Abstract Archive

Against the backdrop of a continuing decrease in global asbestos consumption, work to quantify and address toxic industrial legacies was continued this year by grassroots campaigners, civil society stakeholders, national, regional and international authorities. Amongst high-profile topics debated in multiple jurisdictions were the asbestos contamination of schools, water delivery systems and the built environment; the risks posed by asbestos in personal hygiene products and cosmetics; and the unregulated and unsafe dumping of asbestos waste. Technological developments and the building of infrastructure by asbestos stakeholders made manifest their intention to continue profiting from asbestos sales despite the health hazards. It is clear that despite our many successes, much work remains to be done. [Read full article]

Donald Trump and Asbestos – A Global Perspective

Dec 11, 2024

In light of many positive comments he has made over the last 30+ years about the efficacy of asbestos – eg. “asbestos is the greatest fireproofing material ever used” – international campaigners have been discussing what the new Presidency of Donald Trump could mean for the global asbestos dialogue. Two US experts consulted by the author of this article felt that given the small amount of asbestos used in the US now and the pending abolition of most uses, Trump would have little interest in attacking the new asbestos prohibitions being introduced. One can but hope. [Read full article]

In Defense of Ban Asbestos Campaigners

Dec 5, 2024

Last week, global ban asbestos groups issued a joint press release in defence of Indonesian activists at the Independent Consumer Protection Institute (LPKSM), the Yasa Nata Budi Foundation and the Indonesian Ban Asbestos Network (INABAN) working to protect the population from deadly exposures to asbestos. In a blatant disregard for occupational and public health, the Fiber Cement Manufacturing Association – a powerful and well-resourced trade association representing the interests of the asbestos industry – is suing the campaigners for “massive damages” after a Supreme Court ruling upheld their petition to mandate labelling on asbestos products. [Read full article]

Action on the Asbestos Hazard in the Pacific Region

Dec 2, 2024

Mobilization on the asbestos hazard has been ongoing in Pacific Islands Countries and Territories for a number of years with work by personnel from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme and partnering organizations bringing positive results, such as the 2024 ban on asbestos imports and use in the Republic of Nauru (gazetted on October 10 and 30, respectively). Significant developments in protecting populations from deadly asbestos exposures have also been achieved in Niue, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. In the shadow of the UN’s 29th Climate Change Conference, it is clearer than ever that asbestos technology is neither sustainable nor acceptable and must be banned. [Read full article]

IBAS 25th Anniversary Review

Nov 28, 2024

The International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) was founded in November 1999 by Laurie Kazan-Allen in collaboration with colleagues in North and Latin America, Asia, Europe and Australia to achieve justice for the injured and coalesce the global fight to ban asbestos. Over the next 25 years, this virtual consortium of activists organized, sponsored or participated in events and initiated or supported projects to achieve these objectives on six continents. The article marking IBAS’ 25th anniversary recalled the challenges faced, the memories amassed, the victories achieved and the setbacks faced. Input from global ban asbestos campaigners included in this review delineated the “IBAS Effect” as they experienced it. [Read full article]

Call for urgent action to ban asbestos in Malaysia

Nov 21, 2024

On November 19 & 20, 2024, delegates from Southeast Asia, Australia and Japan convened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a meeting organized by the Asian Ban Asbestos Network (ABAN), its international and local partners. At the completion of the event, a joint press release was issued calling on the Malaysian Government “to urgently impose an outright ban on all types of asbestos products being manufactured in the country and halt any further imports of chrysotile asbestos fibre.” According to Malaysian trade union official David Arul, asbestos use “persists in several Malaysian industries, exposing countless workers to preventable harm.” [Read full article]

Behind the BRICS Curtain

Nov 13, 2024

Some might think that the holding last month (October 2024) of a meeting in Russia to progress peace and stability amongst nations belonging to the BRICS coalition might be deemed inappropriate given Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukraine. Nevertheless, representatives of 35 countries and 6 international organizations turned up in droves to the 16th annual BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia. The participants were addressed by President Putin who spoke of “mutual respect,” “open dialogue,” and “sovereign policies.” A mysterious article, which appeared and disappeared after a few hours, however, revealed that Russia’s motivation for the creation and support of BRICS was totally self-serving, citing its importance in expanding foreign markets for home-grown asbestos. [Read full article]

UK’s Enduring Asbestos Shame

Oct 29, 2024

In recent weeks there has been a flurry of media coverage in newspapers and online about various aspects of the UK’s asbestos epidemic. Simultaneously, the Daily Mail launched a campaign – Asbestos: Britain's Hidden Killer – to establish a digital national asbestos database to prevent avoidable exposures as part of “a long-term strategic plan to eradicate asbestos risk from British infrastructure.” It’s pretty damning that more than a century after the asbestos hazard was first acknowledged by the British Government, so little has been done. One can but hope that the new 335 MPs, who constitute a majority of the House of Commons, will be more proactive on this deadly workplace hazard than their predecessors. [Read full article]

Pressure Builds for Asbestos Ban in Mexico!

