Whatever you call it, asbestos is deadly

Quebec is the last place in Canada to mine asbestos, a known carcinogenic substance. The miners who used to work extracting the needle-like fibre might be coughing up blood and dying by the dozens, but Ottawa and Quebec City continue to promote the sale of asbestos.

Worldwide, an estimated 90,000 people die every year from asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis, according to the World Health Organization.

Back home, the picture is just as grim: Exposure to asbestos accounted for about 70 per cent of a rise in workplace-related deaths in Canada – responsible for more than 300 deaths a year – according to a 2006 report.

This year, British Columbia MP Nathan Cullen of the NDP introduced a private member’s bill to ban asbestos mining and sales.

There seems little point waiting for the Harper government to move against asbestos. It, along with the Quebec government, subsidizes this deadly industry to an extent most Canadians would find shocking. According to MiningWatch Canada, Quebec’s mining taxes on its two remaining mines, owned by LAB Chrysotile, are the lowest in Canada.

And although fewer than 7,000 people work in mining of all kinds in Quebec, total public expenditures on the industry were $107.7 million in 2002.

In 1984, by which time the dangers of asbestos were known, Ottawa, Quebec City, the asbestos industry and Quebec unions set up the Asbestos Institute (now called the Chrysotile Institute) to put out the message that chrysotile asbestos was a safe product. This institute is subsidized by both levels of government, which agreed this spring to pay $1.35 million into it over three years.

Asbestos is rarely used in Canada. Our target market is poor, developing countries abroad. We do this knowing the World Health Organization has condemned the use of chrysotile asbestos, the most commonly used type of asbestos, as has the U.S. surgeon general.

Most developed countries have banned its use, including the European Union in 2005. If asbestos is discovered, not only is it removed, but enormous efforts are deployed to make sure no fibres escape during the removal process. In Italy, the historic La Scala opera house was closed for a time this year after asbestos was found in a tiny section near a light in the ceiling. Milan health officials demanded the entire area of the theatre be mapped to ensure there was no asbestos anywhere else.

In Canada, where asbestos is not banned, taxpayers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to have asbestos removed from the Parliament buildings.

The only conclusion to draw from this is that our government thinks asbestos is sufficiently dangerous that it doesn’t want MPs exposed to it. It’s not worried, however, about the citizens of India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Brazil, countries where Canada exports more than $100-million worth of asbestos. This is shameful.

Some experts believe Canada is at risk of being sued for criminal negligence. We shouldn’t need that threat to make us stop. The moral case is more than enough. –The Gazette