September 04, 2010
Grieving daughter says Canada’s asbestos exports are a death sentence for Third WorldFrançais
Cullen: “We’re killing poeple right now.”
Ethan Baron, The Province
Gerry Forsyth’s family watched him die an agonizing death from asbestos-caused cancer.
What they have learned about Canadian asbestos exports has added anger to their grief.
Although Canada has eliminated virtually all domestic uses of asbestos, the federal government is supporting the export of more than 150,000 tonnes a year of Canadian chrysotile asbestos — the variety now used exclusively around the globe — to the developing world.
“You’re pretty much sending them a death sentence,” says Forsyth’s daughter Alexis, 19, a scuba instructor.
“I love this country. I will always love this country. To know that my country is doing that to other people is so heartbreaking.”
Gerry Forsyth, a New Westminster transport-vehicle mechanic who often worked on trucks with asbestos brake linings, died last month, his once powerful 235-pound body wasted to an emaciated 135.
Last year, Canada exported 152,000 tonnes of asbestos, and 175,000 the year before, according to Global Trade Information Services. Almost 80,000 tonnes went to India last year.
“
Do we not count? Are we second-class human beings?” says Mohit Gupta, chairman of the Occupation and Environmental Health Network of India.
An estimated 90,000 people die every year from asbestos-related diseases, according to the World Health Organization, which projects that between five and 10 million people will eventually die from asbestos exposure.
Even as the federal government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars removing asbestos from Parliament, it is funding the Canadian asbestos industry’s lobbying and marketing group.
In 2008, Ottawa announced a $750,000 grant over three years to the Chrysotile Institute. Quebec, home to Canada’s three asbestos mines, followed suit with $600,000.
Federal and provincial governments have provided the institute with $35 million over the past 25 years, a British Broadcasting Corp. investigation revealed.
Canada is the world’s fourth-largest largest asbestos exporter, according to a 2008 report from the Rideau Institute in Ottawa.
“As industrialized countries have increasingly moved to ban or severely restrict asbestos, Canada has shifted its focus to become the lead promoter of asbestos exports to developing countries,” the report says.
Northern B.C. MP Nathan Cullen last year introduced a private-member’s bill to ban Canadian asbestos mining.
“We’re killing people right now, today, tomorrow, the next day,” Cullen says, adding that federal support for the industry is motivated by a desire to win votes in Quebec.
The proposed legislation originated from Cullen’s “Create Your Canada” bill-writing contest for students in his Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding.
Smithers high schoolers Hayley McDermid, Claire Hinchcliffe and Chloe Staiger entered and won, after seeing a class presentation on asbestos exports.
“It’s unsafe for Canadians to be using because it’s cancer-causing and really dangerous to use, and yet we export it to these Third World countries that, obviously, don’t have the resources to use it safely,” Chloe says.
The Chrysotile Institute maintains that Canadian asbestos can be used safely in less-developed countries and provides important benefits. “The products they are manufacturing are essential for the distribution of potable water, for irrigation purposes and for housing projects,” the institute’s website says.
Ottawa defends exports on the grounds that asbestos can be used safely.
Labourers in countries such as India, however, often aren’t protected by technology and regulations, Gupta says.
“Workers’ lives in India do not have a high cost attached and the owner knows that he can get away with not following the standards and thus saving on costs.”
ebaron@theprovince.com
