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According to APHEDA, an Australian aid agency, there are no asbestos regulations in Lao People's Democratic Republic, formerly known as Laos. Into this unregulated regime, APHEDA says, thousands of tonnes of asbestos and asbestos-containing products are being imported annually putting unknown numbers of workers and members of the public at risk. A coalition of groups has identified factories producing asbestos-cement roofing material where hazardous occupational conditions are of serious concern; "asbestos is stored in the open, with bags frequently torn open accidentally allowing asbestos fibre to escape into the air." See: Asbestos in Asia: Breaking Through the Silence in Lao PDR.

Each year up to three thousand tonnes of asbestos are being sent from European Union countries to South Asia contained within end-of-life vessels according to a report released by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. The European Commission has promised action on this illegal dumping of toxic waste in March 2012 when it plans to publish new proposals to control the export of EU ships for dismantling in non-EU countries. The "dangerous and polluting practice of breaking ships on tidal beaches" has been highlighted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Toxics as well as scores of NGOs. See: Media release: NGO releases list of "EU toxic ships" sent to South Asia in 2011.

After pressure from asbestos victims and health campaigners, Mrs. Roshi Chadha, a board member of the Canadian Red Cross has resigned her position. Her husband, with whom she works closely, is seeking to revive Quebec’s moribund Jeffrey asbestos mine. The Red Cross (RC) had said objections to Chadha’s links with the organization would be considered at a board meeting. However, the RC then issued a statement praising the contentious official. This generated a slew of criticism and bad publicity for the organization. An alteration made today on the RC website reveals that Chadha and another board member have resigned. See: Asbestos-linked board member resigns from Red Cross.

From 1982 to 1995, the French Government's asbestos policy was led by the le Comite Permanent Amiante (CPA: the Permanent Committee on Asbestos), an asbestos industry- backed public relations tool which masqueraded as an independent organization. Yesterday, it was announced that key CPA personnel, including CPA executive Jean-Pierre Hulot, civil servant Dominique Moyen, asbestos lobbyist Daniel Bouige and Arnaud Peirani, from the Ministry of Industry, are being investigated by Judge Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy on charges of homicide and involuntary wounding for their role in the campaign to forestall ban asbestos legislation. See: Asbestos lobbyists under investigation.

Last weekend's day of action (January 7) in Casale Monferrato was supported by 2,000+ people who braved the winter weather to take part. A report by journalist Silvano Mossano documented the silent torchlight procession through the town and the musical tributes paid to the victims as well as the all-night vigil on the steps of the Palazzo San Giorgio, the Mayor's office. Outside the church of San Paulo, actress Caterina Deregibus read a poem based on the grief of Assunta Prato and Giuliana Busto, women who lost a husband and a brother to asbestos-related disease. See: A New Year in Casale Monferrato.

LAB Chrysotile Inc., one of Quebec's last two asbestos mines, filed for bankruptcy on December 30. The company, which has assets of $3.36 million and liabilities of $50.1 million, has not produced asbestos since October 2011. Public statements made by CEO Simon Dupere regarding LAB's future seem lacklustre at best. His plan to "restart operations under a new structure at the former production rate of 125,000 tonnes a year," seems desperately unrealistic. The Jeffrey open-pit mine, the only other extant asbestos mine, is also non-operational; a decision regarding government support for the Jeffrey mine remains long overdue. See: LAB Chrysotile seeks bankruptcy protection.

Italy’s Minister of Health will meet the Mayor of Casale Monferrato, the victims’ association AFeVA and trade unions on Sunday, January 1 to discuss the town’s position regarding a deal with Stephan Schmidheiny. Due to political and public pressure, the Mayor has not signed an agreement due to expire on December 31. The €18.3 million offer by Schmidheiny to settle the municipality's claim mobilized worldwide opinion, which saw it as a blatant attempt to destabilize the coalition which has progressed the asbestos victims’ quest for justice, and fell far short of the cost of decontaminating the town. Experts believe the municipal clean-up could cost €160+ million. See: Update from Casale Monferrato.

Immense pressure is being exerted on the officials of the Italian town of Casale Monferrato after their December 16th vote to make a multimillion euro deal with asbestos defendant Stephan Schmidheiny. Demonstrations, media coverage and a high-profile television program have focused public attention on the proposed sell-out of the asbestos victims. It is understood that Italy's Minister of Health phoned the Mayor to ask him to reconsider. Mayor Giorgio Demezzi has agreed, for the time being, to delay signing the deal. It is expected, however, that he will sign the agreement before the December 31 deadline. See also: Update from Casale.

