Personal Injury Law

Lancet, Asian delegation urge Canada to ban asbestos exports

By asbestoshub

Quoted from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/lancet-asian-delegation-urge-canada-to-ban-asbestos-exports/article1830597/

Lancet, Asian delegation urge Canada to ban asbestos exports

RHÉAL SÉGUIN AND AND CARLY WEEKS

QUEBEC AND TORONTO? From Thursday’s Globe and Mail

Published Wednesday, Dec. 08, 2010 6:30PM EST

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 09, 2010 7:46AM EST

Quebec is finding itself at the centre of a world debate this week over the production and export of asbestos, with a prestigious medical journal taking on the government and a delegation from Asia arriving to urge support for a ban on the product.

The Quebec government is poised to offer a $58-million guaranteed loan to an international consortium that plans to reopen the Jeffrey Mine, located in Asbestos, Que., that would produce 225,000 tonnes of asbestos a year for export to Asia.

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Canadian asbestos exports, 2008

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Read The Lancet’s article: Canada accused of hypocrisy over asbestos exports

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'There are few safety standards in these countries to handle what the entire medical community considers to be a dangerous carcinogen,' said Oman George, an occupational health worker from India who is part of the delegation.

'Canada finds asbestos too dangerous to use but it [wants] to export it to developing countries. That's like telling everyone that Canadian lives are more important than those in India, Indonesia, and everywhere else where the asbestos mined in Quebec will be exported.'

[Article continues at original source]

Full post as published by Asbestos HUB on December 09, 2010 (boomark / email).