asbestos worker in china
A recent news report, Dangers In the Dust: Inside the Global Asbestos Trade, by the BBC and the International Coalition of Investigative Journalists reveals that the asbestos industry has spent over $100 million in recent years to lobby and promote the continued use of asbestos in developing nations around the world.
Part of the asbestos industry’s effort has included using industry-funded researchers to place into the scientific literature hundreds of articles claiming the chrysotile asbestos can be used safely. Their central position is that chrysotile, or white abestsos, is the only kind sold today and they claim it is orders of magnitude safer than brown or blue asbestos.
The industry’s position flies in the face of world scientific consensus from such groups as the World Health Organization, American Public Health Organization, the International Commission on Occupational Health, the EPA and 52 nations around the world that have banned the use of all forms of asbestos including chrysotile.
Perhaps nowhere is the industry as strong as in India, the world’s second-largest consumer of asbestos after China. There are more than 400 asbestos cement factories in India and the asbestos market is growing at a rate of about 30% annually. Tragically, if developing nations don’t begin to ban the use of asbestos, and nations such as Canada and Russia continue to export asbestos, the death toll of asbestos victims globally will continue throughout the 21st century. Already, at current consumption rates, China is expected to have 10,000 to 15,000 asbestos-related deaths per year by 2035. This after the United States and Europe continue to suffer thousands of asbestos related deaths a year from now decades old asbestos use.
Help stop history from repeating itself. Contribute the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat or help urge Canada to ban the export of asbestos to already troubled nations around the world.
