Category Archives: International News
Canada Blocks UN Asbestos Resolution
Members of the Canadian delegation blocked a UN resolution that would list chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous material. The resolution, called the Rotterdam Convention, lists several grades of hazardous materials. The convention rules stated that materials labeled as “Annex III” would compel exporters of toxic chemicals to warn importers of the hazards involved with the [...]
Asbestos Closes York Primary School
The discovery of asbestos has led to the temporary closure York’s Wigginton School. Engineers were inspecting the school during the Christmas holiday and found asbestos insulation board which they felt needed to be replaced. The school was closed as a precaution while workers wait to began the process of asbestos removal. Parents received phone calls [...]
Asbestos Found at New Zealand Day Care Center Fire
A fire at a day care center in New Lynn, New Zealand, uncovered asbestos in ceiling tiles and roofing materials. Witnesses reported seeing flames climb nearly twenty feet into the night sky at the Planet Kids day care facility. Local residents also expressed worries about the asbestos-laced smoke from the fire that floated over the [...]
Asbestos Issues Plague Western Australia
A staffer at an Alcoa plant in Western Australia said that management at the factory should have recognized that valves at the facility were laced with asbestos but overlooked the problem. The factory is located in Pinjarra, about fifty miles south of Perth, the state capital. The worker, who wished to stay nameless, released an [...]
Canadian Liberal Leader, Asbestos Industry Exchange Harsh Words
A proponent of the asbestos industry in Quebec has criticized Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff for not appearing at two towns that depend on the local asbestos mines to sustain their economy. Mr. Ignatieff has long been a critic of the industry and has decried the continued mining and used of asbestos as a health [...]
Asbestos, Quebec Cancels Cancer Walk
For several years, the town of Asbestos, Quebec, like many other towns across Canada and the US, had held a “Relay for Life” event to raise money for cancer research. This year, city officials cancelled the walk due to the opposition of several cancer charities to a loan package for the town’s asbestos mines. The [...]
International Group Asks for Asbestos Ban – Could Reduce Mesothelioma Incidence
An international consortium of researchers, led by Joseph LaDou, M.D., is asking yet again that nations of the world, and most specifically Canada, ban the mining and manufacture of asbestos into products that, when sold, endanger the health of everyone who comes in contact with them. LaDou, a member of the Collegium Ramazzini, joined Fellows [...]
Quebec Approves Loan for Asbestos Mine
In spite of a global publicity drive against the move, provincial officials in Quebec seem ready to okay a multi-million-dollar loan guarantee that would reenergize the province’s asbestos mining industry. The loan package, totaled at over US$50 million, would finance a project to add more mining tunnels at the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Quebec. The [...]
New Mesothelioma Research Center to Open in Sydney
Sydney, Australia – Perhaps a silver lining is to be found in the 12 year struggle between James Hardie and former employees suffering from asbestos related ailments. When a landmark deal was approved earlier this year to create a trust to compensate victims a small clause was included that some of the money would go [...]
Rwanda's New Problem: Asbestos
The Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure has issued a statement warning construction and demolition firms about the inherent dangers of improperly handling asbestos-laced building materials. The African nation, torn by a decade-long civil war, is trying to rebuild most of the infrastructure destroyed or damaged during the brutal conflict. Infrastructure Minister Vincent Karega told reporters that [...]
