Brandon Sun (August 23, 2009)
Editorial
Asbestos exports shameful

In so many ways, Canada has been at the forefront in areas of social and economic reform both here and around the world.

But as the Canadian Medical Association pointed out this week, our country’s continued production and export of asbestos to developing countries is nothing short of reprehensible.

At the CMA annual conference in Saskatchewan, 95 per cent of the doctors in attendance voted in favour of a motion calling for the Canadian government to change its stance on chrysotile asbestos.

The resolution states the federal government should reverse its opposition to an international designation of chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous chemical, eliminate the use and export of asbestos within and from Canada, and support the proper management of asbestos, including remediation.

It’s the first time the association has passed such a resolution, and it has inspired hope in Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin, who has long fought for an end to Canada’s asbestos industry.

“This may be the tipping point that brings some sanity to Canada’s shameful asbestos policies,” Martin said Thursday.

The only asbestos mines still operating in Canada are in the province of Quebec, owned by the Quebec government. Thanks to Quebec, Canada is one of the world’s largest producers of asbestos and 90 per cent of it is exported, mostly to developing nations in Asia and Africa where it is used in cement products.

While Canada argues that chrysotile asbestos is safer than other types of the substance - and only harmful when the fibres become airborne - most of the developed world has banned asbestos completely, and the World Health Organization has even labelled it a carcinogen.

Prior to the 1970s, asbestos was a popular material used in construction and many other industries because of its fire-retardant nature. But the substance poses significant health risks when its fibres are inhaled, and can lead to cancer.

Because of the health hazards, asbestos is used in very few products in Canada and its use is severely restricted. Even now, Ottawa is spending millions to remove it from the Parliament Buildings.

And yet Canada has repeatedly ignored calls to end the export and production of asbestos, even going so far as to challenge, unsuccessfully, France’s ban on the substance before the World Trade Organization in 1999.

Anti-asbestos lobbyists fear the lack of health and safety regulations for workers in much of the developed world leave them greatly exposed when working with asbestos products.

Writers of an editorial in the October 21, 2008, edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal lambasted the Canadian government for pouring more than $19 million into the Chrysotile Institute, an advocacy group formerly called the Asbestos Institute, while offering not a cent to help developing countries deal with the decades-long aftermath of asbestos exposure.

“For Canada to export asbestos to poor countries that lack the capacity to use it safely is inexplicable,” the journal wrote.

It would appear national politicians are more concerned with getting Quebec votes to form majority governments than doing what is right, and that makes Canadians look like a bunch of hypocrites.