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An article and video uploaded last week by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, repeated calls by asbestos victims and campaigners for a prioritized nationwide asbestos eradication program (VIDEO: Retired WA teacher with mesothelioma pushes for asbestos disposal). The stories focused on retired teacher Kerry Wynn-Taylor, who is living on “borrowed time,” having contracted asbestos cancer. Ms Wynn-Taylor is calling on the Government to coordinate and finance work “to safely dispose of more than six million tonnes of ageing asbestos… from buildings across the country.” See: National push to remove millions of tonnes of asbestos from homes to save thousands of lives.

Discussions are ongoing at the heart of the Swiss Government about how the bill for asbestos compensation is to be covered and who should be eligible for payouts under the national scheme. Following the approval of an amendment to the Accident Insurance Act on September 13, 2024 by Switzerland’s Federal Council, the Swiss Insurance Institute (SUVA) will in future “contribute to the compensation of victims of asbestos-related diseases who are not covered by insurance.” See: Maladies liées à l’amiante: «Il serait peut-être temps de réallouer ces coûts à la bonne caisse» [Asbestos-related diseases: “It may be time to reallocate these costs to the right fund”].

Responding to a three-month ultimatum by Kenyan Environment Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale for the removal of asbestos roofing from the built environment, the Kenya Chemical Society (KCS) called on the Government to ensure that decontamination work strictly adhered to recommended procedures, citing the health risks to workers as well as members of the public posed by the hasty and ill-prepared removal and disposal of asbestos-containing material. KCS member Joseck Alwala urged the Government to work with KCS personnel who can provide the expertise needed for the development of asbestos waste management protocols. See: State urged to ensure proper disposal of asbestos after Duale’s ultimatum.

The news has been reported from multiple Labor Courts in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais of increased compensation payouts in lawsuits brought by workers for asbestos-related diseases. In a recent trial the amount of damages awarded was raised from R$40,000 (US$7,050) to R$200,000 (US$35,300) by a panel of the Superior Labor Tribunal (TST); another TST panel increased the damages in a similar case from R$50,000 (US$8,900) to R$300,000 (US$53,310) whilst another raised the compensation awarded from R$200,000 (US$35,300) to R$600,000 (US$206,625). See: TST aumenta indenizações a trabalhadores expostos a amianto [TST increases compensation for workers exposed to asbestos].

The continued use of asbestos in Sri Lanka, which had issued national asbestos prohibitions in 2018, continues to endanger the lives of all its citizens. The ban was postponed after intensive economic pressure from Russia, the country which continues to be the main asbestos supplier to Sri Lanka. The findings of research contained in this year’s “Asbestos Investigation Report in Sri Lanka,” supported calls by medical, scientific and environmental experts for an immediate asbestos ban to protect the lives of all Sri Lankans. See: අපේ රටෙත් තැන තැන ඇස්බැස්ටස් දූෂක කාරක [Asbestos pollutants are everywhere in our country!].

Research published this Summer (ACT Asbestos Health Study II) reported an increased asbestos cancer risk for males who had lived in Canberra homes contaminated with Mr. Fluffy sprayed asbestos insulation. “We found,” said Principal Investigator Professor Rosemary Korda “that men who had lived in an asbestos-affected home at some point since 1984 were 2.7 times more likely to develop mesothelioma compared to the rest of the ACT [Australian Capital Territory] male population.” There was also an elevated incidence of colorectal cancer amongst men and women who had lived in Mr Fluffy homes. See: Research Finds Asbestos Raises Cancer Risk for ACT Residents.

The death was announced on September 11, 2024 of Romana Blasotti Pavesi, who for decades had led the fight for asbestos justice in the bereaved Italian town of Casale Monferrato. Having lost her husband, sister and daughter to asbestos-related diseases, Romana played a pivotal role in mobilizing the fight to hold the owners and managers of the Eternit Asbestos Group to account for the deaths their operations caused not only to workers and family members but also to local people. See: Addio a Romana Blasotti Pavesi, pasionaria della lotta all'amianto [Farewell to Romana Blasotti Pavesi, a passionate advocate for the fight against asbestos].

On September 6, 2024, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology published the results of a survey on the use of asbestos-containing insulation materials in school buildings and other facilities. Since the inspections undertaken 5 years ago, 2/3 of the structures, 72 in total, still contained deteriorated or damaged asbestos-containing insulation. Details of the investigation results were published on the Ministry's website. See: 学校施設のアスベスト、劣化・損傷する保温材72機関が保有…文科省 [Asbestos in school facilities, insulation material that deteriorates and is damaged, owned by 72 institutions…Ministry of Education].

