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Trade unionists affiliated with the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) will be holding a conference in Jakarta on August 2-4, 2010. The South East Asia Regional Conference on Asbestos will be addressed by international experts and regional activists including BWI personnel Fiona Murie and Apolinar Tolentino, trade unionist Deb Vallance from Australia and campaigners Sugio Furuya and Yeyong Choi, respectively from Japan and Korea. Issues such as the availability of asbestos-free substitutes, health surveillance and asbestos mapping will be discussed. For more information see Conference Agenda.

Today the results of an investigation into the asbestos industry were made public. Researchers from the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, India, Russia and China uncovered an international network of lobby groups which "has spent nearly $100 million since the mid-1980s to preserve the market for asbestos." Over the coming week, additional articles, radio programs and podcasts in the series: Dangers in the Dust - Inside the Global Asbestos Trade will be released.
For more information see: Dangers in the Dust; Exporting an Epidemic: The Asbestos Industry Goes Global; Key Archival Documents.

Representatives of Ban Asbestos Korea and the Asian Ban Asbestos Network raised the issue of asbestos with representatives of international agencies and national governments participating in the Second Ministerial Regional Forum on Environment and Health in Southeast and East Asian Countries which took place on July 14 & 15, 2010 in Jeju, Korea. The ban asbestos campaigners highlighted issues such as Canadian financing of a new asbestos mine in Quebec and the rising tide of asbestos exports to Asia. For more information, see the ECO Health bulletin circulated at this meeting.

As a result of deliberations undertaken during the 2nd Congress of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which was held in Vancouver, Canada last month, a resolution was endorsed which highlighted the deadly effects of occupational asbestos exposures. Calling for a global ban on asbestos and other hazardous substances, the text appealed to the Canadian government "to join a total world ban on asbestos," and urged the ITUC, regional organizations and Global Unions to coordinate efforts to achieve the prohibitions needed to safeguard human rights and social justice.

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A video uploaded this month provides the opportunity for Asian experts and campaigners to highlight the export of hazardous asbestos technology to developing countries. Although the Malaysian Government has previously stated that a comprehensive national ban would be implemented by 2015, observers are now questioning the government's intention to honor this commitment. Comments by Dr. K. G. Rampal, Sanjiv Pandita, G. Rajasekaran and Apolinar Tolentino Jr. focus on the hazards posed by all types of asbestos and the urgent need for a total ban to be implemented. See: Asbestos: A Silent Killer video.

A letter was sent on June 9 to Quebec's Minister of Health by 35 medical doctors from 19 countries in North, Central and South America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australia. The physicians charge that Dr. Yves Bolduc is "failing in his duty to protect public health." By supporting Quebec's political agenda on asbestos, he has, so the letter alleges, failed to fulfill obligations stipulated in Quebec's Medical Code of Ethics including requirements to: "not allow false or incomplete information to be given to the public.(s91)." See: June 9 letter to Yves Bolduc.

On June 11, a seminar will be held to address the dangers posed by asbestos contamination in Kazakhstan. A report based on research conducted by local NGOs, working with European Union partners, will be distributed at the meeting; it highlights the widespread and unregulated use of asbestos in construction materials and the lack of any controls on dumping of asbestos-containing construction waste. Samples of chrysotile asbestos obtained locally and from Ukraine and Romania which were analyzed by a German laboratory confirm that populations in these countries are routinely being exposed to carcinogenic material.

In a statement cited in Hansard on June 2, 2010, MP Jonathan Djanogly, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, confirmed that lump sum payments of £5,000 promised under the previous government for some pleural plaques claimants in England and Wales would be made. It is anticipated that the extra-statutory scheme being adminstered by the Ministry of Justice would begin accepting claims from the end of June 2010. See: Pleural Plaques Payments Scheme.

Yesterday, Judge Konishi of the Osaka District Court issued a verdict ordering the Japanese Government to pay 430 million yen ($4.6 m) to 29 claimants including workers and residents who contracted asbestosis and lung cancer. Even though the State had been aware of the asbestos hazard before 1960, it had not ensured the implementation of protective measures. As a direct result of the Government's failures, the plaintiffs suffered the exposures which made them ill. A Japanese news analyst said this is the first time a central government has been found responsile for asbestos-related deaths. See: NHK World video report.

