The Plague of Chrysotile Asbestos

"They've ignored the scientists.  They didn't just deny the science.  They acknowledged it but yet ignored it.  That is unforgivable, in my view.  They've put commercial and political interests, and in doing, compromised and undermined the whole purpose and intent of the convention."  NDP MP Pat Martin

He's a man who knows the reputation of the asbestos industry; one of his Parliamentary colleagues, Chuck Strahl, suffers from lung cancer, a legacy of having worked with asbestos in the logging industry years ago.  He understands the critically detrimental health effect of asbestos mining, asbestos manufacturing, asbestos use.  Yet the federal government has refused to sign on to the Rotterdam Convention to list chrysotile asbestos as a known carcinogen.  Even while it accepts the consensus of the scientific community that it poses a threat to human health.

And that, simply put, is intolerable.

As a hazardous material listed on Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention exporting countries are required to inform importers of any and all risks and precautionary measures to be undertaken to ensure safe handling of a product.  Having informed the importers, the importers must give their consent that they understand the extent of their own responsibility in ensuring the safe use and handling of the product.  Canada has objected steadfastly to including chrysotile asbestos.

"Since 2002, chrysotile has been proposed four times for addition to the PIC Procedure of the Rotterdam Convention.  This decision requires the consensus of the Parties.  At previous meetings and again last June, Canada acknowledged that all criteria for the addition of chrysotile asbestos to the Convention have been met but opposed its addition", stated a briefing note that was forwarded to to Peter Kent, Minister of the Environment.

The federal government continues to protect a now-defunct, but still-aspirational mining resource in Quebec.  Plans continue, to secure loan guarantees to re-open underground mines in Thetford Mines and Asbestos, Quebec.  This is an industry that employs relatively few people, and it is an industry that has a wicked reputation for impairing human health.  It does not represent a huge trade resource, and it defies logic that the federal government continues to support it as an industry, when most developed nations do not.

It is exported to poor, developing nations of the world who haven't the resources or the inclination to ensure that those who work with it, in India, for example, are cognizant of how best to handle it for safety purposes.  There, workmen are exposed to all the carcinogenic fall-out of the material, used for its flame-retardant properties in the building trades, but avoided like the plague in Canada itself.