Health Canada Asbestos Report Withheld

Canada's Toronto Star newspaper has reported that the Canadian Government is withholding a damning report on asbestos on the eve of an international conference at which Canada plans to defend its export of the carcinogen.

The report was commissioned by 'Health Canada' to support the Conservative government's long-standing fight to keep chrysotile asbestos off a UN watch list, a position federal officials plan to argue at a convention in Rome this October.

But, according to 'The Star', members of an expert panel that produced the $100,000 report say the findings justify a ban on production and use in Canada.

Health Minister Tony Clement commissioned the report last year to determine the relative carcinogenic potency of chrysotile asbestos, which is linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma, which this week lead to the death of British MP John MacDougall. The panel's findings were made final in March but have yet to be released. A Health Canada spokesman said in an email the department is reviewing the report to "help further its knowledge of chrysotile asbestos fibres in relation to human health ... (and the report) will be made available to the public after the department has reviewed the findings."

The panel was originally criticised by opposition parties because it was believed some of its members were so-called asbestos supporters, however the report seems to back the position of asbestos campaigners world-wide.

That asbestos of all kinds are a killer. New Democrat MP Pat Martin, a supporter of a Canadian ban on asbestos, said "They want the world to believe that Quebec asbestos is somehow magically benign. ... It's cowardly and it's the very antithesis of transparency and accountability."

At a UN convention in 2006, the Canadian government successfully blocked a decision by more than 100 governments that would have required all exporters to label the product as hazardous.

There is only one mine still producing chrysotile asbestos in Canada which produced 13,000 tonnes in July, a four-year high.

Global consumption has increased almost 25 per cent in the last five years as a result of demand in developing countries such as India.

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Source: Risks / Toronto Star

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