A special thanks to our donors for making this campaign possible:
- Saunders-Matthey Cancer Prevention Coalition
- Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
- Canadian Auto Workers
● Write the Federal Health Minister and Prime Minister
● Update: Canadian Doctors Say Ban Asbestos
● News Release: Heed Students and Ban Asbestos
● Get the Facts
● Canadian Organizations Call for Asbestos Ban
● Read the Party Positions
● See the Ads
● Canadian Asbestos News & Resources
● International News
Write the Federal Health Minister and Prime Minister
Update: Canadian Doctors Say Ban Asbestos Now
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Canadian Medical Association General Council votes 95% in favour of a ban on asbestos
RESOLUTION PASSED AT THE CMA ANNUAL MEETING
“The Canadian Medical Association calls upon the federal government to:
a) support the international designation of chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous chemical;
b) eliminate the use and exportation of asbestos; and
c) support the proper management of asbestos that has been used, including remediation.”
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Recent Media Coverage
Ottawa Citizen (October 17), A deadly industry that is about to die
Toronto Star (October 7), Quebec’s asbestos consensus crumbles
La Presse (15 septembre), Amiante: des pressions pour mettre fin à l’exportation
La Presse (14 septembre), L’opposition à l’amiante prend de l’ampleur
Ottawa Citizen (August 28), Tory MPs defy party, call for asbestos ban
Winnipeg Free Press (August 26, 2009), Doctors want it designated dangerous
Sarnia Observer (August 22, 2009), CMA seeks asbestos export ban
Brandon Sun (August 23, 2009), Editorial: Asbestos exports shameful
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Media Releases
For Immediate Release: September 14, 2009
Don’t back down, two Conservative backbenchers urged by environmental groups
For Immediate Release: August 26, 2009
Dissension in Conservative Party over Asbestos
News Release: Heed Students and Ban Asbestos
Version Française
English Version
MEDIA RELEASE
June 1, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
HEED STUDENTS AND BAN CANADIAN ASBESTOS, SAY HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS
(OTTAWA) Twenty of Canada’s foremost health, environment and labour organizations are urging Canadian Parliamentarians to heed the call to ban Canadian asbestos being brought to Ottawa by three Grade 10 students from northern British Columbia. The students - Hayley McDermid, Claire Hinchliffe and Chloe Staiger, have written a bill to end Canada’s mining and export of asbestos to developing countries. Their Member of Parliament, Nathan Cullen, is presenting their bill in the House of Commons today.
“We support these students one hundred per cent,” said Diana Daghofer, Co-Chair of Prevent Cancer Now. “We hope that Canada’s political leaders are listening to them and to the massive Canadian and international backing for a ban on the production, use and export of this deadly substance.”
“Canadians should be very proud of the initiative taken by these students.” states Kathleen Cooper of the Canadian Environmental Law Association. “We must also direct resources and assistance to affected communities in Canada, and stop continuing to support a toxic and dying industry.”
“It is time to end the double standard whereby we export a product that we refuse to use in Canada because of the threat we know it poses to public health,” said Kathleen Ruff of the Rideau Institute on International Affairs.
“Asbestos-related disease is the biggest occupational killer in Canada,” said occupational health expert Dr. James Brophy. “We need to stop mining and exporting it; we need a national registry and we need to help those who are living the tragedy of asbestos-related disease.”
Supported by: Ban Asbestos Canada, Breast Cancer Action Montreal, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Canadian Association of University Teachers, Canadian Auto Workers, Canadian Environmental Law Association, Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, Canadian Teachers’ Federation, Clean Production Action, David Suzuki Foundation, Ecojustice, MiningWatch Canada, Ontario College of Family Physicians, Ontario Teachers’ Federation, Prevent Cancer Now, Rideau Institute on International Affairs, Saunders-Matthey Cancer Prevention Coalition, Sierra Club of Canada, Toxic-Free Canada; and Women’s Healthy Environments Network.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Kathleen Ruff, Rideau Institute on International Affairs and Ban Asbestos Canada
Phone: 250-847-1848, Email: kruff@bulkley.net
Diana Daghofer, Prevent Cancer Now
Phone: 250-364-8894, Email: diana@wspring.ca
BACKGROUND NOTES
► The three Grade 10 students from Smithers, B.C. won a Create Your Canada contest, organized by MP Nathan Cullen and aimed at involving young people in Canada’s parliamentary process. Out of the 80 submissions, a panel of community leaders selected a winning entry from one junior and one senior school.
► The government continues to support Canada’s asbestos trade, claiming that, although our asbestos is known to cause cancer, rigorous safety standards exist in developing countries to which Canada exports over 95% of its asbestos, and therefore it poses no risk.
► A two-year study published by the Quebec government shows that in the tiny number of industrial plants in Quebec still using asbestos, there was a 100% failure rate to follow safety standards. “If in an advanced, regulated, industrialized society, like Quebec, we find a 100% failure to implement safety controls, it lacks credibility to say such controls are implemented in developing countries,” says Ramsey Hart of MiningWatch.
