My personal story...based on my dad's death from mesothelioma in May 2011 with links to multiple short video documentary's on the export of Canadian asbestos.
3. Why me? Why asbestos?
• I would have asked the same question a little
over a year ago…
4.
5. But surely Canada is no longer
involved in the asbestos industry?
• Wrong
• Not only are we still involved, we export it to
60 countries, and are the 4th leading exporter
of asbestos
23. So…a little bit of history…
• Asbestos wasn't always a dirty word.
24. The 'magic mineral'
• Asbestos was first mined in Quebec in the 1870s.
In the mineral's heyday, Canada boasted the
world's biggest open pit mine, the Jeffrey Mine
located in the province's Eastern Townships. The
industry thrived and a town was even named
after it, Asbestos, Que., which used to wear the
moniker with pride.
28. • But by the late 1960s, the bloom was starting to fade. More and
more miners had shortness of breath, extreme fatigue and were
coughing up blood. Studies linking asbestos to voracious diseases
such as lung cancer, scarred lungs (asbestosis), and mesothelioma
(cancer of the stomach and chest, which is only caused by exposure
to asbestos) began to rack up.
• One of the very things that made asbestos so popular — its
indestructibility — was what also made it so vicious. Once a person
inhaled the deadly dust, it was impossible for the body to break the
fibres down and it eventually led to severe scarring and death.
29. • In the fall of 1974, Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, the world's foremost
authority on asbestos-related diseases, and a team of doctors
examined the miners at Thetford Mines in Quebec. He condemned
the working conditions as the worst on the continent, further
cementing asbestos' notorious legacy. The sentiment spread to
Baie Verte, Nfld., in 1978. Miners walked off the job and demanded
protections to reduce their exposure to the deadly asbestos dust.
The 15-week strike was the longest health-related strike in
Canadian history, and caught the nation's attention.
30. • Canada has spent the last 20-plus years trying
to rid our homes, schools and offices —
including Parliament Hill — of the dangerous
dust that was often loosely sprayed as
insulation.
32. • Our hospitals, however, are still dealing with the
aftereffects. In 2007, at an occupational health
clinic in Sarnia, Ont., nurses continue to register
almost one new patient a day with asbestos-
related cancer, such as mesothelioma, or
asbestosis, says the clinic's executive
director, Jim Brophy.
35. • In spite of health concerns, asbestos continues to be mined in
Canada. Our country is the second-largest exporter of the mineral
after Russia, shipping it mainly to developing countries such as
India and China.
• What's more, unlike countries in the European Union, as well as
Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia, Canada has not banned
asbestos. Rather, the federal government actively promotes its use
globally. An October 2008 editorial in the Canadian Medical
Association Journal criticizing asbestos exporting called Canada
"an avid asbestos cheerleader."
36.
37.
38. Rotterdam Convention…
• June 2011
• Harper’s Conservative Government blocks the
labeling of asbestos as a “hazardous
material”, and then brags about it in
Asbestos, Quebec…
39. And now?....
• The Chadha Family would like to re-open the
Jeffrey Mine and initiate the expansion of the
Canadian asbestos industry.
40. Junk Science
The Chrysotile Institute and weaving doubt…
From CBC The National Feb 2, 2012:
“Fatal Deception” and the Canadian “Voices of
Asbestos Victims” are making a difference…
