Not Everyone Loves Canada!

July 1, 2009 marked Canada's 142^nd anniversary. The day was celebrated by Canadians at home and abroad including a party held in Trafalgar Square. At an event in Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper boasted "we celebrate the most peaceful, prosperous, and enduring democracy the world has ever known." And yet, many victims of Quebec asbestos do not subscribe to the image Canadians have of their country; demonstrations and protests made on July 1 voiced their condemnation of Canada's role in the global asbestos lobby. [article]

Literature Review

Recent papers in academic journals detail the human consequences of asbestos use in Canada, the United States, Australia and Japan. Data in these documents confirm the elevated risk to construction workers of occupational asbestos exposures and the hazardous repercussions of environmental asbestos exposure. Research by an Australian author describes state-of-the-art techniques for calculating risks posed by asbestos-contaminated soil and suggests a new protocol to deal with this issue in Australia while a paper by Dr. David Egilman attempts to "peer review the use of certain scientific methods in tort litigation and in testimony before regulatory agencies." [article]

Canada's Ugly Secret

On June 10, 2009, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation prime-time national news featured a documentary on the use of Canadian asbestos in India which included footage of workers picking up piles of asbestos fiber with their bare hands to feed into processing equipment; with absolutely no health and safety precautions, fiber and dust were pervasive throughout the textile plant. In just 15 minutes, this stunning piece of investigative journalism exposed the fallacy underpinning the asbestos industry's commercial propaganda; showing there is no such thing as the safe use of asbestos. [article]

Fat Cats and British Insurers

On June 9, 2009, UK asbestos victims' groups mounted a lively demonstration outside the London venue where the Association of British Insurers (ABI) was holding its biennial conference. The protestors highlighted the injustice meted out to asbestos victims, many of whom are denied compensation due to the inability to trace Employers' Liability insurance policies. Demonstrators dressed in fat-cat costumes sported big cigars and magnums of champagne to draw attention to the high life enjoyed by the insurers who continue to profit at the expense of the asbestos-injured. [article]

Good News, Bad News for Libby

Just weeks after the W. R. Grace Company, the asbestos polluter of Libby, Montana, was found not guilty of violating the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Government took a historic step when the Environmental Protection Agency declared that a public health emergency existed in Lincoln County. This determination, which will translate into much-needed federal funding for medical care and decontamination work, has been welcomed by local campaigners such as Gayla Benefield who called the development: "a giant step forward for the healing of the community..." [article]

Asbestos Reverberations in Australia

There is no question about the serious repercussions of asbestos use in Australia, a country which ranks amongst the worst affected by asbestos-related disease. In recent weeks, news has revealed widespread contamination of Australian diplomatic posts in Asia and Europe, slipshod and hazardous asbestos removal work in Queensland and continuing efforts by Australian asbestos product manufacturer James Hardie to avoid its asbestos-related liabilities. News which began circulating in mid-June 2009 of a corporate relocation to Ireland came as a surprise to both seasoned Hardie observers and asbestos victims. [article]

Aldo Vicentin: One More Victim of Asbestos

Last year, a series of articles published in Brazil exploded many of the myths and dirty tricks of Brazilian asbestos stakeholders. The three groundbreaking articles written by journalist Conceição Lemes appeared on Viomundo – a prestigious Portuguese language website run by Brazilian journalist Luiz Carlos Azenha that has a wide readership in Brazil. Now, a group of volunteers, led by Daniel Berman, has undertaken the translation of these pieces, and IBAS is delighted to be able to host the English translation of the first article in the Lemes series; the others will follow in due course [article]

Canadian Political Leaders Face Increased Heat on Asbestos Issue

For the past quarter of a century, the Canadian government, as well as the Quebec provincial government, has been funding the Asbestos Institute (recently re-baptized the Chrysotile Institute). As well as giving financial support, the Canadian and Quebec governments each appoint a member of the Institute's board of directors. All major political parties have been stalwart supporters of the national asbestos industry with only one MP willing to challenge the industry in Parliament. Recent developments suggest that this unanimity has ended. [article]

General Motors St. Catharines Cancer Cluster

From the late 1950s until the mid-1980s, General Motors employees working on the brake bonding assembly line and calliper assembly line of the GM Components Plant in St. Catharines, Ontario assembled brake assemblies containing asbestos brake linings. ... brake linings were continually ground to a specified thickness; holes were drilled and rivets were punched into them. With the latency period associated with asbestos-related diseases this means that we are now in a time period when a cluster of asbestos-related cancers could be expected to emerge. This is precisely what is happening today. [article]

Asbestos Campaigners Meet British Prime Minister

On May 6, 2009, asbestos campaigners Jason Addy and Laurie Kazan-Allen had a private meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown; issues raised included: the fatal legacy left by asbestos manufacturing in Britain, the consequences of low level exposures to asbestos, the asbestos contamination of schools and the urgent need for a coordinated national research strategy for medical treatment and cures for asbestos-related diseases. The Prime Minister was responsive to the calls made for improvements having experienced the asbestos tragedy himself through the loss of close friends and colleagues to asbestos cancer. [article]