On September 10, 2024, Commissioner Thierry Breton, on behalf of the European Commission, provided an answer to a parliamentary question about asbestos. According to the response: “The Commission recognizes the dangers of asbestos. The revised Asbestos at work Directive lays down limit values for workers’ exposure to asbestos, as well as sets obligations for employers to identify and address asbestos risks in buildings… The Commission has been engaging with EU citizens, national authorities and stakeholders to prepare the proposal on the screening and registration of asbestos in buildings… an impact assessment has been prepared to identify the optimal combination of measures.” See: Parliamentary question - E-001432/2024(ASW). Answer given by Mr Breton on behalf of the European Commission.

News was released this week of an asbestos event in Scotland to be held by the Social Housing Safety Network on October 8, 2024 at the Merchants House of Glasgow. During a full day of presentations, delegates representing social housing providers in Scotland will be informed about state-of-the-art asbestos management techniques. Subjects which will be discussed include: legislative requirements for social landlords, the need for asbestos surveys and re-inspections, the compilation of asbestos registers and understanding and operating Asbestos Management Plans. See: Asbestos Management in Social Housing: The Practical Approach.

A spokesperson for the Municipal Audit Committee in Busan, Korea announced on September 8, 2024 that asbestos surveys undertaken at 135 public buildings managed by Busan City and 16 districts and counties over a 40-day period last spring had found multiple examples of hazardous conditions. The inspectors discovered that many public buildings had not been properly assessed for the risk of asbestos contamination and that many of them still contained friable material. As a result of these unsatisfactory findings, the asbestos management system was being “comprehensively reorganized.” See: “암에 걸릴 수도 있는데…” 부산시 공공 석면 건축물 관리 부실 [“You could get cancer…” Poor management of public asbestos [containing] buildings in Busan].

On September 29, 2024, a coalition of civil society stakeholders, including the Japan Asbestos & Mesothelioma Society and the medical oncology department at Okayama University Hospital, is holding a seminar on the medical treatment of mesothelioma patients. The event will take place at the Convention Center, Okayama City, Japan. The program will feature presentations by Shinichi Fujimoto, vice president of the Society, and Dr. Tei Goto of the National Rare Cancer Center who will talk about new mesothelioma treatments. Information will also be made available about a Kansai-based mesothelioma patient group. See: 「中皮腫」治療テーマにセミナー　２９日、岡山 [Seminar on the theme of “mesothelioma” treatment 29th, Okayama, Japan].

On September 3, 2024, France's Supreme Court rejected appeals on behalf of asbestos victims against a 2023 decision by the Paris Court of Appeal which dismissed charges against asbestos company executives who had been indicted for manslaughter and unintentional injury. This was the latest in a series of defeats for asbestos victims and their legal representatives in their 30+ year battle to hold to account some of the people responsible for a national epidemic killing thousands of French men and women every year. See: Amiante: non-lieu définitif dans le dossier Eternit [Asbestos: definitive dismissal of Eternit case].

Last week, a representative from the Building and Wood Workers Trade Union Federation of Cambodia (BWTUC) appealed to the Ministry of Labour to introduce regulations to restrict and prevent the use of asbestos, an acknowledged carcinogen, in construction materials, to protect occupational health. According to the BWTUC President Sok Kin, long-term exposure to asbestos impacts people’s health and causes health problems, such as asbestosis and lung cancer. The BWTUC, said Sok Kin, is happy to partner with the government in efforts to raise asbestos awareness among workers. See: Building union asks Labour Ministry to act on asbestos.

The surviving family of lung cancer victim Luigi Pennacchietti will receive compensation of €500,000 (US$552,200) for his death at 37 years old from an asbestos-related disease following a decision by the Rome Court of Appeal. The defendant COTRAL, a public transport company from Lazio, had been negligent in failing to take precautions to protect electromechanic Pennacchietti from asbestos exposures during the nine years he was employed at the company’s workshops. See: Amianto, un’altra condanna. Questa volta c’è la concausa [Top of FormAsbestos, another conviction. This time there is [identification of] the contributing cause].

A national directive issued on August 28, 2024 by the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry Aden Duale mandated the removal of asbestos roofing sheets from all public and private buildings within the next three months. Duale instructed the National Environment Management Authority to audit the location of this toxic material throughout the country as a preliminary step to removing the hazardous material in order to enhance public safety and protect citizens from the known health risks associated with asbestos exposure. See: State Orders Removal of Asbestos Roofs in 90 Days.

