July 09, 2010
An Immoral Industry - Ottawa CitizenFrançais
An immoral industry
Ottawa Citizen
The following editorial appeared in yesterday’s edition of the Ottawa Citizen.
—-Normally it’s ill-advised to disparage an entire community, but it’s hard not to feel that the whole town of Asbestos, Que., is shaming Canada.
The town is a merchant of death and disease — and proud of it. As its name indicates, it’s in the asbestos business. Even though asbestos is a notorious cancer-causing agent, the town is happy to mine the stuff and export it to poor countries where asbestos bans don’t exist and tens of thousands of people get sick and die every year from exposure to it.
The lack of scruples — the absence of a collective conscience — was made appallingly clear this week when the town announced it was pulling out of the Relay for Life fundraiser, a national event organized by the Canadian Cancer Society, because the society opposes asbestos mining. “We need the jobs,” Mayor Hugues Grimard told the media.
The cost of those mining jobs, as measured in the stench of immorality that clings to everyone who participates in the asbestos industry, outweighs the benefit.
An international group of cancer doctors and researchers recently renewed the call for a global ban on the mining and use of asbestos, and they specifically pleaded with the Canadian government to stop supporting the export of this carcinogen.
Defenders of asbestos mining like to say that not all forms of the material are lethal and, besides, proper safeguards can eliminate the health risk. But the developing countries to which asbestos is exported don’t have those safeguards, which is why people get sick. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that all forms of asbestos are human carcinogens.
The adults of Asbestos, Que., need to ask themselves what values they are teaching their children.
