Plan B Forum

Canada blocks asbestos from hazardous chemicals list at UN summit

Canada has opposed listing chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous chemical, the United Nations confirmed Wednesday, even as the Conservative government maintained its silence back home.

At a summit in Switzerland, Canada's delegation ended days of silence and speculation by opposing the inclusion of asbestos on a UN treaty called the Rotterdam Convention.

"Yes, I can confirm they intervened in the chemicals contact group meeting this afternoon and opposed listing," Michael Stanley-Jones of the UN Environment Program said in an email.

Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan also opposed the listing.

Listing asbestos on Annex III of the convention would force exporters such as Canada to warn recipient countries of any health hazards. Those countries could also then refuse asbestos imports if they didn't think they could handle the product safely.

Canada has twice before played a lead role in blocking the inclusion of asbestos under the Rotterdam Convention, which operates by consensus.

For much of the twentieth century, James Hardie was one of a number of companies involved in the manufacture, distribution and mining of asbestos and its related products such as building products, insulation, pipes and brake linings. In Australia, there were asbestos plants in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. Many of these asbestos products - including the building material known as "Fibro" - caused people to develop asbestosis and mesothelioma.

While other companies were involved in similar asbestos-related activities, most notably [CSR], more than 50% of claims made to the NSW Dust Disease Tribunal in 2002 were brought against companies in the James Hardie group.
Prince et al. claim that this is due to the range of mining and manufacturing interests that James Hardie had throughout its long operating history. The Australian Council of Trade Unions estimated that 4600 claims for mesothelioma would be made against James Hardie from 2006 onwards, with claims expected to peak in 2010 or 2011 at 250 per year. The total number of past and future claims made against James Hardie for asbestos-related diseases is estimated to be more than 12,500, of which 8103 will be claimed after 20006.

James Hardie and its subsidiaries had been providing compensation for victims of its operations since the 1980s. Though some earlier claims had arisen, the proliferation of cases from the 1980s onwards forced James Hardie to acknowledge that it had known asbestos to be dangerous. James Hardie nonetheless maintained that it had done everything possible to protect workers. In 1978 the company began putting warning labels on its products explaining that inhalation of the dust could result in cancer and in March 1987 James Hardie ceased all asbestos manufacturing activities

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hard ... ontroversy

Canada's asbestos industry is effectively and finally shut down, with Industry Minister Christian Paradis's announcement Friday that the Canadian government will no long oppose the listing of asbestos as a hazardous substance in the international Rotterdam Convention.

Paradis also said the federal government will invest up to $50 million to help the country's last remaining asbestos mining region, in Quebec's Eastern Townships, to diversify into other areas of activity.

Asbestos production in Quebec has been de facto shut down for the last couple years, but the outgoing Liberal provincial government was loaning $58 million to a company to restart its mining and export operations.

The new Parti Québécois provincial government has promised to cancel the loan.

As recently as 2010, Canada was producing 150,000 tonnes of asbestos annually, all of it in Quebec, and exporting 90 per cent — worth about $90 million — to developing countries. More than 50 countries ban the mining and use of asbestos because it causes cancer, but Canada, traditionally a major exporter, has successfully lobbied in the past to keep it off the UN's Rotterdam Convention list of hazardous substances.