In a place long forgotten by the industrial enterprises which abused its people and polluted their land, a human-made miracle is taking place. From September 2 until September 20, 2024 an asbestos taskforce is providing free health screening for 450 individuals from the towns of Bom Jesus da Serra, Poçes, Caetanos and Planalto in the Brazilian State of Bahia. The bulk of the funding for this program was allocated from money impounded by the Labor Public Ministry from penalties paid by defendants which had been convicted of failing to provide mandatory occupational protections for their workers. [Read full article]

September 3, 2024 marked a turning point in the 30-year French battle for asbestos justice. A struggle to hold to account some of the people responsible for the country’s deadly asbestos epidemic collapsed when the Court of Cassation (Supreme Court) issued a ruling upholding a 2023 dismissal by the Paris Court of Appeals of criminal charges against executives of the country’s biggest asbestos group: Eternit. This was the latest in a series of defeats faced by asbestos victims and their legal representatives. More than a hundred years after Labor Inspector Denis Auribault reported excess mortality of asbestos workers in a textile factory in Condé-sur-Noireau, Calvados, French courts continue to fail the victims. Shame on them! [Read full article]

Until the 1970s, Canada was the world’s largest asbestos producer with mines in Quebec, British Columbia and Newfoundland. Although it was soon to be overtaken by output from mines in Soviet Russia, Canada remained the global asbestos cheerleader for decades to come. The price paid for Canada’s asbestos profits included lives shortened and families shattered. A national epidemic of asbestos-related diseases, discoveries of asbestos material contained within the national infrastructure and the perennial problem of what to do with huge mountains of asbestos mining waste continue long after the asbestos cash flow evaporated. [Read full article]

An insightful podcast broadcast on the BBC this summer raised the profile of the hazard posed by the presence of talc in make-up, cosmetics and personal hygiene products in the UK. The first 14-minute episode of “Talc Tales” – part of the How They Made Us Doubt Everything series – featured the case of British woman Hannah Fletcher, who was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma at the age of 41. Ms. Fletcher believed that she contracted the signature asbestos cancer as a result of exposures to toxic talcum powder. Spurred by this allegation, podcaster Phoebe Keane submitted the contents of her make-up bag for analysis. The results, which were delivered in the last of the five episodes, validated the ongoing hazard posed by the use of talc in cosmetics. [Read full article]

In a joint press release issued on August 20, 2024, representatives of asbestos victims and trade unionists from Asia, Europe, Latin America and Australia expressed concern over recent developments at Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF), an esteemed and venerable institution. According to the official court schedule, the verdict on the unconstitutionality of a state law allowing asbestos mining and exporting to continue despite a national ban was expected on August 14. Without a word of warning or explanation, the case disappeared from the court docket. An appeal was made to the STF to “take the right course of action and reschedule the delivery of this ruling for the earliest opportunity” (Clique aqui para ler a versão em português). [Read full article]

Even though it is winter now in Brazil, Christmas has come early for Eternit SA, the country’s sole remaining asbestos producer. The week beginning August 12, 2024 was a bumper one for the company with plaudits a-plenty and gifts raining down. As Eternit emerged from more than six years of a court-supervised judicial reorganization process, it was lauded as an inspiration to Brazilian corporations “as a valuable example of how companies in crisis can reinvent themselves and thrive.” Contemporaneous developments at the Supreme Court and Goiás State Legislature made it abundantly clear that Eternit, whose asbestos exports are worth US $4,750,000+ per month, still had plenty of influential friends left. [Read full article]

As global demand collapses and competitors crowd into remaining markets, the Russian asbestos behemoth is weakening. At the same time as Russia’s traditional customer base is disintegrating, competitors in Kazakhstan and China are developing new trade routes and streamlining logistics to capitalize on the woes of Russian suppliers. As demand continues to decline, market forces may succeed where the Russian government has failed. With dwindling sales, Russia’s once mighty asbestos industry may no longer be financially viable. Time will tell. [Read full article]

In the compilation of the July 25, 2024 asbestos news items for IBAS, I noticed a pattern in the content available. The developments reported on that day from Asia, Europe and North America illustrated the evolution of the global asbestos agenda from the early days of promotion to the end stage of eradication with a stop en route to address claims by the injured. With so much political uncertainty and social instability on the horizon, it is reassuring to see that progress is being made to end the global epidemic of asbestos-related diseases and provide justice for the injured. The sooner humankind transitions to asbestos-free technology, the safer the world will be. [Read full article]

