1. ASBESTOS TO BANNED Angilene p. Capistrano BS Entrep II- B

2. BAN ASBESTOS Asbestos is a known killer and a leading cause of workers’ deaths in Canada and around the world. Most developed countries, including the European Union, have banned asbestos. The World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labor Organization, the Canadian Cancer Society and other respected organizations have called for a ban on all forms of asbestos. But instead of banning asbestos, the Canadian government uses tax-payers dollars and Canadian embassies to actively promote the sale of asbestos around the world.

4. Asbestos is the greatest industrial killer the world has ever known, yet Canada remains one of the largest producers and exporters in the world, dumping more that 220,000 tons a year into developing nations, where health and safety standards are often negligible or not enforced. There is no safe level of asbestos. A single fiber can cause asbestos-related disease. The World Health Organization, the International Lab our Organization and the Canadian Cancer Society agree that all types of asbestos should be banned. Yet Canada stubbornly and aggressively continues to push it all over the world. Without exaggeration, we are exporting human misery on a monumental scale. Many Canadians think asbestos is banned already in Canada, and they’d be horrified to learn that successive federal governments have spent a fortune in taxpayers’ money promoting the industry. Our foreign trade commissions soften up foreign customers and host asbestos-promotion events right in our embassies. The federal government has given approximately $30-million to the industry directly in recent years. And our government eagerly supports the asbestos industry by sending teams of department of justice lawyers around the world like globe-trotting propagandists, to block countries from banning asbestos and to strong-arm small weak countries into keeping asbestos off the international lists of hazardous materials like the Rotterdam Convention.

5. Asbestos was banned in all home construction uses beginning in 1990, but beware: pre 1990 products might have been used in some homes built shortly afterwards. One should note that some of these products contain such small amounts of asbestos, or asbestos in forms not easily converted to airborne fibers (non-friable), that the risk from the product is likely to be very small. One might elect to dispose of an old asbestos-containing toaster, but not to hire an environmental test firm or asbestos abatement company for that procedure. In the late 1970s, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) banned the use of asbestos in wallboard patching compounds and gas fireplaces because the asbestos fibers in these products could be released into the environment during use. Additionally, in 1979, manufacturers of electric hairdryers voluntarily stopped using asbestos in their products. In 1989, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned all new uses of asbestos; uses established prior to 1989 are still allowed. The EPA ... established regulations that require school systems to inspect for damaged asbestos and to eliminate or reduce the exposure to occupants by removing the asbestos or encasing it (2).

6. Banned under the Clean Air Act: Most spray-applied Surfacing ACM Sprayed-on application of materials containing more than 1% asbestos to buildings, structures, pipes, and conduits unless the material is encapsulated with a bituminous or resinous binder during spraying and the materials are not friable after drying. Wet-applied and pre-formed asbestos pipe insulation, and pre-formed asbestos block insulation on boilers and hot water tanks. Banned under the Toxic Substances Control Act: Corrugated paper, rollboard, commercial paper, specialty paper, flooring felt, and new uses of asbestos. Product categories that are no longer banned under TSCA include Asbestos -cement corrugated sheet, asbestos-cement flat sheet, vinyl-asbestos floor tile, asbestos-cement shingle, and millboard Asbestos clothing Asbestos-cement pipe and pipeline wrap Automatic transmission components, clutch facings, friction materials, disc brake pads, drum brake linings, brake blocks, and gaskets Non-roofing coatings, roofing felt, and roof coatings.

7. As the use of asbestos cloth spread in the classical era, the ancients ... began to notice that there were negative health effects associated with this magical substance. Slaves who were forced to extract the fibers from asbestos-bearing rock and weave the asbestos cloths commonly developed diseases of the lungs. Possibly because of this, the use of asbestos declined in later centuries and by the Middle Ages t[he substance was no longer in widespread use, although there were some exceptions. Some historians report that Charlemagne had an asbestos tablecloth for use at state banquets, and it is known that Marco Polo returned from China with reports of items made from asbestos fiber. Since the 1960s, asbestos has been recognized as a potent carcinogen and serious health hazard. Inhalation of airborne asbestos fibers has been established as the cause of asbestosis (thickening and scarring of lung tissue) and as a cause of mesothelioma (a highly lethal tumor of the pleura) as well as of cancers of the lung, intestines, and liver. In 1972, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration began regulating asbestos and strengthening work safety standards. Large class action lawsuits were filed and won against asbestos companies, which had probable prior knowledge of the dangers involved. In 1989, the Environmental Protection Agency imposed a ban on 94% of U.S. asbestos production and imports, to be phased in over a seven year period. Most current asbestos exposure comes from asbestos in older buildings and products such as automobile brakes.

8. ASBESTOS