Quoted from http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Politics/20111120/more-tories-uneasy-with-government-position-on-asbestos-111120/

More Tories uneasy with gov’t position on asbestos

The Canadian Press

Date: Sunday Nov. 20, 2011 9:05 PM ET

A growing number of Conservative MPs are questioning their government’s position on the export of asbestos, with a group of them independently summoning industry experts to a meeting on Parliament Hill last week.

Solid caucus discipline has been one of Stephen Harper’s political achievements over six years in power. While open revolt over asbestos hasn’t erupted, clear faultlines over government resistance to having the substance listed as hazardous internationally suggest the prime minister may be forced to deal with a rare case of internal dissent.

The first public cracks in the Conservative party line came on Nov. 1, when five Tory MPs broke ranks and abstained from an NDP vote that would have banned asbestos exports.

That was followed last Monday with a private Parliament Hill meeting that saw about a dozen Conservative parliamentarians ask some pointed questions of the Chrysotile Institute and industry scientists over several hours.

British Columbia MP Mark Warawa, who has expressed his concerns about asbestos in the past, organized the meeting. He said in an interview that he is simply looking for more facts.

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Quoted from http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/call-for-tv-asbestos-warnings/story-e6frfku0-1226192146140

Call for TV asbestos warnings

• From: AAP
• November 11, 2011 8:06AM

ASBESTOS warnings should be broadcast by all television networks during home renovation programs, says the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia (ADFA) says.

The call comes after the Nine Network announced it would broadcast warnings about the dangers of asbestos on The Block.

“We’ve been worried for some time that the home renovation craze could produce a second wave of asbestos-related illness, so Channel Nine’s decision is absolutely vital,” ADFA president Barry Robson said in a statement today.

“The other networks need to show a similar level of responsibility.”

Unions NSW has also welcomed Nine’s decision.

“There is no safe level of exposure to asbestos, and Channel Nine’s decision is crucially important,” Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon said in a statement.

Seven hundred Australians die every year from mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

Quoted from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-08/canada-condemned-for-continuing-asbestos-exports/3653384

Canada under fire over asbestos exports

Matt Peacock and staff

Updated November 08, 2011 22:53:26

A Canadian health expert has described his government as a “purveyor of death” for continuing to export asbestos to India.

Asbestos is virtually banned in Canada, but the government is assisting plans to reopen a Quebec mine to export asbestos to India, its biggest customer.

Quebec’s Jeffrey mine would see a tripling of Canadian chrysotile, or white asbestos production, most of it bound for India.

The Canadian opposition this month challenged the government to end the asbestos trade, with health authorities warning that India’s increasing use of the mineral is likely to cause an epidemic of asbestos-related deaths in decades to come.

Ottawa University Professor Amir Attaran, who along with other international health experts have condemned Canada’s trade, has spoken out about the export decision.

“It amounts to Canada being a purveyor of death around the world,” he said.

“Our country is an exporter of a deadly substance and we enjoy it – at least our federal government does.”

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Quoted from http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/11/03/18921571.html

 

Victims reject plans for mine

ASBESTOS

 

By QMI Agency

Last Updated: November 3, 2011 7:13pm

SARNIA – Families of asbestos victims are holding a news conference Friday in Toronto to invite the lead investor behind a plan to re-open a Quebec asbestos mine to visit Sarnia.

They’re asking Baljit Chadha to come to Sarnia, a city with a high death toll from asbestos-related disease, to meet with victims and their families.

“We would like Mr. Chadha to meet us and see first-hand the suffering that asbestos has caused to so many Canadians,” said Stacy Cattran, whose father, Bill Coulbeck, died of asbestos-related cancer in Sarnia three years ago.

Cattran and her sister organized a recent walk in remembrance of asbestos victims that attracted hundreds of people to Sarnia’s waterfront.

“In Sarnia, we have learned some terrible lessons about asbestos,” Mayor Mike Bradley said, “We would like to join with Mr. Chadha and partners in developing countries to help find substitutes for this lethal substance.”

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Quoted from http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3311661

‘It was a death sentence’ — Ex-Falls resident advocate for mesothelioma awareness after husband’s death

By Alison Langley Niagara Falls Review

Posted 12 hours ago

Bud Fisher was dumbfounded.

He was at a loss for words when a doctor told him he had mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos fibres.

As a teacher, he had spent his career working with students, not chemicals.

Surely, the doctor was wrong.

“It was like we were on an episode of House,” said his wife, Pamela, recalling their mutual disbelief at the diagnosis.

The doctor, however, was certain.

The couple, still doubting the dire diagnosis, went back in time, searching for answers.

Bud and Pamela were high school sweethearts. They were both students at Stamford Vocational Institute in Niagara Falls. They began dating in 1965 after Pamela invited the handsome young man to accompany her on a hay ride.

In 1967, Bud was a university student and had spent the summer wrapping hot pipes at a local chemical plant.

What he didn’t know at the time was that the material used to cover the pipes was asbestos.

Bud carried on with his life — all the while the asbestos was festering inside his body.

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Quoted from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/opinion/the-story-of-a-dead-sailor-his-widow-and-a-bunch-of-boneheaded-politicians.html

The Story of a Dead Sailor, His Widow and a Bunch of Boneheaded Politicians

By SERGE SCHMEMANN

Publilised: September 2, 2011

Robert Keyserlingk died in December 2009 of mesothelioma, a cancer usually caused by exposure to asbestos. Mr. Keyserlingk, a neighbor and good friend on the Canadian mountain lake where we spend our summers, had been a history professor and a wonderful gardener. Forty years earlier, he was a cadet in the Canadian Navy, in an era when the plumbing and wiring in naval vessels were routinely coated with asbestos.

In the 2 1/2 years he struggled with his disease, he and his wife, Michaela, a textile conservator, became involved in the political campaign against the continued mining of asbestos, specifically chrysotile, or white asbestos, in Canada, and its export to the third world.

This summer, to Mrs. Keyserlingk’s surprise and in a rather peculiar way, her continuing campaign was thrust into the limelight. The Conservative Party, which is currently governing Canada and has steadfastly supported asbestos mining, sent her a sharp notice demanding that she cease using the party’s logo on the modest Web site for her campaign. It threatened “further action” if she did not comply.

Mrs. Keyserlingk had put the Conservative logo on her site and on ads for it, with a red “Danger” sign and the legend, “Canada is the only Western country that exports deadly asbestos!”

The Conservative salvo at a 72-year-old widow of a man she called a “true-blue” Conservative quickly spread through blogs, newspapers and television. People from across Canada, including physicians and politicians, began sending letters of support — and checks, all of which she returned.

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