If asbestos producers have their way, the global epidemic of asbestos-related deaths could well continue into the 25th century. And yet asbestos, in all its forms, is categorized as a Group 1 carcinogen (“carcinogenic to humans”) by the International Agency on Research for Cancer. According to data published on July 22, 2024 in The Lancet, Asia bears the highest disease burden of lung cancer, with 63.1% of newly diagnosed lung cancers and 62.9% of lung cancer deaths occurring in the region…” It is no coincidence that the region with “the highest disease burden of lung cancer” is also the region with the highest consumption of asbestos. [Read full article]

At an art exhibition held in Dundee, Scotland on May 9, 2024 by the Scottish asbestos charity Asbestos Action, ten original portraits of asbestos victims by artist Craig Semple were displayed. The objective of the event was to show that people are “much more than their diagnoses.” Commenting on the day, the Charity’s General Manager Dianne Foster said: “Every single person who is diagnosed with an asbestos-related condition has a life, has a family, has friends, and it is a very unfair situation that people have been exposed to asbestos.” Positive feedback was received from many of the hundred or so people who attended the showing. [Read full article]

Last week, millions of readers of major UK newspapers were reminded of the country’s tragic asbestos legacy in stories about asbestos-related deaths from occupational, second-hand and environmental exposures. Almost simultaneously, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) released figures confirming the continuation of the epidemic which has been killing Britons for over a century. According to new HSE data, 5,000 people+ die annually from asbestos-related diseases including mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, cancers of the larynx and stomach; there is no data for the number of asbestos-related deaths caused by cancers of the ovary and pharynx. Calls are being made for the new Labour Government to take action on this national scandal. [Read full article]

The death of Robert Vojakovic was announced on June 27, 2024. Robert was a star in the galaxy of asbestos campaigners: he was indefatigable, incontrovertible and irrepressible. Coming from thousands of miles away, Robert Vojakovic grew to represent the very best of Australian values in his fight for a “Fair Go” for workers in his new country. Over the span of fifty years, he devoted his time and energy initially as a volunteer, latterly as the President of the Australian Diseases Society of Australia, to making manifest the devastating impact asbestos exposures had had on miners, millers, transport workers and family members from the infamous asbestos mining town of Wittenoom, where he himself once worked. [Read full article]

The news released last week that Russia’s Ministry of Health (MoH) was considering plans to recognize occupational cancers, including those caused by exposures to asbestos, as industrial diseases was as huge a surprise to ban asbestos campaigners as it was a shock to Russian vested interests. The consultation period was due to close yesterday (June 17, 2024). No doubt the MoH received angry complaints from Orenburg Minerals, Uralasbest and other asbestos stakeholders over the implicit threat to the substance at the heart of their enterprises. After all, if asbestos is hazardous enough to be on the authorized list of diseases caused by occupational exposures in Russia, then the industry propaganda which affirms that asbestos use is safe is patently untrue, as we all know it to be. [Read full article]

Late on June 11, 2024, Italy’s Supreme Court (the Court of Cassation) announced that it had overturned a decision by the Palermo Court of Appeal which had nullified a first-instance guilty verdict for the asbestos deaths of 39 shipyard workers and the serious injuries sustained by 11 other employees. The lower court had ruled that the negligence of executives Giuseppe Cortesi and Antonio Cipponeri had resulted in dangerous workplace asbestos exposures at the Fincantieri S.p.A. shipyard in Palermo in the 1980s. The Court of Appeal rejected this decision saying that exposure to asbestos at the company’s shipyard in Palermo had ceased in the early 1980s. The Supreme Court found the decision of the Appeal Court “erroneous” and ordered a new hearing. [Read full article]

I’d seen it with my own eyes but hadn’t believed it. However, in the aftermath of an explosive article on the news portal of Deutsche Welle, a German state-owned international broadcaster, I’m convinced. Last year, Brazil solidified its position as the number one supplier of asbestos to India, toppling Russia into second place. Russia’s reversal of fortunes was first observed in 2022 when Indian import data recorded 169,134 tonnes (t) from Brazil and 145,398t from Russia. The slide continued in 2023, with shipments of 160,720t of Brazilian asbestos to India. This news has repercussions that far transcend mere reals, rupees and rubles: let me explain. [Read full article]

“Sportswashing” is the latest weapon in the arsenal of tricks wielded by asbestos conglomerates to decontaminate corporate names sullied by decades of wanton behaviour, workforce deaths and environmental crimes. Around the world, former and current asbestos companies are attempting to restore their brands by a public relations sleight of hand, attaching their name to that of a popular team or sporting event. The contentious nature of this technique was confirmed last week by the reaction of sports fans in Parramatta, New South Wales who vociferously condemned a renewal of links between the local rugby team and James Hardie, formerly Australia’s largest asbestos conglomerate. [Read full 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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