Asbestos Industry
For over one hundred years, asbestos was an integral part of the industrialization process. Powerful commercial interests developed increasingly sophisticated methods to popularize asbestos and extend its markets; the fact that asbestos killed workers, family members, consumers and the public did not deter the insatiable pursuit of profit. Asbestos producers lied to national governments, trade unions, workers and customers about the dangerous nature of their raw material. They suppressed adverse scientific findings and pressurized editors to omit contentious news about asbestos from the pages of trade and academic journals. Even after all that has been learned about the deadly effects of asbestos on humanity and the environment, billions of dollars of industry money are being spent on commissioned research to “substantiate” the latest pro-asbestos propaganda [See Barry Castleman's review of Defending the Indefensible: The Global Asbestos Industry and its Fight for Survival, by Jock McCulloch & Geoffrey Tweedale, the Press Launch of "Defending the Indefensible" and the Article by Laurie Kazan-Allen with the same title; also relevant are Asbestos Resources, Secrecy and Subterfuge in Switzerland, and “Swiss” Asbestos Expert was Paid by the Brazilian Asbestos Industry].
Throughout the 20th century, Canada was the world's largest producer of asbestos [The Fallacy of Controlled Use]. The industry's financial clout gave Canadian asbestos stakeholders unique access to regional and federal politicians who willingly did their bidding [The Asbestos War,European Asbestos Conference: Policy, Health and Human Rights].
Canadian embassies and civil servants are heavily implicated in efforts by the asbestos lobby to promote the “controlled use of asbestos” in developing countries, despite the fact that Canada itself refuses to use the deadly fiber [Canada's Asbestos Shame, Asian Asbestos Conference 2006].
In many ways, the efforts of the asbestos industry to exploit the commercial potential of the “magic mineral,” has replicated that of another pariah business: big tobacco. For decades, asbestos companies Johns-Manville (U.S.), Turner & Newall Ltd. (UK) and Eternit (Switzerland, Belgium etc.) worked to control market fluctuations and develop strategies to challenge damaging discoveries [multiple references in: European Asbestos Conference: Policy, Health and Human Rights].
Asbestos bankruptcies caused by litigation for asbestos-related illness began in the U.S. and spread to Europe; leading UK asbestos groups have sought refuge in court-sanctioned schemes to ring-fence their asbestos-related liabilities [T&N: Who Gets What?, Federal Mogul's New offer to (UK?) Creditors].
Elsewhere in Europe and Australia, courts are upholding judgments for asbestos victims with varied types of exposure and issuing jail sentences for negligent asbestos company executives [Eternit Negligent for Toxic Waste, Jail Time for Eternit Executives, Secrecy and Subterfuge in Switzerland, Asbestos Pigeons Coming Home to Roost, Medical and Legal Developments in Australia].
Although the days of the asbestos multinationals are coming to an end [The Times They are A-Changing], nationally-owned asbestos companies such as those in India continue to pressurize their governments to maintain the status quo [The Rotterdam Convention: Fighting for its Life, Chrysotile Asbestos: Hazardous to Humans, Deadly to the Rotterdam Convention, What Price the Truth?, Killing the Future – Asbestos Use in Asia].
Due to industry's influence, representatives of the Government of India blocked United Nations plans to regulate the global trade in asbestos-contaminated waste and the export of asbestos fiber [September: A Month of Mixed Fortunes].
As industrialized nations seek to exert a modicum of damage limitation by banning or restricting the use of asbestos, consumption is increasing in the developing world [The Times They Are A-Changing, India's Asbestos Time Bomb, Asbestos Olympics?, Killing the Future – Asbestos Use in Asia].
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Updated October 2009
