Asbestos News

The Chrysotile Institute is in essence a lobbying group for Canada's asbestos industry and as there is not scientific evidence to back up their claims that white asbestos can be used safely, they have resorted to outright lies.

Laurie Kazan-Allen, the Coordinator of International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS), pointed out some of the most egregious examples of the Institute's dishonesty that were found in a recent newsletter.

"The current policy of the World Health Organization (WHO) does not support a chrysotile ban," claimed the news letter.

That the Institute would feel comfortable making such a claim is absurd. As Kazan-Allen points out, the WHO has emphatically stated that exposure to asbestos of all types causes illnesses such as malignant mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer.

Another argument Kazan-Allen refutes in her article is the Institute's claim that chrysotile is essential to the economic progress in developing countries. Once the cost of treating the diseases that asbestos exposure causes is factored in, asbestos is in fact costing these countries dearly.

And its not just the budgets of these countries and international bodies that are being harmed. The human cost of asbestos use is outrageous: The WHO estimates that 107,000 people are killed each year by asbestos exposure.