Asbestos Campaign

MANILA, Philippines – Saying teachers and students are prone to cancer and other diseases due to exposure to asbestos in classrooms and laboratories, the Associated Labor Union (ALU) yesterday called on the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education yesterday to ban the use of asbestos in colleges and universities nationwide.

ALU News Release Ban asbestos campaign gathers students’ signatures to hasten approval of Ban Asbestos Bills HB 896 & SB 89 23 August 2011, Quezon City— The Associated Labor Unions’ (ALU) advocacy on asbestos begins today to hold a series of lectures to senior public high school students in Quezon City about the risks of…

Listen up, Filipinos, because this concerns you. You have adopted bad English habits from us Americans for far too long. Yes, we Yanks are responsible. Our culture pushed our slangy ways upon you; we take full blame. Our version of the King’s English is sloppy, unkempt. It’s also very malleable and attracts more new words…

MANILA, Philippines — A labor group has lauded the leadership in the House of Representatives for including a measure proposing a ban on the use of cancerous asbestos in the construction industry as one of the priority bills for the second term of the 15th Congress.

With the health and safety of the country’s workforce as one of its paramount priorities, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday issued a call strongly supporting the bid against asbestos use as it pushes for its inclusion in the list of chemicals identified as hazardous to both health and environment.

Today, representatives from 143 countries meet in Geneva to debate whether chrysotile asbestos, the kind mined mainly in Canada, should be added to an international treaty regulating the trade in hazardous chemicals. Asbestos is a mineral considered an employment savior in Quebec, a carcinogenic killer elsewhere and a dominant industrial substance in certain developing countries.…

MANILA, June 16 (PIA)–The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday issued a call strongly supporting the bid against asbestos use as it pushes for its inclusion in the list of chemicals identified as hazardous to both health and environment.

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…

MANILA — The Department of Education (DepEd) was asked to implement measures that will protect teachers, students and volunteers from hazardous substances, such as asbestos during the weeklong Brigada Eskwela program.

MANILA, Philippines – On Anda Street in the old walled city of Intramuros in Manila, 10 teams of “graffiti crews” battled it out on Saturday in a street art contest to raise awareness about the dangers of asbestos to human health.

ALU/TUCP/BWI News Release Philippine unions calls government to revive dying policies on asbestos 28 April 2011, Quezon City –Trade unions called on Philippine government in today’s International Commemoration Day for the Dead and Injured Workers to revive its ineffective policies on asbestos by calling them to inspect public buildings and reduce hundreds of thousands of…

MANILA, Philippines – Thousands of Filipino workers and their families are at risk of inhaling asbestos, with as much as 6,000 metric tons of the substance imported to the country each year.

Concerned over the number of workers affected by asbestos-related diseases, a labor group has urged the government to check public buildings for asbestos, a toxic mineral commonly used in building construction projects.

Unions will commemorate and highlight the International Workers’ Memorial Day (IWMD) on April 28 with a call for the Philippine government to inspect public buildings and to reduce exposure of workers and their families to presence of asbestos and asbestos containing materials.

MANILA, Philippines — Environment and labor groups appealed to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to review and revise the “outdated” Chemical Control Order (CCO) to implement a total ban on asbestos use.

Manila, Philippines (16 March 2011) – The House of Representatives Committee on Ecology approved House Bill Nos. 479 and 896. The approval came after the bill authors agreed to an amendment addressing installed asbestos-containing materials in houses and buildings. A Technical Working Group (TWG) tasked to consolidate the bills would craft the amendment.

February 18, 2011: MANILA, Philippines—If you are planning to renovate your house built in the 1970s, you may not be aware of the danger posed by such a job in terms of financial and health costs to your family. Homes built around this time are most likely to contain asbestos in their construction. Asbestos is…

17 February 2011: Manila, Philippines – The Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) affiliates would engage their construction safety officer-members in the campaign to ban asbestos in the Philippines. In a meeting Friday, February 11, 2011, the National Union of Building and Construction Workers (NUBCW) and the Association of Construction and Informal Workers (ACIW) volunteered their…

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Campaigners are protesting against plans to re-open the world’s largest asbestos mine, the Jeffrey Mine in Quebec with the help of $58 million from the provincial government. The mine would export upwards of 6 million tonnes of chrysotile asbestos to less industrialised countries over the next 25 years.

Below is an excerpt from the above article by A.G ROMUALDEZ JR., M.D. An article in The Lancet, a leading international medical and public health journal, has accused the government of Canada of hypocrisy in its policies regarding the asbestos industry. Asbestos, established as a cause of mesothelioma (a deadly form of lung cancer), has…

Associated Labor Unions (ALU) Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) 9 December 2010, Manila, Philippines CANADA, STOP EXPORTING CHRYSOTILE ASBESTOS TO ASIA! The Quebec government in Canada is preparing to give a loan guarantee of $58 million to rescue the asbestos industry and allow the opening of the new…

Civil society around the world has been galvanized by the Québec Government’s plans to underwrite a new chrysotile mine in the Canadian town of Asbestos. Outrage has been expressed by asbestos victims’ groups, trade unionists, politicans, academics and concerned citizens. Opposition to the new mine has been aired in newspaper articles, the academic and trade…

Manila, Philippines – “Galvanized iron flies and can injure or kill in accident,” said the chrysotile industry. “That’s like winning in lotto although the probability of being hit by a lightning is higher,” retorted the unions.

PRESS RELEASE Associated Labor Unions (ALU) Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) ======== Manila, Philippines, 19 October 2010 – “Senator Manny Villar as Chair of the Senate Committee on Trade and Commerce will schedule public hearing on Senate Bill No. 89 (SBN-89) banning asbestos when the Senate resumes session…

The globalization of economic activity and the accelerating international division of work, has lead to the dumping of hazardous and less profitable industries from industrialized or emerging industrial countries onto unprotected and vulnerable regions in less developed countries. Typical of such industries is shipbuilding. Four years ago, a Japanese shipbuilding company, Tsuneishi Heavy Industries Inc.,…

Manila, Philippines — Newly installed Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Christopher Thornley never responded to the request of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) for an appointment to receive the trade union statement on asbestos and make a brief response to…

Manila, Philippines – Pushing for the passage of a law banning asbestos and the development of a national program for the elimination of asbestos related diseases (NPEAD) would intensify in the coming days as labor groups met in a forum Monday, 4 October 2010, held by the Associated Labor Unions (ALU), the Building and Woodworkers…

EACH year nearly 100,000 people worldwide die from work-related asbestos exposure, according to estimates by ILO. There is corroborative evidence that the extensive use of asbestos in the 1960s and 1970s, especially in the industrialised countries, lies behind many of the asbestos-related cancer cases and deaths today.

7 October 2010, Manila, Philippines — The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) will hand over statements urging the passage of bills banning asbestos to legislators in the Philippine Senate and the House of Representatives. The unions will also try to hand…