Risks 14th July 2007 reported that the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) has called for an end to Canada's export of asbestos and believes the federal government should stop blocking international efforts to curb the trade in the dangerous mineral.
Although asbestos is internationally recognised as one of the worst cancer-causing materials ever to have been in widespread use, the society's decision is controversial because it undermines the national government's long-standing contention that chrysotile (white) asbestos can be used safely and should be promoted.
An estimated 95 per cent of Canada's production, from several mines in Quebec, is exported, virtually all of it to developing countries, where it is used to make cheap building materials despite safer substitutes being available.
Despite the well-known health risks, the federal government has been a strong backer of asbestos. It spent about Can$19.2 million (approximately £9m) from 1984 to 2007, including regular funding of the Montreal-based Chrysotile Institute, to promote asbestos use. CCS is also urging Canada's federal government to end its bid to block efforts to add chrysotile asbestos to the Prior Informed Consent list of particularly hazardous substances at the Rotterdam Convention's meeting in 2008.
www.tuc.org.uk/risks
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