Asbestos News

Two prominent organizations said they would call on the European Union to sanction Canada over its stance that asbestos is not harmful.

The European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW) and the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) want the North American country to be sanctioned for blocking an attempt by the United Nations to include chrysotile asbestos on the Rotterdam Convention's prior informed consent list. According to a release from the organizations, 142 out of 143 parties to the Convention supported the move, with only Canada dissenting.

"I have been studying the global asbestos industry for over 20 years," IBAS Coordinator Laurie Kazan-Allen said. "In that time, I have witnessed political dishonesty, industrial thuggery, corporate malfeasance, judicial manipulation, the misuse of science, the abuse of the legal process, physical and professional intimidation. What we saw last week in Geneva, transcended this – it was pure evil. Canada is now a rogue state and should be dealt with in the same way as other administrations which have breached the acceptable level of behaviour expected of civilized societies."

Asbestos exposure causes the deaths of 107,000 people each year around the world through diseases such as malignant mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer.