Lobbyists of Chrysotile Asbestos Target Developing Countries
Mr. Jim Morris of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reports that they have concluded a nine-month investigation into a worldwide network of lobby groups who have spent close to $100 million dollars to maintain the international market for asbestos since the mid-1980s. The lobbyists are backed by both public and private and are even aided by scientists and “friendly governments.”
Chyrsotile Institute, Montreal based, heads the network which has members from New Delhi to Mexico City to Asbest in the Ural Mountains in Russia. The network has helped facilitate the sale of 2.2 million tons of asbestos in 2009. While the United States and Europe have stopped almost all use of asbestos, the countries of India and China have actually seen a rapidly growing increase in the use of asbestos.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 125 million people still encounter asbestos in the workplace and the United Nations’ International Labor Organization estimates that 100,000 workers die each year from asbestos-related diseases. Further, experts in Occupation and Environmental Health have estimated that as many as 5 to 10 million people may die from asbestos-related cancer by 2030. This is why many believe that the pro-asbestos campaign is almost criminal.
Part of the problem is the amount of articles written and financed by the lobbyists. These include “advertorials” which read like news articles and a mass of industry funded science on chrysotile. Dr. J. Corbett McDonald of McGill University in Montreal has been studying workers who have been exposed to chrysotile since the mid-1960s through the support of the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association. He has opined that the health effects from chrysotile are trivial if any.
McDonald finds little risk with chrysotile on the assumption that employers will provide proper dust controls, ventilation and protective equipment for workers. However, he ignores the fact that those measures are “uncommon in the developing world.” A very important point. There is a legitimate question as to whether white asbestos is less dangerous than blue or brown asbestos but regardless of degree, all types of asbestos and even minimal exposure has been proven to cause cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis. Exposure to any type of asbestos, including chrysotile, is dangerous and use should be highly regulated and/or banned worldwide.