Activities of GARDS, the Gippsland Asbestos Related Diseases Society Inc., are detailed in the current issue of the newsletter issued by this Victoria-based organization. The commemoration of the 10th annual Asbestos Awareness Day was just one of many activities that took place during Asbestos Awareness Week (November 21-25). As well as an asbestos seminar, there was an ecumenical service, a social gathering with musical entertainment and a well-supported neighbourhood tea and coffee morning. During the week, GARDS personnel took part in the launch of a new government initiative in Canberra: the Parliament Group on Asbestos Related Diseases. See: GARDS December 2011 Newsletter.

At an inaugural event today in Seoul, awards will be presented to activists in the global fight to ban asbestos. The ceremony is being organized by environmental groups including the Ban Asbestos Network of Korea, the Asian Citizen's Center for Environmental Health and others to recognize outstanding achievements in 2011. Mesothelioma sufferer Rachel Lee, who has campaigned vigorously since her diagnosis, is receiving the top award. In November, Rachel journeyed to India to plead with the government to end asbestos use. Canadian Ban Asbestos Campaigner Kathleen Ruff is also being honored for her "tireless effort and dedication," to exposing her country's asbestos scandal.

Last week, Brazil's Attorney General tabled a petition calling for a national ban on asbestos in which he confirmed that federal and state laws which permit the continued mining, industrial and commercial use of asbestos violated the constitutional rights of Brazilian citizens such as the right to health and the right to work and live in a clean environment. Newspaper reports suggest that this document will provide the impetus for the Supreme Court of Brazil, under the leadership of President Carlos Ayres Britto, to consider action in support of a comprehensive and national ban on asbestos in 2012. See: Petition by Brazil's Attorney General (in Portuguese).

News has just been received that a deal dubbed the "devil's offer" by one Italian journalist has been accepted by the Mayor of Casale Monferrato. In return for a sum believed to be up to 20 million euros from one of the defendants in a landmark asbestos trial, the municipality will withdraw "from this and any future trials (against Eternit) that it might be involved in." Only a few months ago the Mayor of Casale Monferrato, commenting on a similar deal, said: "It is clear that a proposal such as that could never be even considered by a city like Casale." See: Surprise Move by Schmidheiny's Lawyers.

The Hidden Killer Campaign, an award-winning initiative to raise occupational awareness of the asbestos hazard amongst at-risk trades people which had been shelved due to government cut-backs, will be relaunched next year according to an announcement made on December 7, 2011 at the board meeting of the Health and Safety Executive. While it is not yet known what form the 2012 campaign will take, the requisite Ministerial approval has been obtained. This news has been welcomed by asbestos victims’ campaigners, health and safety activists and trade unionists who had previously voiced opposition to the cancellation of this much-needed campaign.

Following an infamous 2007 House of Lords ruling which barred pleural plaque sufferers from bringing legal actions for their injuries, this right has been reinstated in Scotland. In October 2011, the Supreme Court upheld the Scottish Government’s right to enact this legislation even though it contradicts national policy. Yesterday, the Finance Minister of Northern Ireland (NI), Sammy Wilson, announced that as of December 14, pleural plaques will once again be a compensable condition for NI sufferers. The NI legislation: Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 is now law, having passed through the NI Assembly and received Royal Assent. See: NI Executive Press Release.

Tomorrow evening, members of the public will have the opportunity to hear why Michaela Keyserlingk thinks that the production and use of asbestos should be banned in Canada. Michaela's husband Robert died 2 years ago from asbestos cancer; since then, Michaela has been campaigning to raise awareness of the asbestos hazard. The event is being organized by the Reverend Michel Dubord and will take place at St. John's Anglican Church, 65 Fowler St. Richmond, Ottawa at 7 p.m. Six weeks ago, the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa passed a motion denouncing the Canadian Government's policy of exporting asbestos. See: Taking a Stand: Asbestos Widow vs. Canadian Government.

Yesterday, an exposé of the global asbestos industry received official recognition when it was awarded a prize for Best Enterprise Feature on a Website from the Editor & Publisher, a leading North American commentary specializing on issues relating to all facets of the newspaper industry. The series, produced by the Center for Public Integrity and the BBC in 2010, included an astonishing number of newspaper and website articles, podcasts, documentaries, radio programs, commentaries and blogs under the banner: Dangers in the Dust - Inside the Global Asbestos Trade. The investigation was termed a "public-relations tsunami" for the asbestos industry. See: Dangers in the Dust.

