The Politics of Asbestos:

Canada’s Shame

November 1, 2016Cathy Walker

Former H&S Director, CAW(now Unifor)

SFU, Faculty of Health SciencesTim Takaro’s class

Asbestos: Killer Dust

Are they exposed to asbestos?

No, they are health care workers coping with volcanic ash

You can’t do anything about volcanoes But you Can do something to prevent

exposure to asbestos!

Québec, mining asbestos since 1879

No protection in the early days, King mine 1896

Women also had no protection, 1930 Johnson mine

In 1918, insurance companies stopped insuring asbestos workers

Because they were dying of asbestosis and cancer

This is a recent asbestos miner showing his X-Ray

In Asbestos and in Thetford Mines the towns were adjacent to the mines and tailings. St.-Maurice parish, 1950

Asbestos was used in all sorts of products

Asbestos insulation sprayers, 1960s and 70s

Union went to Dr. Irving Selikoff: Québec, New York and New Jersey asbestos sprayers

Selikoff Examined 1,117 asbestos insulation workers

More than 50% already had asbestosis determined by X-Rays

For those exposed more than 20 years, 339 of 392 (87%) had asbestosis

Lung cancers were 7 times the expected rate

Gastrointestinal cancers were 3 times the expected rate

Asbestos stopped being used as sprayed on insulation, halfway through building the World Trade Centre buildings

But of course there was still lots of asbestos in the September 11, 2001 dust

Do you have to be covered in dust to die from asbestos?

Do you have to be covered in dust to die from asbestos? The answer is “no”

Professors in CAUT employed at the University of Manitoba have died from asbestos exposure

But Canada pushed asbestos production even as world demand fell

And when demand fell in the developed world, the Canadian and Québec governments continued to promote our asbestos, chrysotile asbestos as ‘safe’

Why?

Why did Canada support the production of asbestos?

Wasn’t it unconscionable? How could our federal government

oppose asbestos bans in other countries, including bringing a complaint against the French asbestos ban to the WTO?

To understand the position of the federal government, you have to understand the history of the union and sovereignty movement in Québec

In 1949, miners in Québec were prepared to fight back

Miners in Asbestos and Thetford Mines fought back

Against the U.S. corporation, Johns Manville

Against the Roman Catholic Church And especially, against Québec Premier,

Maurice Duplessis They fought for four months The issues were wages, but especially,

working conditions, protection from the killer dust, asbestos

Asbestos StrikeQuébec, 1949

Asbestos Strike, 1949 Iconic event in Québec history Symbol of Québec nationalism Marked the beginning of the Quiet

Revolution in Québec

Asbestos Strike, 1949Who was there?

Jean Marchand, union leader Gérard Pelletier, journalist with Le Devoir Pierre Elliot Trudeau who would become Prime

Minister

Who are these two?

What did the workers think?

Globe and Mail, headline, Oct. 2, 2000: “Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1919-2000, Still a

hero in Québec after all these years” Rosaire Drouin, miner, speaking of Trudeau,

“He was sort of the ambassador for the union. He explained to us our rights against Duplessis." “

“He defended the workers. He was good for Québec and Canada. It's a long time since we've seen a good one like that."

1949’s legacy remains.Debating anti-scab legislation in Parliament, October 21, 2003:

Mr. André Bachand (Richmond—Arthabaska, PC) “I am from Asbestos.”… “The scabs were the main problem during

the strike of 1949 in Asbestos. I am not going to call them “strikebreakers” or “replacement workers”; they were scabs. There were fights, and the provincial police were there.”

Some say bloodiest strike in Canadian history

Laurent Bernatchez bloodied by police in the asbestos strike, 1949

Québec miners 1975 As you can hear in this CBC Radio clip, patients

suffering from asbestos-related illnesses experience shortness of breath, extreme fatigue and persistent coughing often excreting blood:

CBC Radio clip: 1975, Thetford Mines, Paul Brodeur, etc. http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-75-608-3400/science_technology/asbestos/clip2

Miners were still striking in the ‘70s over working conditions

Québec Production

• 1960s rapid expansion of production • Québec was the dominant world

producer and the key exporter to the US market which consumes 50% of world production

