Asbestos Supplement
The excellent Special Report on Asbestos which appeared in issue 17 the TUTB Newsletter covers a range of developments including the World Trade Organization (WTO) case, the incidence of asbestos-related diseases in Canada, moves by Australia, Chile and Brazil to ban asbestos, proposals for new European Union regulations and an attempt by industry to silence a well-known Brazilian campaigner. Author Laurent Vogel is appalled at the scale of the global asbestos problem:
"While it is impossible to put a precise figure on the number of victims claimed by asbestos in the 20th century, the death toll from cancers and pulmonary fibrosis runs at least into the hundreds of thousands. In many industrial countries today total asbestos-related deaths have outstripped the number of total workplace accidents. There are various reasons why prevention policies have signally failed to address this, chief among them the relentless drive for profits and some multinationals’ ferocious opposition to effective prevention."
The articles can be viewed at: http://www.etuc.org/tutb/uk/newsletter.html
_______
December 1, 2001