Oct 24, 2024

Proposals to ban asbestos are currently under consideration by the Mexican Congress with a discussion of the latest draft of the Asbestos Eradication Law scheduled for October 24, 2024 in the Legislative Palace. For years medical experts and civil society groups in Mexico have been calling for action on the asbestos hazard. Now that asbestos use has dwindled to 40 tonnes/year, these calls are being acted on. The loss of the Mexican asbestos market will have less of an impact than the loss of support from Mexican asbestos stakeholders who have vigorously participated in initiatives by industry lobbyists to influence national, regional and global asbestos dialogues. [Read full article]

China’s Asbestos Conundrum

Oct 18, 2024

As the 21st century dawned, China was both the world’s second biggest asbestos-consuming (382,315 tonnes/t) and producing (315,000t) country. By 2022, however, annual usage had fallen to 261,000t (a decrease of 32%) and production to 130,000t (a 59% fall). Figures for the last few years corroborated the continued decline. The reason for this U-turn was explained in a paper published last month which stated that China’s official policy on asbestos had undergone a major shift in 2013-14; intriguingly, the co-authors gave no more information and declined to provide footnotes to substantiate this statement. This being the case, the content of another September article was in direct contrast to observed trends. Want to know more…. [Read full article]

Industry Attacks Consumers Historic Win Against Chrysotile Asbestos

Oct 14, 2024

Just when you thought you had seen it all, you realize you were wrong. The lengths to which asbestos pushers will go to continue to ride the asbestos gravy train truly knows no bounds. This year, an asbestos trade association – Indonesia’s Fibre Cement Manufacturers’ Association (FICMA) – is trialing a new legal stratagem designed to: counteract a Supreme Court ruling unfavorable to the asbestos sector and cower campaigners brave enough to challenge the industry’s dominance. The audacity of this legal manoeuvre is breathtaking and, to my knowledge, totally unprecedented. The FICMA lawsuit, which targeted the consumers’ protection organization that had petitioned the Supreme Court to mandate Government action on the asbestos hazard, is claiming substantial damages from the NGO for loss of future profits. [Read full article]

Remembering Romana Blasotti Pavesi 1929-2024

Sep 22, 2024

Romana Blasotti Pavesi was a member of a club that no one wanted to join; she lost her husband Mario, daughter Maria Rosa, son Ottavio, sister Libera, nephew Enrico and cousin Anna to the asbestos cancer mesothelioma. Only Mario had worked with asbestos. All the others had been exposed to carcinogenic fibers in the built environment and in the air of their home town Casale Monferrato, the municipality at the center of Italy’s asbestos epidemic. In the face of her own losses and those of so many others, Romana dedicated her life to “the fight against asbestos.” The news of Romana’s death, at the age of 95 on September 11, 2024, sparked off intensive media coverage at home and a global outpouring of appreciation from fellow campaigners. [Read full article]

September Miracle in Northeastern Brazil!

Sep 16, 2024

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]

French Justice is Deaf as well as Blind

Sep 6, 2024

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]

Paying a Catastrophic Price for Canada’s Asbestos Riches

Sep 3, 2024

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]

Summer 2024 Update: Toxic Talc

Aug 27, 2024

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]

Press Release: Mystery at the Brazilian Supreme Court

Aug 20, 2024

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]

Christmas for Eternit in Brazil

Aug 19, 2024

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]

Russia’s Asbestos Cash Cow under Threat?

Aug 13, 2024

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]

July 2024 Snapshot of Global Asbestos Panorama

Jul 26, 2024

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]

Sacrificing Even More Lives for Asbestos Profits

Jul 18, 2024

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]

Asbestos Action Art Exhibition: Capturing Life

Jul 16, 2024

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]

One Nation’s Asbestos Catastrophe

Jul 8, 2024

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]

A Stranger to Their Shores: Robert Vojakovic 1940-2024.

Jul 1, 2024

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]

Russian Ministry Planning Action on Asbestos Hazard

Jun 18, 2024

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]