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Asbestos

Canada’s stance on asbestos disgraceful – by Ruth Farquhar (Sudbury Star – July 4, 2011)

The Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Our government has once again given Canada a black eye internationally, refusing to put chrysotile asbestos on the hazardous list at the Rotterdam Convention two weeks ago.

At a time when work is being done to remove all traces of asbestos in the Parliament buildings and the official residence of our Prime Minister, we say it’s OK to export it without any kind of warning.

Actually, we stayed quiet at the convention and even when the United Nations confirmed our position, Environment Canada sent this email to the Toronto Star, “with regards to your question on Rotterdam, our previous response that our position at Rotterdam will be the same as our position in Canada, which is we promote the safe and controlled use of chrysalides still stands.”

I wonder if staff at environment Canada choked over that one. Given that Health Canada since 2006 has recommended that asbestos be put on the hazardous list, it’s unbelievable that we can’t put a warning label outlining the risks when we sell this deadly substance to countries such as India.

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Even the dying and the doctor support chrysotile mining in Asbestos – by Julian Sher and Bill Curry (Globe and Mail – July 2, 2011)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media.

Digging in: The politics of asbestos mining

ASBESTOS, QUE. AND OTTAWA – Donald Nicholls remembers when the white fibres from the open pit mine that still dominates this town blanketed its streets like snow.

“You could leave tracks from the dust that fell overnight,” said Mr. Nicholls who started working in the mine fresh out of high school back in 1950. “It was much, much worse back then.”

He’s slowly dying of asbestosis, a respiratory disease brought on by inhaling those white particles. But like almost everyone else in town, the 79-year-old supports the reopening of the mine, allowing Canada to ramp up its export of chrysotile asbestos – a variant of the very mineral that is killing him.

In the face of widespread international hostility, Canada too has become an unabashed proponent of exporting a product linked to lung disease and cancer. The Conservative government’s decision last week to block an international agreement to restrict the sale of chrysotile incited condemnation around the world and across the country.

The Canadian Cancer Society called it an “unethical decision” that left it “shocked and embarrassed.”

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Asbestos hypocrisy sticking to PM – by Tim Harper (Toronto Star – June 29, 2011)

The Toronto Star, which has the largest broadsheet circulation in Canada,  has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion.

It takes a special kind of resilience to get knocked down, get up, dust yourself off and declare that you are winning. But that was Kathleen Ruff’s position, communicated forcefully and frenetically, from the West Coast on Tuesday. Ruff continues her battle over Canadian asbestos exports, even as Prime Minister Stephen Harper again confounds the world.

Last week, in Geneva, Harper’s government refused to put chrysotile asbestos on a United Nations list of hazardous exports. It was the third time Canada has stepped in to prevent placing asbestos on a list of exports that would have to include warnings of health hazards to recipient countries.

Those countries could then refuse the asbestos imports if they believed they were unable to handle the product safely on their soil. The cost of protecting Quebec mining jobs has been high.

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With asbestos, we are the Ugly Canadians – by Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail – June 25, 2011)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media.

Billions of dollars will be spent over the next two decades to repair the Parliament Buildings. One reason for the repair: The buildings are full of asbestos, a cancer-causing substance that Canadians no longer use.

But we mine asbestos, we ship it, we make money from it, and we’ll use every diplomatic trick in the book to defend this odious practice. We are the Ugly Canadians.

The Harper government could care less. It vigorously defends mining asbestos because of one little corner of Quebec, near Thetford Mines, where the asbestos is mined and shipped to developing countries, mostly in Asia. Stephen Harper’s top Quebec minister, Christian Paradis, used to head the Thetford Mines chamber of commerce. Mr. Harper campaigned in the area and supported the mining. He spent part of Friday, St. Jean Baptiste Day, in Thetford Mines, thereby reinforcing his government’s political marriage to asbestos.

This week, the Ugly Canadians stood alone against the world in blocking the listing of chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous chemical under the Rotterdam Convention.

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Canada’s toxic asbestos trade – Toronto Star Editorial Comment – June 25, 2011

The Toronto Star, which has the largest broadsheet circulation in Canada,  has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion.

For years the federal government has been warned by doctors, environmentalists, unions, even Health Canada, about the deadly impact of asbestos. But Ottawa remains intransigent about curbing exports of this harmful mineral. Once again this week it opposed listing chrysotile asbestos on the United Nations’ list of dangerous materials. Once again it acted irresponsibly.

At a summit in Switzerland to discuss the Rotterdam Convention — a UN treaty on the international trading of hazardous substances — Canadian officials quietly blocked the inclusion of asbestos on the list of dangerous materials, joining such countries as Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The hypocrisy is staggering. The federal government has spent millions to clear its own buildings of this noxious material — including taking it out of 24 Sussex Drive to protect the Prime Minister and his family. Canadian companies, schools and homeowners have also removed asbestos from their structures. Yet we happily export it.

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When less asbestos is best – Globe and Mail Editorial (June 24, 2011)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media.

What does the federal government have against a five-page form? That’s what its opposition to “listing” chrysotile asbestos – a hazardous material – under the Rotterdam Convention amounts to. Canada was wrong to block an emerging consensus in favour of listing at a Convention meeting on Wednesday, especially given the small restrictions involved in the listing procedure.

Chrysotile, of which Canada is the world’s fifth-largest producer, is a material that can be used to make cement. Can be used – most developed economies have forsaken it for other materials, because chrysotile contains tiny fibres that, if exposed, can lead to respiratory ailments and even cancer. But it is a cheap enough alternative that growing Asian countries are a growing market for the product. An Asian medical journal recently reported that it expects a “surge of asbestos-related diseases in the immediate decades ahead” as a result.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis said in the Commons last week that “scientific publications show that chrysotile can be used safely under controlled conditions.” We’re not sure which publications he’s referring to, but presumably not the ones read by Health Canada’s director-general for the safe environments program, when he recommended listing of chrysotile under the Rotterdam Convention in 2006; nor statements by the World Health Organization or the Rotterdam Convention’s review committee.

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Asbestos’s last, lonely champion – by Susan Riley (Ottawa Citizen – June 24, 2011)

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/ Susan Riley writes on national politics. E-mail: sriley.work@gmail.com.

I still remember the shock and dismay I felt walking through the ByWard Market in 2005, when I noticed newspaper headlines announcing that Chuck Strahl had been diagnosed with a deadly form of asbestos-related cancer.

Not only was Strahl fit and strong (fortunately, he still is), he was a well-liked Reform, then Conservative, MP and, subsequently, a successful cabinet minister in a number of posts. He decided not to run in the last election – his son Mark took over his B.C. seat on May 2 – and has returned to Chilliwack, his cancer apparently in remission.

This memory makes Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s adamant support for Quebec’s asbestos industry in recent weeks seem even more confounding and cold. After all, within his own cabinet he had sobering evidence of the cost of unprotected exposure to asbestos.

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