At 10 a.m. today, the High Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia will vote on whether to implement recommendations made in a 677 page dossier on asbestos which concludes that the only way to prevent asbestos-related diseases in Brazil is to ban all asbestos use. The author of this document, Deputy Edison Duarte, will be introducing it to the Legislative Chamber. It is anticipated that asbestos industry stakeholders will bring large numbers of asbestos industry workers to Brasilia to demonstrate in support of the continued mining and use of asbestos.

In the last 45 years, more that 480,000 tonnes of asbestos have been used in Mexico; 75% of it came from Canada. Nowadays, 1,800 companies in Mexico produce asbestos-containing products. The explosion in asbestos use in Mexico has led to an increase in asbestos-related deaths. Dr. Guadalupe Aguilar Madrid details these issues in a video clip uploaded on May 18 which concludes with a call for the Mexican Government to ban asbestos and take measures to tackle the epidemic of asbestos-related disease.

An astonishing series of newspaper and website articles, podcasts, documentaries, radio programs, commentaries and blogs were rolled out in July under the banner: Dangers in the Dust – Inside the Global Asbestos Trade. Research conducted in 2009-2010 in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, India, Russia and China revealed a multi-million dollar conspiracy by global asbestos stakeholders designed to encourage sales of hazardous chrysotile asbestos to developing countries. The content, tone and number of pieces generated by this investigation was described by one Canadian journalist as a "public-relations tsunami" for the asbestos industry. [article]

For more than two years, a local non-governmental organization has been investigating asbestos issues in Gujarat. In 2009-2010, the Peoples Training And Research Centre has conducted an asbestos outreach program to raise awareness of the hazard amongst various sectors of civil society. The latest meetings in Gujarat, attended by academics, students and medical professionals, took place on Saturday July 17, 2010 in Bhavnagar the nearest big city to the infamous Alang ship-breaking yard. A photographic exhibition on display at the workshop venue graphically illustrated the various facets of India's asbestos challenge. [article]

Canada's National Day - July 1, 2010 - was marked by high-profile activities in Ottawa and London. As day-long celebrations took place in Trafalgar Square, UK protestors mounted a demonstration across the street. Organized by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat and several trade unions, the demonstration attracted support from key stakeholders such as the Forum of Asbestos Victims' Support Groups and the London Hazards Centre. The protest took place against growing domestic and foreign opposition to plans by the Quebec government to loan $58 million to develop new underground asbestos operations at the Jeffrey Mine. [article]

Developments in June 2010 evidenced increasing opposition by civil society to the continued use of asbestos. On June 9, 2010 Health Ministers from Mercosur, the Southern Common Market, signed a declaration urging member states to ban asbestos. On June 11, a seminar on asbestos was held in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, to highlight the impact of increasing asbestos production and consumption in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. At the end of the month, the Canadian Cancer Society publicly reiterated its support for a Canadian ban and the ending of asbestos mining operations in Quebec. [article]

The Government of Quebec has announced plans to provide a $58 million loan to finance the completion of work on underground facilities at the Jeffrey Chrysotile Mine. Accessible asbestos deposits at Quebec's two remaining asbestos mines, both of which are operating under bankruptcy protection, are nearly exhausted. Should these plans proceed, Canada will be capable of producing 200,000 tonnes of asbestos annually, virtually all of which will be shipped abroad. Critic Kathleen Ruff questions "how two supposedly business-minded political leaders are risking public funds … to resuscitate an industry that is notorious for its record of economic disaster…" [article]

Despite the implementation of an Australian ban on all types of asbestos and asbestos products which was adopted in 2003, a steady flow of contaminated products into the country continues to pose an ongoing threat to workers. Recent incidents in Western Australia document the import of asbestos-containing gaskets from China and Thailand by major corporations such as Alcoa World Alumina and Woodside, an oil and gas exploration company. As a result of the incidents documented in this article, it is possible that hundreds of factory, maritime and dockside workers were exposed to asbestos. [article]

On June 1, 2010, the Japanese Government appealed against a historic judgment by the Osaka District Court which held the national authorities liable for asbestos-related diseases contracted by former workers. Considering the huge repercussions of this judgment, it was always likely the Government would mount a challenge. Announcing the Government's decision to appeal, the Minister for National Policy Yoshito Sengoku referred to numerous points of contention in the decision and the fact that claimants, who had already received payouts under the labor accident compensation insurance scheme, should not be awarded additional payments. [article]

