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The federal government has helped to scuttle an effort by a UN-organized body to place chrysotile asbestos on the list of the world's most hazardous substances.

The decision is a blow to international public-health efforts to limit exports of asbestos to developing countries, but it is a victory for the Canadian government, which opposed additional controls on the controversial cancer-causing substance.

Canada is the world's No. 2 exporter of asbestos after Russia.

The UN body, known as the Rotterdam Convention, compiles a global watch list of substances that are so dangerous to the environment or human health that countries have to agree in advance to accept any shipments.

The convention operates by consensus, so Canada was able to block the move to list chrysotile, the most widely sold type of asbestos, by issuing a statement that it objected to the move.
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"I think it's morally reprehensible. I think it's a complete contradiction of what Canada purports to stand for," says Larry Stoffman, Vancouver-based chairman of the National Environmental and Occupational Exposures Committee.
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The World Health Organization says that chrysotile is a cancer-causing substance, and estimates that at least 90,000 people die each year of asbestos-related diseases, such as mesothelioma and lung cancer. Source

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Once again, Canada's 'new government' is leading, and not in a good way:

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Canada, whose French-speaking Quebec province is a major asbestos producer and exporter, led opposition to the addition of chrysotile asbestos to the list, according to environmentalists tracking the talks.

"What the Canadians are trying to do – what they're all trying to do – is delay this as long as they can so they can make as much money as they can."

[Laurie Kazan-Allen of the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat] said that for every worker in the Canadian asbestos industry, two people die every year.

"For public health worldwide this is truly tragic. It's also very sad that a multilateral environmental agreement which had so much promise has been brought to its knees by people who are more interested in the pennies in their pockets than the number of people dying."

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So, according to Harper, threats to Canadians' health must be addressed by a 'Clean Air Act' (his replacement for another multilateral environmental agreement).

It's 'tough luck,' though, for people in developing countries whose health is threatened by the asbestos trade from which we profit.

Canadian 'leadership' at its finest.

International Ban Asbestos Secretariat.

[ 14 October 2006: Message edited by: sgm ]

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The Canadian Government is in an invidious position; it advocates the use of chrysotile abroad but does not promote its use at home. Canada exports more than 95% of all the asbestos it produces; the cynical observer might be inclined to ask: “If Canadian chrysotile is safe enough for foreigners to use, why isn’t it safe enough for Canadians?” The Ottawa Government’s behaviour is immoral and is social dumping of the most cynical kind. The paper by Dr. Jim Brophy The Public Health Disaster Canada Chooses to Ignore examines the devastating impact Canadian asbestos production has had at home and the unscrupulous methods used by stakeholders to promote Canadian asbestos sales:

“The Canadian federal government has blocked efforts through the United Nations to have chrysotile asbestos included in the Rotterdam Convention… (Canadian) embassies throughout the world are busy promoting asbestos in individual countries. The Canadian Embassy persuaded South Korea in 1977, for example, to withdraw labelling legislation that would have warned about the possible dangers of chrysotile. In the late 1980s, the Canadian government intervened along with the asbestos industry to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from enacting a phase-out of asbestos use.”

At the conference held in Bangkok this Summer (2006), Canadian MP Pat Martin criticized his country’s asbestos policy: “Canada is acting like an ‘international pariah’ by exporting asbestos to Third World countries despite the well-known health hazards.” In the paper Asbestos is Not Banned in North America, Dr. Barry Castleman elaborates on this point:

“Canada, like the U.S., uses very little asbestos in domestic manufacturing. Canada’s asbestos mines export virtually all of their output to poorer countries. Many of the perennial defenders of chrysotile asbestos on the global scene today are Canadian scientists, they carry on the tradition started in the 1960s by spokesmen for multinational asbestos corporations. But they would be less effective as globe-trotting asbestos industry propagandists, featured in news reports with titles like Asbestos cement products are absolutely safe, if Canada banned asbestos.”

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Chrysotile asbestos will remain off a watch list of dangerous UN chemicals for at least another two years, say observers attending the Rotterdam Convention talks in Rome.

On Tuesday, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Philippines made their opposition to chrysotile's inclusion on the list known at the talks.

"Canada got others to do their dirty work for them," said New Democratic MP Pat Martin, who was in Rome as an observer. "The first speakers were our biggest customers."

Martin said several other countries, like Zimbabwe, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, also were opposed, but the "overwhelming majority" of delegations were in favour.

"If it's 126 countries here, it's probably 115 or 120 who support inclusion and seven or eight who oppose"

"After the four initial speeches, they said, 'There is clearly no consensus, so it was taken off the agenda to be revisited next time,'" he said from Rome.

Martin said the Canadian delegation did not make a speech, but Monday vetoed a Swiss proposal to change the ratification process so that it would only require a three-quarter majority for listing a chemical. To be added to the list, consensus has to be achieved.

Substances on the Prior Informed Consent list are deemed dangerous, and importing countries have to be informed about their hazards.

An independent committee of scientists from around the world had recommended that chrysotile asbestos, endosulfan and tributyltin be added to the list this year. - Canwest

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There has to be consensus before an item can be added to the banned list. That gives Canada (or any other country) a veto.

You know, either this stuff is dangerous or it's not. Pat Martin was on CBC radio being interviewed about it this afternoon. The list doesn't even ban this substance, just labels it as dangerous. There's little scientific debate that it is, even if it is less dangerous than other forms of asbestos.