Landmark Ban Asbestos Conference in China

Nearly two years of discussions and planning came to fruition in the Asian Asbestos Conference 2009 (AAC), Hong Kong, April 25-28, 2009. With Asia currently accounting for 58% of asbestos usage and China the largest consumer of asbestos, the choice of location was apposite. More than 200 hundred delegates from 24 countries joined the proceedings which ended with a demonstration in central Hong Kong to mark International Workers' Memorial Day. The event received support and endorsement from grassroots asbestos victims groups, labor federations and international organizations including the ILO, the WHO and the ICOH. [article]

Asbestos Pigeons Coming Home to Roost

Recent developments suggest that the fight-back by asbestos victims is succeeding in more and more jurisdictions. While former Eternit company executives are being tried for their role in the fatal exposures received by thousands of Italians, ten businessmen were condemned by an Australian Court for misleading the public in a James Hardie press release. With recent conferences in China and Kazakhstan, the flow of information on asbestos hazards is intensifying. In Russia, the biggest asbestos exporter, a collapse in demand for asbestos has hit wages and company profits. Maybe the world can live without Russian asbestos. [article]

First International Asbestos Conference in Kazakhstan

Asbestos is big business in Kazakhstan; in 2007, it was the world's 3rd largest producer and consumer of chrysotile asbestos. Despite a global consensus about the carcinogenic nature of chrysotile, in Kazakhstan there are no rules imposed on its production. As a result of collaborative efforts of European and Kazakh NGOs, the first public debate on asbestos issues took place in Kazakhstan on April 20-21, 2009 during The International Expert Conference on Asbestos and POPs: Policies and Practices in Kazakhstan and the European Union. [article]

Annual Conference by U.S. Victims' Group

It was fitting that the 2009 conference of the Asbestos Diseases Awareness Organization (ADAO) took place in Manhattan Beach, California. For it was in this small town that Alan Reinstein was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2003. From the chaos, frustration and eventual tragedy that flowed from that diagnosis, a new grass-roots group - the ADAO - was born. Attending this year's events were members of the Manhattan Beach community; local people who had helped the Reinsteins through the dark days joined with other members of the ADAO community to raise awareness of the global impact of asbestos. [article]

Japanese Asbestos Protests

The anger of Japanese asbestos victims shows no sign of abating. In the run-up to the 3rd anniversary of the Asbestos Victims Relief Law, the media was full of reminders of just how far Japanese society still has to go until all the injured receive adequate medical treatment and compensation. At recent meetings and rallies in Tokyo, campaigners reaffirmed their commitment to the continuing struggle. "The asbestos legacy is never ending," said Mrs. Kazuko Furukawa. "Asbestos companies and the government have to hear our voices. We will continue to fight together until justice for all asbestos victims and an asbestos free world is achieved." [article]

The Kubota Coincidence?

It is a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie that finds a company with the same name, in the same business responsible for the same hazardous consequences of asbestos contamination in Japan and Brazil. And yet, no one has been able to establish a definitive link between Japan's Kubota Corporation and "Grupo Kubota" (Kubota Group) the former owner of an asbestos-contaminated property in São Paulo State. Concerns over the potential public health disaster which the derelict industrial site poses may lead to legal action by municipal or government authorities; should proceedings be instigated, the connection between the two Kubota companies may finally become clear. [article]

Sidebar Topics

The variable sidebar available on most pages can be set to the following topics using the dropdown menu entitled "Sidebar" (top of page):
 
Profiles – Asbestos profiles of selected countries and entities
Recent Articles – The (25-30) most recent articles
UK or Overseas Groups – Victim support groups
Global Action – Clickable images linked to current developments. There are two sets of images; if one set is currently displayed, clicking "Global Action" on the dropdown menu brings up the other set.
Publications – IBAS publications, IBAS texts published by third parties and IJOEH special issues guest edited by Laurie Kazan-Allen

Reports by Laurie Kazan-Allen

BANJAN Anniversary Conference, Yokohama – (2007)
Asian Asbestos Conference AAC 2006 – (2006)
European Asbestos Conference:
      Policy, Health and Human Rights – (2005)
Global Asbestos Congress GAC 2004 – (2004)
Canadian Asbestos: A Global Concern – (2003)
Hellenic Asbestos Conference – (2002)
European Asbestos Seminar – (2001)
Global Asbestos Congress, Osasco – (2000)
 
The conferences listed above are major events in which IBAS has acted as co-sponsor or provided substantial support. For further reports and presentations from these and scores of other events in which IBAS has taken an interest see Site Map:Conference and Event Reports

Online Versions of Hard Copy and CD Publications

India's Asbestos Time Bomb – (2008)
Killing the Future: Asbestos Use in Asia – (2007)
Chrysotile Asbestos: Hazardous to Humans, Deadly to the Rotterdam Convention – (2006)
Asbestos: The Human Cost of Corporate Greed – (2005)
Annals: Global Asbestos Congress 2004
Asbestos Dispatches – (2004)
The Asbestos War – (2003)
Annals: Global Asbestos Congress 2000
 
The items listed include IBAS publications, IBAS texts published by third parties and IJOEH special issues guest edited by Laurie Kazan-Allen.

Asbestos Bans and Recent History of Regulation

Current Asbestos Bans and Restrictions
National Asbestos Bans (Chronology)
WTO Upholds French Ban on Chrysotile – (2001)
Europe Bans Asbestos – (2001)
The Rotterdam Convention
United Nations and ILO position
 
Other Articles on National Bans in addition to the first two items listed above can be found in Site Map: Asbestos Bans and Regulations