Canadian Politician Wants to Cut Government's Promotion of Asbestos

OTTAWA - Pat Martin, a newly elected democrat MP is asking the conservative government to end its financial support of the Montreal-based Asbestos Institute (AI). While the AI's stated purpose is to "foster the international implementation of the safe and responsible use of chrysotile asbestos", Martin claims there are no such uses for asbestos - a known cancer causing agent - and that the AI is nothing more than "a group of charlatans and frauds."

Speaking at a meeting of the House of Commons Natural Resources Committee (NRC), Martin, who once labored in an asbestos mine in the Yukon, said, "Asbestos is the greatest industrial killer ever known." Martin went on to add that, "More Canadians now die from asbestos than all other industrial diseases combined."

A naturally occurring silicate mineral, asbestos can be mined from the ground or extracted from a variety of rock formations, and it is characterized by a wide variety of desirable attributes. Asbestos is practically fireproof, has superior electrical and thermal insulating qualities, is nearly impervious to harsh chemical corrosives and more. Because of its many unique properties, asbestos has found its way into countless industrial processes and manufactured products that are all around us.

While asbestos was suspected of causing health problems as early as the late 1800s, it wasn't until the early 1970s that researchers confirmed that the mineral posed a serious threat to human health. Once inhaled into the lungs, microscopic asbestos fibers become permanently trapped there and can, up to 50 years later, cause serious respiratory diseases such as the incurable and deadly form of lung cancer known as malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Foes of asbestos have long demanded a worldwide ban on the toxic substance, and while many nations have enacted such restrictions, Canada continues to produce approximately 500,000 metric tons of asbestos annually, most of which it exports to undeveloped countries around the globe. This shipping of asbestos to some of the world's poorest nations - countries where worker and citizen safety is typically a low priority - is a national policy that has been labeled as "shameful" and currently earns Canada much scorn in the international toxic substance regulation community.

Nearly all of Canada's asbestos is mined in Quebec province where many citizens owe their livelihood to the industry. Quebec is politically important to the conservative party, which might explain the government's inclusion of $250,000 in its current budget to subsidize the operations of the AI. Martin wants this funding removed from the 2009 budget, and to support his arguments, the democrat points to, among other things, a Canwest News Service report that Health Canada, for over a year, suppressed the findings of an international panel of experts who concluded, "There is a strong relationship between lung cancer and chrysotile asbestos mined in Canada."

The conservative government disagrees, and Natural Resource Minister Lisa Raiit told the NRC that Canada's policies on asbestos are in accordance with the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, a body that only demands a ban on toxic chemicals or other substances if the risks are "unreasonable and unmanageable."

"Canada's policies are based on internationally-recognized, peer-reviewed scientific evidence," said Raiit.

"Nonsense!" Martin exclaimed, interrupting Raiit's speech. "It's an embarrassment and a disgrace. I have no qualms calling the Asbestos Institute a bunch of frauds and charlatans," Martin added.

No one at the AI was available for comment subsequent to Martin's charges, but, at the committee meeting, Raiit told Martin, "The terminology you used would be offensive to the people who actually work in the institute." Martin countered by calling the AI no more than a lobbying group relying on public funds to work against the best health interests of Canadians and others around the world - it's considered unlikely that Martin will garner the support needed to remove the AI's funding from the budget.

Source: Canada.com

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