On January 19, 2012, local activists met with representatives of the (Hong Kong) Legislative Council Panel on Environmental Affairs to progress calls for a ban on the import, use and transshipment of asbestos in Hong Kong. During the discussions, the activists called for the government to introduce measures to raise occupational awareness of the asbestos hazard, identify asbestos-containing materials in all public buildings and quantify levels of environmental contamination. The Government is also being urged to introduce a mandatory scheme to protect workers which would involve the registration and supervision of proposed plans to demolish asbestos-contaminated properties. [Read full article]

Sri Lanka is a country facing many challenges, not least of which is the reconstruction of the national infrastructure after so many years of war. It is regrettable that in the rush to build commercial and domestic properties, the usage of asbestos is increasing. In 2010, consumption was nearly treble that of the previous year. Over the period from 2000 to 2010, total asbestos consumption was nearly a quarter of a million tonnes, an average of 22,207 tonnes/year. While other countries have banned or seriously restricted asbestos use, Sri Lanka seems bent on expanding this deadly industry. [Read full article]

The publication of papers in recent months about various aspects of the global asbestos scandal provides further details of the human consequences of hazardous exposures, the politics behind the deadly asbestos trade, the efforts by civil society to ban asbestos and grassroots projects to spread awareness of the asbestos hazard. Specific issues relating to asbestos agendas in Spain, Mexico, Canada and Indonesia are discussed in the four articles referenced in this text whose authors include epidemiologists, occupational and public health experts, ban asbestos and community activists. [Read full article]

The furore set off in 2011 by asbestos defendant Stephan Schmidheiny's attempt to make a deal with the town of Casale Monferrato showed no sign of abating as the year drew to a close. Into the breach stepped Italy's Minister of Health, Renato Balduzzi, who himself phoned the Mayor on December 21 to set up meetings for January 1. Discussions on New Year's Day with key stakeholders has led to plans for a coordinated plan by national agencies, local authorities and federal bodies to tackle the country's asbestos emergency. In the meantime, the deadline set by Schmidheiny for signing the deal has expired. [Read full article]

Rachel Lee died from asbestos cancer on December 21, 2011 at 2 p.m. Korean time. Rachel was a woman with a formidable capacity for empathy and love. Everyone who met her was touched by her warmth, kindness and concern for humankind. The environmental exposure to asbestos which was to cause her death led her to campaign globally for an end to the deadly trade in asbestos. In Korea, Japan, Indonesia, India and Canada, Rachel called on governments and individuals to end the use of asbestos in order to protect human lives. [Read full article]

Tonight the Casale Monferrato town council will rubber-stamp a deal commonly called the "pact with the devil." Despite massive opposition from Italy and abroad, the politicians will accept an offer from a former asbestos executive on trial in Turin over an epidemic of deaths caused by asbestos contamination. Although a deadline of December 31, 2011 had been set for the agreement to be finalized, it seems council members can't wait to comply. Asbestos victims, campaigners, trade unionists, representatives of labor federations and church officials are appalled by the underhanded behaviour of the Mayor and his colleagues. [Read full article]

For over thirty years, the citizens of Casale Monferrato, Italy have been struggling with a deadly contamination which has blighted their lives and their town. To obtain justice for the thousands who have died, asbestos victims, trade unions and labor federations have worked closely with town officials and prosecutors to progress legal actions against the guilty parties. These efforts have been pivotal in the recently completed trial against two former asbestos executives. Now, one of the defendants in this trial has made the town council of Casale Monferrato a multimillion euro offer to withdraw from the legal proceedings. [Read full article]

One year ago, a formidable band of intrepid campaigners ventured into the history books when they took the ban asbestos campaign into the Canadian asbestos heartland. The Asian Solidarity Mission to Canada has been termed one of the ten most significant events in the history of the global ban asbestos movement. The one year anniversary of the events which took place in Quebec City, Ottawa and Montreal from December 7 to 10, 2010 is an appropriate time to reflect on the significance of the mission, its achievements and developments in Canada's asbestos dialogue in the last twelve months. [Read full article]

