Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. The replacement found for a thatched roof in the state is one with asbestos sheets, which is a cancer causing material, is going to have disastrous consequences for heath.
Today, after almost 100 years of knowing the cancer causing nature and the reported cases, the asbestos industry continues to perpetuate the myth that asbestos is safe, with ‘controlled use’ and ‘state-of-the-art technology’.
Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI) condemns the misinformation campaign of the these industries. BANI is campaigning to get import, manufacture and use of white asbestos banned in India.
It is high time Canada stopped exporting death in the form of asbestos to India. It is unbecoming of a nation of Canada's stature to allow and promote these deadly fibers as if barbarism has won over the civilised sense of Canada.