Asbestos Campaign

DYING INDUSTRY Asbestos kills at least 300 people every day. It’s time the industry was killed off, say unions and campaigners. A statement from a United Nations body confirming its desire to see the end of asbestos use worldwide is the ‘death knoll’ for a substance which claims one life every five minutes around the…

Manila, Philippines (8 September 2010) – The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) urged the Senate and the House of Representatives to pass the bills banning asbestos to minimize hazards to health and safety of workers, their families and the general public.

MANILA, Philippines – More and more women are dying of lung cancer. According to new statistics released by the Philippine Cancer Society (PCS), of 2,500 (per 100,000 research population) new cases of women with lung cancer monitored, 2,043 patients have died. The higher mortality rate is due to the fact that more females today smoke…

The campaign to ban asbestos use in Asia took a step forward at a Building and Wood Workers’ International regional conference in Jakarta on August 2 to 4, 2010. The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union represented the IMF at the meeting.

If you don’t know the meaning of the word “inchoate,” you join many readers of The New York Times (NYT) who have looked up the word and many others in the NYT’s website built-in American Heritage dictionary. According to a feature published in The Daily Tribune (source not mentioned) “inchoate,” “profligacy,” “sui generis” and “austerity”…

With big cement companies in the Philippines starting to use alternative fuels and raw materials, the Environment Department has drawn the guidelines on the use of waste materials as production ingredients.

Dear Fellow Communicators, As an observer of language, I came across a very instructive case study recently of how a revealing, off-the-cuff press statement of a presidential candidate, Sen. Benigno Aquino III, was fudged in translation and in paraphrase by certain media outlets that reported it. The concern of Jose Carillo’s English Forum being primarily…

MANILA, Philippines – The Trade Union Congress Party (TUCP), the largest workers’ party in the country, and its sister organization the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) Labor Center, led government, employer and union representatives and other sectors yesterday in calling for the promotion of safety among workers, including the banning of asbestos in…

Manila, Philippines – “The Ambassador has other commitments throughout that day and he will not be able to attend the event or meet with your representatives. He sends his regrets,” was the reply of the Embassy of Canada on the letter of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and…

Manila, Philippines – The multi-sectoral group tasked to discuss the adoption of a National Program for the Elimination of Asbestos Related Diseases (NPEAD) finally agreed in a meeting today, 16 April 2010, to develop the NPEAD based on the outline of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and World Health Organization (WHO).

[Following are some very funny spelling bloopers caught in US local newspapers, publications and various emails – as reported in Clean Laffs. See if you can catch the goofs.]

Manila, Philippines – The Associated Labor Unions (ALU), Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) and Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) brought their e-campaign to ban asbestos in the Philippines to social networking site Facebook.

These days, we tend to communicate via the keyboard as much as we do verbally. Often, we’re in a hurry, quickly dashing off e-mails with typos, grammatical shortcuts (I’m being kind here), and that breezy, e.e. cummings, no-caps look. It’s expected. It’s no big deal. But other times, we try to invest a little care,…

Manila, Philippines (27 January 2010) — With the end of the official session of the 14th Congress on February 5, 2010 fast approaching, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) launched an email campaign urging the Senate to pass Senate Bill 741…

Emails to the Office of Senator Mar Roxas endorsing the passage of Senate Bill 741 banning asbestos in the Philippines have been blocked! The emails sent starting January 13 have been reported bouncing back to their senders. When contacted, the Office of the Senator did not deny the blocking of the emails. Supporters of the…

A HOUSE panel yesterday approved a bill that seeks to ban the importation, manufacture, processing and use or distribution in commerce of asbestos and asbestos-containing products.

Insists chrysotile asbestos is safe Manila, Philippines – The IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) study in March 2009 reconfirming the carcinogenicity of all forms of asbestos – including chrysotile – and confirming that there is sufficient evidence that asbestos causes ovarian cancer provides the ‘new evidence’ and ‘scientific reality’ on the issue, replied…

Concerned government agencies must work together Manila, Philippines (27 Oct. 2009) — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) must inspect removal, handling and disposal of asbestos to ensure the health and safety of workers, their families and the public, said the Associated Labor Unions (ALU),…

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has published research which establishes a link between past asbestos exposure and later onset of ovarian cancer. As with other asbestos cancers there is typically a long latent period between the time of exposure and onset of the disease.

THE Lopez-controlled Energy Development Corp. will take over the 192.5-megawatt Palinpinon and 112.5-MW Tongonan geothermal power plants this month.

Here are the most common circumlocutions and their single-word equivalents:

There is an asbestos referral center at the Lung Center of the Philippines’ Outpatient Department under the supervision of Dr. Dina V. Diaz, head of Pulmonary Medicine. The center handles patients suspected of suffering from asbestos related diseases.

It’s like asbestosis, a dreadful disease that sticks needle-like asbestos into your lungs so you die of cancer early. Companies were taken to court and the claimants won despite that no one knew of or even suspected asbestosis existed in those earlier days (I know since I worked for an asbestos company for nine years).

Manila, Philippines — The chrysotile industry will be consulted next on the proposed national program for the elimination of asbestos related diseases (NPEAD). This was agreed on in a consultation spearheaded by the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) held on 28 September 2009.

The construction industry provides the widest asbestos threat. Asbestos products are used in houses, buildings and structures as roofing felts or related products, cement roofing and flat sheets and plywood substitutes. Asbestos poses danger as long as these materials are in place.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will consult other government agencies on developing a national program for the elimination of asbestos related diseases (NPEAD) starting 28 September 2009. The decision was announced in a DOLE and TUCP (Trade Union Congress of the Philippines) meeting on 16 September 2009.

The House Committee on Health approved to consolidate three bills banning the importation, manufacture, processing, use, or distribution in commerce of asbestos and asbestos-containing products in a hearing held on 9 September 2009. The House of Representatives is the Lower House of the Philippine Congress.

http://www.aa1car.com Though asbestos brake linings have been mostly phased out, contrary to popular misconception they have not disappeared altogether. According to one original equipment brake supplier, Ford was still using asbestos linings as recently as 1993 on the Crown Victoria to cure a brake noise problem. The same supplier also said asbestos linings are still…

Filipinos make mistakes mixing metaphors. So do Americans! Can you spot the errors? English professors love to catch the errors students make in their term papers, and they love nothing better than to catch mixed metaphors. The “friends and survivors” of Calvin College English department collected this list of mixed metaphors and posted them on…

These are some important facts about exposure to asbestos fibers that you should know.