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Scientists Urge Premier Of Quebec To Stop The Hypocrisy And Ban Asbestos Exports
By Thomas J. Lamb at AsbestosHUB.com | February 2, 2010
The Premier of Quebec, Jean Charest, has been placed under the scrutiny of scientists from 28 countries. These scientists are pleading with Charest to ban the export of all forms of asbestos. This call to action came forth just as Charest was preparing a trade mission to India, Quebec’s biggest importer of asbestos.
Asbestos is a dangerous fiber which causes deadly diseases which often take decades to emerge. Charest and Quebec are well aware of the dangers of asbestos and have strict regulations in place regarding its use in Quebec. In fact, Quebec uses “virtually none of the asbestos it mines because the substance can cause deadly diseases.” However, the asbestos is exported to developing countries where there are no such regulations and the dangers of asbestos are not well known, countries like India.
In a letter to Charest from the scientists, they chide, “We are extremely disturbed that the asbestos industry in India – Quebec’s No. 1 asbestos customer, with whom the Quebec industry works closely – has recently sent letters to a number of scientists in India saying that legal action will be taken against them if they do not retract their statements and published articles concerning the threat to health posed by chrysotile asbestos.” They say, “This seems to represent a high level of hypocrisy.” The scientists are convinced that Charest and his government are working with India’s asbestos industry to silence the Indian scientists speaking out against asbestos.
In an article from The Globe And Mail titled, Ban asbestos exports, scientists urge Charest, we are told:
Quebec government has zero tolerance for exposure to asbestos for workers in the province.
…based on scientific studies conducted mainly in the 50 countries that have banned chrysotile asbestos, there is no safe exposure level, and that even the
‘We find it shocking that the exposure level you endorse for people overseas is 10 times higher than the level permitted by all other provinces in Canada, by the U.S., by the European Union and by other Western industrialized countries. We call on you to show equal concern for the lives of workers in the developing world.’
With such an extreme example of hypocrisy exposed of Charest to the Quebec public, we can only hope that the scientists’ letter will not fall on deaf ears. We will watch with interest the chain of events that follows.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
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February 15th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
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