In December 2010, history was made when a delegation of asbestos victims, trade unionists and health activists from Asia went to Canada to make a personal appeal to the Quebec government and the people of Quebec not to approve a plan to open up the Jeffrey asbestos mine. The seven members of the solidarity delegation deserve to feel great pride in the courageous and powerful initiative they carried out in Quebec. The engagement of delegation members with civil society during their visit broke down barriers and added a much-needed human dimension to the debate over Canada's export of deadly asbestos. [Read full article]

Reflecting on the days spent in Canada by the Asian Solidarity Delegation, the author summarizes important outcomes of the mission as: the huge media coverage and publicity in Canada and across the globe, the interest stimulated over the ethical debate of exporting asbestos, a substance not used in Canada, to Asia and the emotional impact made by asbestos cancer sufferer Rachel whose personal story touched the hearts of all those who heard her speak. Referencing, the outrageous behaviour of Canada at the recent meeting of the Rotterdam Convention, he hopes that in the matter of the Jeffrey Mine "better sense shall prevail." [Read full article]

The author, who participated in the Asian Solidarity Mission to Canada, is critical of the Canadian Government's asbestos policy which affords Canadian citizens protection from a known hazard while simultaneously denying the same protection to non-Canadians. "The Government of Canada," he writes "is joyfully sending a deadly poison to the workers and the poor in Asia." This double standard violates the universal human right to life. An attempt by the author to return a discarded Canadian asbestos sack found in West Java to Canadian officials proved unsuccesful as no one in Canada seemed anxious to receive this gift. [Read full article]

The progress of Iran's asbestos debate is evinced by a front-page article which appeared in the most popular newspaper in Tehran on October 24, 2011. The text in the headline read: "People of Tehran ask Government to Ban Asbestos." Although, in 2000 Iran's Department of the Environment passed regulations setting a seven year phase-out period for manufacturers to make the transition to asbestos-free technology, as of now, nothing has changed. "Many experts," the journalist writes "think that we should pass a law in parliament or cabinet to ban asbestos in Iran." [Read full article]

Representatives from civil society in India are scathing about proposals for a Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement which could eliminate all tariffs on Canadian asbestos exports to India. The trade deal was called an "appalling travesty of all ethical codes of human behaviour" by campaigning groups which issued a press statement on December 6, 2011. Mohit Gupta, Coordinator of the Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India, highlighted the double standards promoted by Canadian officials simultaneously supervising asbestos decontamination of national infrastructure and attempting to sell increasing amounts of deadly asbestos to India. [Read full article]

Last week, the Chrysotile Institute (CI), the notorious mouthpiece for Canada's asbestos industry, published the latest issue of its newsletter. As usual, the text contains outright lies, misinformation and gibberish dressed up as fact. However, there is a whiff of desperation about this latest offering, reflected in the fact that the bumper issue runs to four times the length of previous newsletters the CI has produced irregularly over the years. An analysis of five statements in the text reveals the fabrications and misrepresentations the CI relies on to make the case for the "controlled use of chrysotile." [Read full article]

Stephan Schmidheiny's legal team is engaged in a series of behind-the-scenes negotiations with officials from 12 Italian municipalities to secure their withdrawal from an on-going case and future cases against him over his alleged responsibility for hazardous asbestos exposures to workers, local people and the environment in towns where asbestos-cement production took place at Eternit factories. An offer, which was kept secret from asbestos victims, trade unions and labor federations, made to the Mayor and council of Casale Monferrato has caused consternation amongst the victims and their family members who have called on the authorities to honor their commitment to the injured. [Read full article]

The 2nd annual meeting of the Asian Ban Asbestos Network (A-BAN) took place last week in Rajasthan. This was the first major ban asbestos meeting of grassroots activists to take place in India, the world's biggest importer of asbestos. As such, it attracted scores of participants from 15 countries. During the sessions on November 14-17, reports detailed the work being done to delineate asbestos issues in India, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan. As a result of the information received during the sessions and the discussions which took place, a statement - the Jaipur Declaration - was approved by delegates. [Read full article]

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Demonstration in Woluwe Park, Brussels, 2006

Under cloudy skies, members of Belgian and French Asbestos Victims' Associations from Dunkirk and Bourgogne marched side-by-side in the third annual demonstration organized by ABEVA, the Belgian Association of Asbestos Victims. Erik Jonckheere, ABEVA's Co-chairman, condemned the government which still refuses to recognize the plight of the asbestos injured.

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