Associated Labor Unions-TUCP insists DENR must include Chrysotile Asbestos in Trade Watch List for the sake of Filipinos with mesothelioma cancer and for health of millions of exposed workers

15 June 2011, Quezon City— Philippine unions Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) called on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to vote for the inclusion of hazardous Chrysotile asbestos in trade watch list of the Rotterdam Convention for the sake of the victims of asbestos cancers and of the 1.3 million Filipino workers exposed to its dust.

“As a stakeholder representing workers in the Philippines, we respectfully submit and reiterate our position made on May 19 consultation for the DENR, as representative of the Filipino people to the Parties, to cast an affirmative vote in the inclusion and listing of Chrysotile asbestos in the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure,” said ALU National Vice President Gerard Seno in the unions position letter dated June 3.

The position was made in response of ALU-TUCP to the multi-sector and inter-agency stakeholder consultation meeting the department called in its formulation of Philippine government official position to the agenda of inclusion of hazardous chemical Chrysotile asbestos and three (3) other harmful chemicals into the Annex III List of the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure or PIC Procedure of the Fifth Convention of Parties (COP5) of the Rotterdam Convention on June 20-24, 2011.

In yesterday’s (June 14) consultation, the last and second day of the meeting, the group recommended for the inclusion in the list amid Chrysotile industries fears the listing would result to eventual ban of Chrysotile asbestos.

Aside from DENR, ALU-TUCP, Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP), and Association of Chrysotile Industries of the Philippines (ACIP), ten other attendees in the consultation were the Pesticides Authority of the Philippines, asbestos disposal service provider Globecare, Bureau of Working Conditions (BWC), Employment Compensation Commission (ECC), Department of Health (DOH), National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), non-government environmental coalition Eco-Waste, Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and the Ecology Committee of the House of Representatives.

Seno emphasized the affirmative vote will send a strong message that (Philippine) government is responding to both the domestic incidence of 12 cases of Filipinos, who, since year 2000, succumbed to an incurable mesothelioma cancer and other cancers caused by exposure to Chrysotile and other types of asbestos while working in the Philippines.

Government estimates there are 1.3 million workers in construction and general industry who are facing significant asbestos exposure every day due to the pervasive phenomenon of Chrysotile asbestos embedded in asbestos-containing materials and products which are found in daily working and living environments such as homes, schools, offices, buildings, churches, restaurants, and malls, he said.

The Convention fosters information exchange mechanisms to help improve decision-making, not banning asbestos, about the trade of hazardous chemicals and pesticides. It enables member governments to alert each other to potential dangers by exchanging information on chemicals and to take informed decisions with regard to whether they want to import such chemicals in the future.

The Convention’s Chemical Review Committee (CRC), composed of 31 scientists from around the world, had repeatedly recommended that the Chrysotile asbestos should be listed in PIC Procedure for it causes cancers specifically mesothelioma, a rare but deadly form of cancer almost always caused by exposure to such asbestos.

Aside from Chrysotile asbestos, the ALU-TUCP letter also called on DENR to vote in the affirmative to the listing in the PIC Procedure of three other hazardous chemicals and pesticides recommended by the CRC, namely, the Endosulfan, Alachlor, and Aldicar.

In the last COP in 2008, Philippines was among the ten who voted to oppose 120 member-states who move to include of Chrysotile asbestos in the watch list. In sum, there was, therefore, no consensus on the inclusion of Chrysotile asbestos. ###

For more information and interviews, contact:

Alan A. Tanjusay, ALU Policy Advocacy Officer

Mobile Phone: (63)0920.669.9187 / Email: associatedlaborunions@gmail.com / Landline: (632)922.5575 local 122 / Office Address: Associated Labor Unions is located at Elliptical Road corner  Maharlika St., UP Village, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines