Ottawa still shelters asbestos industry. Cigarette, anyone?

No one disputes any longer that cigarettes causes cancer. There's a warning on cigarette packages direct from the federal government. Yet Ottawa persists in sheltering the asbestos industry, despite warnings from health officials that it, too, causes cancer.

Canada intervened at a Swiss summit today to oppose labelling chrysotile asbestos as hazardous, keeping it out of a United Nations Treaty. According to The Canadian Press, including asbestos in what's known as the Rotterdam Convention would have meant exporting countries - that would be Canada - would be forced to warn those who receive the asbestos of its health dangers.

So on the one hand, Health Canada warns kids about the dangers of smoking, but the government won't take the same steps on asbestos, despite the fact many countries don't want to touch the stuff.

The industry says it's safe if handled properly. But for the record, here's what the World Health Organization said in 2005:

“Currently about 125 million people in the world are exposed to asbestos at the workplace. According to global estimates, at least 90,000 people die each year from asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis resulting from occupational exposures. In addition, it is believed that several thousands of deaths can be attributed to other asbestos-related diseases as well as to non-occupational exposures to asbestos. The burden of asbestos-related diseases is still rising, even in countries that have banned the use of asbestos in the early 1990s. Because of the long latency periods attached to the diseases in question, stopping the use of asbestos now will only result in a decrease in the number of asbestos-related deaths after a number of decades.”

And, for the record, here’s what Canada’s Ministry of Natural Resources says on its website:

“In recent years, asbestos has come under close scrutiny as a potential health hazard. Most of these health hazards come from the past use of amphibole asbestos and from inappropriate practices such as sprayed-on insulation. These practices have been discontinued in Canada since the 1970s. Worldwide, the main varieties of amphibole asbestos used commercially are crocidolite (blue asbestos) and amosite (brown asbestos). Chrysotile is in a different class of silicate minerals. Scientific evidence has demonstrated that it can be used safely at low levels of exposure ... Regulations have been developed and are enforced rigorously to control exposure to chrysotile dust.”

Also for the record, the one asbestos mine in Canada sits in a Tory riding.

(To give his side of it, Bernard Coulombe, executive director of the Jeffrey Mine in the Quebec town of Asbestos, told me about a month ago that there's no "measurable risk" to health when it's handled properly. If any company fails to comply with his safety requirements, he won't sell to that firm.)