► In Canada, asbestos-related disease is the most significant contributor to occupational mortality. A 2004 report found rates of mesothelioma among men in Quebec to be 9.5 times greater than for the rest of Canada and the rate for women to be amongst the highest in the world.(1) It is estimated that 1,500 workers in BC alone will die from asbestos-caused disease over the next five years. Asbestos continues to pose a health hazard, particularly in schools, as well as in many deteriorating homes on First Nations reserves.
► The World Bank has just issued guidelines calling for no use of asbestos in any of the projects it funds around the world. The Canada Green Buildings Council, in its LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) standards, forbids use of asbestos in all new construction. The Canadian government has committed itself to following these standards and is also spending millions of dollars to remove asbestos from the House of Commons.
► The last functioning asbestos mine, LAB Chrysotile Inc. recently filed for bankruptcy protection. A just released study, carried out by Laval University students, shows impressive success by this asbestos-mining region of Quebec in diversifying its economy away from asbestos. The newly-named region - Appalaches – now employs about 400 workers, or 7 per cent of its workers in asbestos mining, rather than the one-third employed in the industry in 1970.
(1) INSPQ, The Epidemiology of Asbestos-Related Diseases in Quebec, 2004;
Get the Facts
Canadian Organizations Call for Asbestos Ban
Read the party positions
► NDP: The New Democratic Party supports the banning of asbestos (see their position here).
► Green Party: The Green Party of Canada was the first federal party to support a ban (see their position here).
► Conservatives: The Conservative Party and the Bloc Québecois agree that the asbestos Canada exports causes cancer. They claim, however, that such strict controls exist in the developing world that no-one is exposed to harmful asbestos fibres. This justification has been repeatedly exposed as totally lacking credibility.
► Liberals: The Liberal Party has not, as yet, adopted a policy to ban asbestos. However, on August 31, 2009, Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff emphasized the need for regional economic development to replace “dangerous” asbestos. Liberal MPs, including Health Critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett, Quebec MP Raymonde Folco, Joyce Murray, Dr. Hedy Fry, Bob Rae, Navdeep Singh Bains, Sukh Dhaliwal, Ujjal Dosanjh and Dr. Keith Martin have also spoken out in support of a ban.
See the Ads
- Newspaper Ad
- Bus Shelter Ads (See Ads here)
Canadian Asbestos News & Resources
- Dangers in the dust: Inside the global asbestos trade BBC News, July 21
- 35 doctors challenge Quebéc health minister over asbestos - Read the letter: English / French (June 9, 2010)
- Montreal Gazette: Asbestos industry in for boost (June 12, 2010)
- CBC TV’s The National Exposé: Canada’s Ugly Secret
- Editorial: Exporting Death Made in Quebec, Canadian Public Health Association, Volume 101, No. 2 (May 2010)
- Montreal Gazette: Asbestos lobby group to maintain federal funding (March 23, 2010)
- Scientists from 28 countries condemn Quebec’s asbestos export (January 2010)
- Ottawa Citizen: Health Canada sat on report tying asbestos to cancer (April 2009)
- Montreal Gazette:Whatever you call it, asbestos is deadly (September 2009)
- Canadian Medical Association Journal Editorial, Asbestos Mortality: a Canadian Export (November 2008)
- Ottawa Citizen Editorial: Immoral Exports (April 2009)
- CBC Radio’s The Current, The Politics of Asbestos (April 2009)
- Chrysotile Asbestos Statement, Chrysotile Asbestos Expert Panel, Health Canada Français (April 2009)
- Asbestos: Supporting a Toxic Trade (April 2009)
- Canada should call for a complete ban on export of asbestos right now!, The Hill Times (April 2009)
- Canadian Cancer Society letter to the Prime Minister to stop supporting the Asbestos industry (April 2009)
- Letter to the Prime Minister on Asbestos from the Laval University Faculty of Medicine (January 2009)
- Email from Asbestos expert in response to letter by Serge Boislard of Mouvement Pro-Chrysotile (August 2009)
- International Agency for Research on Cancer reconfirms Asbestos dangers (January 2009)
- MP says Canada duping the world on asbestos, Winnipeg Free Press (April 2009)
- Conservative MP reiterates support for Asbestos Industry, Le Soleil (March 2009)
- Institut national de santé publique du Québec, The Epidemiology of Asbestos-related Diseases in Quebec
International News
- Indian workers rebuke Québec over Asbestos PHOTOS
- Official in India blasts Quebec premier’s view on asbestos as borderline racist
- Scientists from 28 countries condemn Quebec’s asbestos export MORE
- Reuters: International Agency for Research on Cancer reconfirms Asbestos dangers
- Exporting Harm: How Canada Markets Asbestos to the Developing world
- Read the Report: India’s Asbestos Timebomb VIDEO
- Banned at home, Canada continues exporting deadly asbestos worldwide
- The Lancet: Health experts concerned over India’s asbestos industry
- Canada’s Ugly Secret, CBC Documentary 2010
- Controversy brews over asbestos deaths in Mexico
