Recently, an Italian Tribunal condemned the Eternit Company for the death of about 2000 people due to its production of asbestos in the past. The Swiss owner declared that he was ready to meet financial requests by the victims or their heirs.
Western countries compete to send their old ships full of asbestos, in particular military ships such as aircraft carriers, to Asian countries for destruction by workers without protection while such work would be extremely costly in their countries.
If you know New York, you are used to the closing of streets every time a pipe blows due to the risks of asbestos pollution.
And since 1993 asbestos is considered carcinogenic by the World Health Organization.
But...asbestos is not yet included in the list of dangerous products under the Rotterdam Convention. "The Rotterdam Convention doesn't ban trade in hazardous substances but requires exporting countries to notify importing governments of the presence of such substances in products so they can give informed consent on accepting the dangers." (1)
To the satisfaction of the asbestos exporters, no agreement was reached during a recent meeting of the Convention held in Rome: many participants accuse Canada for its strategy for the non inclusion of asbestos in the Rotterdam Convention list.
As pointed out by the Canadian Medical Association, Canada "is the only western democracy to have consistently opposed the international efforts to impose rules on the world trade of asbestos" (2)
In 2006, the main asbestos producers were Russia (925,000 tons), China (400,000 t.), Kazakhstan (350,000 t.) and Canada (240,000 t.) the only country that increased its production over the prior year. (3)
Bravo, a real Canadian Social Responsible (CSR) approach...
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(1) http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/10/28/asbestos-convention.html?ref=rss
(2) Quoted in Le Monde, 31/10/08
(3) www.dnpm.gov.br/assets/galeriaDocumento/SumarioMineral2007en asbestos%20chrysotile.doc
Photo: www.theodoregray.com
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