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first appearance of the British Asbestos Newsletter. Over the past two decades the newsletter has performed an invaluable role in documenting legal and medical developments in the campaign against asbestos hazards and ensuring that knowledge is disseminated both here and abroad. The Twentieth Anniversary Edition, which includes a wide range of contributions from voluntary sector campaigners, MPs, lawyers, medical professionals, trade unionists and historians, highlights how the existence of separate legal jurisdictions in Great Britain has resulted in differing outcomes for victims. [article]

Asbestos was on the agenda of the 18th session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development which took place in early May 2010. A well-attended side event, organized by Women in Europe for a Common Future, examined the asbestos hazard in the context of European and Asian countries still producing and using asbestos. Speakers from Kazakhstan and Indonesia detailed a worrying situation in which there are no regulations on the use or dumping of asbestos and no attempt to quantify the occupational or environmental impact hazardous exposures are having on the population. [article]

Developments which unfolded in mid-May revealed the growing antipathy to the continued export of Canadian asbestos. On Wednesday, May 12, 2010, a series of high profile ban asbestos events in Ottawa generated mass participation and considerable media coverage. On May 13, the World Health Organization launched a new document which highlighted the urgent need to phase out asbestos use, and on May 14, community activists in Mexico City protested the risk to local people of environmental asbestos pollution generated by an American-owned factory. All in all, not a good week for asbestos stakeholders and lobbyists. [article]

A letter received from Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon on May 7, 2010 so angered a UK asbestos victims support group that they issued a press release headlined "Canadian Minister's Asbestos Lie!" Calling the Minister's reply "disingenuous," the MAVSG statement denounced Canadian authorities for aiding and abetting the asbestos industry: "Just as a drug pusher is responsible for the fatal overdose of a heroin addict, so the Canadian and Quebec Governments are responsible for thousands of asbestos deaths in the UK and around the world." [article]

On May 14, 2010 news was circulated on the internet of a broadly based protest against an American owned factory which produces asbestos-containing brake linings in Iztapalapa, a borough of Mexico City with nearly 2 million residents. The toxic factory, which has been operational for more than 20 years, is located in a residential area in close proximity to a number of schools. A local spokesperson says that official requests are being made to the Legislative Assembly to expropriate the industrial site and to the Environment Ministry to close the factory. [article]

A conference on occupational and environmental medicine took place in Taipei, Taiwan on April 20-25, 2010. As the theme of the event was Occupational Health under Globalization and New Technology, various asbestos-related issues were the subject of discussion. On April 22, there were three symposiums which focused on the diagnosis of mesothelioma, asbestos-related disease epidemiology and potential lessons from a multidisciplinary French-Japanese research project on silicosis and asbestos-related diseases. A declaration calling for a Global Ban on Asbestos was signed by 160 delegates from 18 countries. [article]

Even if China banned the use of asbestos tomorrow, the country would be left with a massive challenge posed by the widespread contamination of the national infrastructure. A classic example of how the massive use of asbestos impacts on the daily life of the population can be seen in the village of Ma Shi Po where "asbestos is present everywhere." As a result of unsafe and unregulated demolition work carried out in 2008-2010 on scores of asbestos-roofed houses in the village, workers and local residents have received hazardous exposures to asbestos. [article]

The release of Canadian asbestos data just days before International Workers Memorial Day ratcheted up union anger in the Philippines over Canada's double standards in exporting a product too hazardous to use at home; 93% of asbestos imports to the Philippines come from Canada. According to union official Apolinar Tolentino Jr: "representatives of the Canadian Government have shown a callousness and ruthless disregard for the lives of Asian workers. This disregard is, without doubt, a form of racism which values our lives as being worth less than those of Canadian workers." [article]

Opposition to India's fatal reliance on asbestos continues to grow. Grass-roots bodies, public health campaigners and trade unionists are pursuing strategies to highlight the human and environmental consequences of Indian asbestos consumption. In 2008, the use of 348,538 tonnes of asbestos made India the world's 3rd largest asbestos market; since 2004, consumption has risen by 83%. Cumulative asbestos usage in India has been estimated at 7,343,612 tonnes. To put this figure into context, the UK's consumption of 6 million tonnes has produced the country's worst epidemic of occupational disease and death. [article]

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Demonstration in Woluwe Park, Brussels, 2006

Under cloudy skies, members of Belgian and French Asbestos Victims' Associations from Dunkirk and Bourgogne marched side-by-side in the third annual demonstration organized by ABEVA, the Belgian Association of Asbestos Victims. Erik Jonckheere, ABEVA's Co-chairman, condemned the government which still refuses to recognize the plight of the asbestos injured.

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