Canada labour body puts asbestos ban decision on hold

CANADA â€" The Canadian Labour Congress has refused for decades to criticize the asbestos industry, internationally criticized as a deadly threat to its works and the public at large. Now, a movement that started last fall to call for a national ban on asbestos has been stalled. Ken Georgetti, CLC president, said last fall that he was embarrassed by Canada’s leading role in international asbestos trade. He promised that at the next XLC meeting, the labour body leaders would call for a ban on the production of asbestos in Canada. Georgetti said that asbestos should have been banned years ago. “I’m ashamed that we export asbestos to Third World countries,” he told a gathering of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour in October. Last week, the executive committee meeting came and went, and the discussion never happened. Instead, there was only the promise to debate the asbestos issue again soon. Michael Arsenault, president of the Quebec Federation of Labour, convinced the body to wait on a call for an asbestos ban until after the Health Canada study on the risks of asbestos is completed and made public. Arsenault maintains that working in an asbestos mine is no more dangerous than working on a street corner in Toronto. He says that people have developed a “psychosis” over the mineral fibers that have been proven to cause mesothelioma and increase the risk of many other cancers and respiratory illnesses. Arsenault said Monday. “It’s a very dangerous animal, but now we know how to work with it in a safe way.” There are roughly 700 people working in Quebec’s asbestos industry. The International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization and the International Association for Cancer Research have all called asbestos a deadly threat. Canada is the only developed nation still producing the mineral. Quebec, which is the location of Canada’s only two asbestos mines, has one of the highest rates of mesothelioma in the world. Canada’s government has spent nearly $20 million in the past twenty years to promote asbestos exports, mostly to developing nations to use in construction material. According to official sources, the government believes that asbestos is safe if handled properly. Georgetti called for the government to take a lead role n closing the mines, including providing financial support for displaced miners. He stated that any call for a ban from the CLC wouldn’t have an immediate affect on asbestos production. The government should also provide support for the communities that depend on asbestos mining for stability. If the government were to do that, he said, the council’s decision would be very easy. Nearly 97% of the asbestos mined in Canada is exported to developing countries like India and Pakistan. Asbestos has been banned by most developed countries and a growing number of developing nations. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 100,000 people annually will die of asbestos-related diseases in the coming decades. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)