大象传媒

Banned or restricted in聽more than 50聽countries, white asbestos continues to be widely used in China, India, Russia and Brazil, and many developing nations,聽according to Dangers in the Dust, a joint report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the 大象传媒鈥檚 international news services.

A multinational network of industry-backed trade associations and institutes, based in Montreal, Mexico City, New Delhi and other cities, has spent nearly $100 million in public and private money since the mid-1980s to promote the international sale and use of聽white asbestos, or chrysotile, the joint 大象传媒/ICIJ report revealed.

聽Some experts聽predict well over a million new deaths by 2030 could be linked to asbestos exposure, with the toll increasingly centered in developing countries.

鈥淐hrysotile and other forms of asbestos.... cause lung cancer and mesothelioma, and that's been known for 50 years,鈥� Vincent Cogliano of the World Health Organization鈥檚 International Agency for Research on Cancer told the 大象传媒. 聽He adds:

鈥淢y own personal view is聽that these risks鈥� are as high as just about any known carcinogen that we have seen except perhaps tobacco smoke .... so the continued export and continued use of chrysotile will increase the incidence of lung cancer and mesothelioma for many decades to come."聽 聽

Asbestos production is holding steady at around 2 million metric tons per year. Top producers Russia, Canada, and Brazil account for nearly three-quarters of the world supply

Among the countries that could face the worst health effects, according to this report are: China, the world鈥檚 top consumer; and India, where asbestos use is growing at the rate of 30 percent annually

Flame-resistant, strong, and cheap, asbestos was once widely used聽in North America and Western Europe聽as a construction material. The mineral is now seldom used there,聽even in Canada 鈥� a country which still exports it. Sale of asbestos in the European Union is almost entirely banned.聽

As this report reveals,聽safe and controlled use of asbestos is聽frequently not achieved in developing countries such as India, Mexico and China, where workplace and environmental standards are not as heavily regulated.

The industry campaign is 鈥渢otally unethical,鈥� says Jukka Takala, director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, 鈥淎sbestos cannot be used safely.鈥澛犅� 聽聽聽
Industry officials聽say science shows that chrysotile or white asbestos 鈥� the form of the mineral used today 鈥撀爄s less hazardous than the brown or blue varieties used in the past.聽The industry also insists that if properly controlled, white asbestos can聽be used聽safely and that substitutes are more expensive and have their own risks.聽

John Hoskins, a British toxicologist spoke to 大象传媒 World Service鈥檚 Discovery programme as part of Dangers in the Dust.聽聽 He says on the health risk of white asbestos: 鈥淚 think there is an immeasurably small risk, and immeasurably small means it cannot be measured.聽 We聽cannot demonstrate such a risk I would believe it is so low as to be unimportant compared聽with聽the normal risks of聽life such as risks on road, the risks of food poisoning 鈥� risks in developing countries particularly聽of聽dirty water聽and poor sewage facilities鈥�.聽

He adds: 鈥淚 think the people who would like to ban chrysotile asbestos are actually committing economic damage, because you have a cheap product which does a good job and if you remove that then you are denying people the chance of having that particular聽material - this does not matter particularly in the UK; it does matter in countries particularly developing countries where the cost of materials is a significant factor in any building operations that go on鈥�..鈥�

Dangers in the Dust will broadcast on 大象传媒 World Service (radio), 大象传媒 World News (television), and bbc.com/news on Wednesday 21 July and will be published on ICIJ.org and in ICIJ鈥檚 partner publications worldwide.