Victims, activists urge Canada to stop asbestos exports

MONTREAL—Jeong-Rim Lee went to high school near a cement factory that used asbestos in its mixtures, in the central South Korean city of Daejeon. Then, a few years later, she took an apartment just a few hundred metres from the same factory.

In 2005 she began having severe pain. A year later she was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare and deadly cancer usually linked to asbestos exposure.

On Tuesday in Montreal, Lee, now 44, broke down crying as she talked about her children, 9 and 13, and how they are without a mother each time she is hospitalized for long periods of chemotherapy.

“I want to ask why Canada, an advanced country, a civilized country, wants to continue to produce this toxic product?” Lee asked through an interpreter. “Why does Canada want to destroy the joy of families?”

Lee was part of a delegation of Asia-based asbestos victims, rights activists and trade union representatives who came to Montreal to urge Quebec’s government not to support the expansion of the notorious Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Que., and, by extension, the carcinogenic fibre’s export overseas.

In Canada, the use of asbestos in construction is decreasing and has disappeared as a form of insulation. Yet this country encourages its sale to developing countries overseas. Many critics call this hypocritical, if not unconscionable.

The underground Jeffrey Mine expansion is necessary to save several hundred jobs. The existing open-pit mine is nearly depleted.

The expansion requires an investment of capital from private sources, and a $58 million government loan guarantee.

An international consortium is ready to invest its money. A spokesperson for Premier Jean Charest said Tuesday a decision on the loan has not yet been made.

The mine expansion could keep Canada in the asbestos business for the next 20 years. Currently Canada exports about 150,000 tonnes of asbestos a year.

While the mine’s backers and owners say asbestos can be safe if handled properly, others, including various medical and public health groups, say no amount of exposure is acceptable.

The Canadian Cancer Society says the export contributes to a cancer epidemic that kills 90,000 people around the world each year.

Indian activist Omana George decried Quebec’s asbestos industry claim that its mineral is being sold only to companies that handle it securely.

“This is not the case,” argued George, coordinator at the Asia Monitor Resource Centre.

She said many people in India, where much of Quebec’s asbestos ends up, have no idea what it is, let alone how to use it safely. People “break it, cut it,” releasing the fibres, she said. Afterwards, there isn’t the medical expertise to properly diagnose asbestos-related disease, she added.

Like most industrialized countries, Japan and South Korea have both banned asbestos in recent years, but the delegation said deaths are still mounting from its legacy. South Korea used to get most of its asbestos from Quebec, according to the delegation.

Other Asian countries, however, are still importing asbestos from Quebec. In August, Machamad Darisman, an Indonesian community activist, photographed adults and children scouring a dump outside an asbestos-roofing company, using bags from LAB Chrysotile, an asbestos mine in Thetford Mines, Que.

Critics said it proved the mineral’s use can’t be controlled. LAB said the photos were staged.

On Tuesday, Darisman brought one of those bags back to Quebec. He hoped to personally return it to the mayor of Asbestos.

His overture has, so far, been rebuffed.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/903341–victims-activists-urge-canada-to-stop-asbestos-export