Quoted from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/health-facts-and-arguments/asbestos-killed-my-father-now-my-mother-is-sick/article2112055/

Asbestos killed my father. Now my mother is sick

Heidi von Palleske

From Thursday’s Globe and Mail

Published Wednesday, Jul. 27, 2011 6:02PM EDT

When I was a child, I went to a Christmas party at the factory where my dad worked. There was a Santa and presents. My siblings and I went along with the other children on a tour of the factory.

I didn’t care about the machinery or how it worked. I only marvelled at the fairy dust in the air and how it seemed to sparkle when the light hit it. To me, it was magical, not something that would be a carrier of death.

Death has its own sound. It is the rattle of my mother’s lungs as she struggles for air. The purring sound she makes when the breath finally finds its way in. The rasp of her voice as she speaks.

My 79-year-old mother is dying. She’s dying just as my father did four years ago. There is no way to slow the process. No hope for a cure. There is no relief. Once mesothelioma is discovered, it is already too late.

We have only just recovered from my father’s death at 79. My daughter still cries over him. On her birthday, she releases a balloon into the air, telling her Opa how old she is and how she misses him. She used to make me bake him a cake on his birthdays and she always left him a piece by the window. The first year she cried and cried when she discovered it was uneaten.

My daughter is not good with change. She doesn’t find any comfort in the thought of death releasing her grandmother from pain. Death frightens her. She has not developed the faith in the afterlife that, thankfully, my mother has.

I cannot lie to my girl. I tell her that her grandmother is sick. That she will not be here much longer. My daughter asks, “Why?” And so I tell her about my father’s work in an asbestos factory and how he carried fibres home on his clothes and his skin and how Grandma breathed them in when she washed his overalls in the tub.

What I don’t tell her is that asbestos is an airborne substance and that, as my mother shook the clothes before she washed them, the asbestos was carried in the air throughout my childhood home. I don’t tell her that I used to run into my dad’s arms when he came home and that his embrace carried with it an element of disease.

But 11-year-olds are clever these days. Although many of my friends didn’t make the logical leap, it is only a matter of minutes before she asks, “Mom, does that mean you could get it too?”

[Article continues at original source]

Quoted from http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/259312/Hidden-danger-from-asbestos-threatens-1-8m

HIDDEN DANGER FROM ASBESTOS THREATENS 1.8M

 

Mick Knighton died of mesothelioma 10 years ago aged just 60

Sunday July 17,2011

By Hilary Douglas

MORE than 1.8 million people are exposed to deadly asbestos every year, with one dying from asbestos-related cancer every four hours.

The shocking figures from the UK Health and Safety Executive reveal at least 5,000 deaths from mesothelioma a year are expected by 2015, although some experts say the figure could be far higher.

Almost every building erected before 1999 will have asbestos used in its construction, so even seemingly harmless DIY projects might have deadly consequences.

Chris Knighton, whose husband Mick died of mesothelioma 10 years ago aged just 60, now runs a research fund in his memory.

Mick came into contact with asbestos while in the Navy. “The helmet he was first issued with as a gunner and the gauntlets given to him were all made of asbestos,” explained Chris, 65, who has raised £1million for the Mick Knighton Mesothelioma Research Fund .

“When the Navy realised all the ships were riddled with asbestos, they had them refitted, but the crews helped rip out the piping and bits which were to be removed.

“They didn’t wear the proper ­protective clothing, they just got on with the job and many, many of them in effect condemned themselves to death in the process.

[Article continues at original source]

Quoted from http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Asbestos+last+lonely+champion/4997782/story.html

Asbestos’s last, lonely champion

By Susan Riley, Ottawa Citizen June 24, 2011 11:35 AM

I still remember the shock and dismay I felt walking through the ByWard Market in 2005, when I noticed newspaper headlines announcing that Chuck Strahl had been diagnosed with a deadly form of asbestos-related cancer.

Not only was Strahl fit and strong (fortunately, he still is), he was a well-liked Reform, then Conservative, MP and, subsequently, a successful cabinet minister in a number of posts. He decided not to run in the last election – his son Mark took over his B.C. seat on May 2 – and has returned to Chilliwack, his cancer apparently in remission.

This memory makes Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s adamant support for Quebec’s asbestos industry in recent weeks seem even more confounding and cold. After all, within his own cabinet he had sobering evidence of the cost of unprotected exposure to asbestos.

Strahl was exposed to the carcinogen as a young man operating huge logging vehicles with asbestos-clad brakes in the B.C. interior. In those days, he recounts, wearing protective gear was considered insufficiently macho and the dangers of breathing in asbestos fibre not as well known.

Decades later he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer that usually kills its victims within a few years – a shocking prognosis for a regular jogger and non-smoker. With the help of his family and strong Christian faith, however, Strahl beat the odds and played an active role in cabinet until his retirement.

[Article continues at original source]

Quoted from http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2011/06/asbestos-should-canada-block-move-to-call-chrysotile-hazardous.html

Asbestos: Should Canada block move to call chrysotile hazardous?

• June 23, 2011 7:53 AM | Read 0 comments0
• By Community Team

Lab Chrysotile asbestos mining operations in Black Lake, Que. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)

Canada has moved to block listing chrysotile asbestos on an international list of hazardous substances at a UN summit in Switzerland.

Delegates at the summit are determining whether asbestos should be listed in a United Nations convention treaty known as the Rotterdam Convention. Adding it to the Annex III list of the treaty would enable countries where companies import asbestos to turn it away if they don’t think it will be safely handled.

The Rotterdam Convention requires consensus before any change can be made to the list. The only countries still objecting are Canada, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam.

[Article continues at original source]

Quoted from http://www.clarkforkchronicle.com/article.php/20110505010758563

EPA releases draft estimates of asbestos toxicity in Libby, Troy

Thursday, May 05 2011 @ 01:07 AM MDT

 

 

New information is key step in helping finalize cleanup plans that protect the health of the community

by Richard Mylott

At a public meeting at the Libby Memorial Center Tuesday evening, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presented new draft toxicity estimates on the specific type of asbestos in Libby and Troy, Montana. These toxicity estimates, when final, will help secure the best path forward for asbestos cleanup and protection of public health at the Libby Superfund site. The Agency is releasing this draft information earlier than usual in the scientific evaluation process to be more transparent and to more fully engage the community in the review process. The data are preliminary and could change until this review process is complete, which will include review by independent scientists.

Through this action Tuesday, EPA is delivering on a promise made to the community to develop a scientific analysis of Libby Amphibole asbestos. Based on requests from the community, the final toxicity estimates for Libby Amphibole asbestos will be used to develop EPA’s final risk assessment and cleanup decisions. EPA will use these toxicity estimates to evaluate risks to adults, teens and children who may be exposed to Libby Amphibole during activities such as housework, playing in the yard or at school, walking, bicycling or working in an office or outside.

Although EPA has made significant progress in helping to remove the threat of asbestos in the land and air, and with it, the increased risks of lung cancer and other respiratory problems, actual and potential releases of amphibole asbestos remain a concern in Libby. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in 2009 declared a public health emergency in Libby, a first-of-its-kind action that recognized serious impacts to public health.

[Article continues at original source]