• 1970s, production peaked at 1.7 Million Tons

Asbestos strikes in the 1970s over working conditions and wages

René Lévesque became Québec Premier in 1979

• One of the first moves of the PQ government was to nationalize the asbestos industry

• The hope was that Québec would finally gain the profits instead of the foreign owners

Québec mines cleaned up considerably after the PQ nationalized the mines

Excellent ventilation Protective measures Still a risk at work, but

not an enormous one as before

Fighting asbestos in Burnaby truck plant, 1978-82; theory leads to action

US Market Collapsed 1980s: lawsuits and bankrupties

Canada’s Shame: Big Lie Our government promoted asbestos,

saying our Canadian asbestos, chrysotile or white asbestos, was less harmful than other types of asbestos

Canada actively promoted the ‘safe use’ of asbestos, especially to the developing world

Two main Asbestos groups

Amphiboles (straight fibres)

Serpentine (curly fibres)

There’s not really a lot of difference

Amphiboles Crocidolite Amosite

Serpentine Chrysotile: 95% of world asbestos Includes Canadian

asbestos:

But what about Canada’s export of asbestos?

The Chrysotile (Asbestos) Institute promoted chrysotile asbestos as “safe”

Where is our asbestos used in developing countries?

Everybody needs clean water, right?

But these pipes deteriorate and break, releasing asbestos

And usually we exported only raw asbestos so someone had to mix the asbestos and the cement, usually by hand

And asbestos is used in roofs of houses and huts where it crumbles directly onto the people who live there

Asbestos bags leak, Canadian asbestos exports

Brazilian worker breaking open asbestos bags

7

Working with Asbestos in Peru

Funeral: Asbestos Deaths in Peru

Asbestos sheet cutting unit in Mardan City, Pakistan located on the main road in a residential area.

Inside this building is a flour mill; while outside is an asbestos crushing machine and an asbestos dump. The man in the picture has worked for 8 years on this machine and was not convinced of any hazard related to asbestos inhalation or its mixing with flour produced inside the building.

Asbestos Use in India How little protection

there is in developing countries for either workers or for the general population.

Gujarat, India Manager of an asbestos factory: “Our

factory is so safe that our workers do not need to wear masks.”

The factory has received an ISO 9002 rating from a British company.

Broken asbestos pieces are used to fill up areas as driveways where vehicles enter the distribution area.

There is a water spray on the blade of the circular saw but the worker’s hair is white with asbestos.

Protesting against asbestos factory in India:students told their farmer parents of hazards

1996 France tried to ban asbestos and Canada appealed to World Trade Organization

WTO set up in 1995 to promote

the neoliberal agenda

French heritage of Québec undoubtedly a factor in Canada’s appeal

Fortunately, Canada lost at the WTO, 2001 But a developed country like France has

many more resources and clout than a developing country

Implications of Canadian Appeal

The entire health community was appalled Canada had confirmed its role as the leading

proponent of the asbestos industry, globally Canadian taxpayers had paid a great deal of

money on legal costs to fight the French ban

Canada Day, July 1, 2009English unionists ride against Canadian asbestos

The 2000s Scientific and medical evidence of the harms of

asbestos resulted in a continued fall in its use in developed world

Canada’s production also declined but federal and Québec government continued financial subsidies and promotion as late as 2012

Industry in Québec was faltering – bankruptcies and existing mines exhausted

Opposition to asbestos continued to grow in Canada and internationally – Ban Asbestos Canada, unions, medical associations etc.

Fightbacks everywhere CAW airport

workers across the country, especially in Vancouver, protected themselves and the public

CBC News: Melissa Fung in India

The National: Canada’s Ugly Secret, by Melissa Fung, June 10, 2009, runs 15.14

http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/healtheducation/canadas_ugly_secret.html

Canadian News: Finally! http://watch.ctv.ca/news/top-picks/asbest

os-basics/#clip190469 Dr. Jim Brophy, long-time health & safety

activist

Canadian asbestos mining has halted (for now)

But: There is no ban on mining asbestos in

Canada There is no ban on the import of

asbestos products into Canada There is no ban on the use of asbestos

products in Canada

How could we have exported death to the third world?

Chrysotile asbestos – it looks so innocent, but it’s so deadly

For us, the asbestos tailings are still thereThetford Mines, 2002

2010 Thetford Mines, riding on asbestos waste pile

New Zealand just banned import of asbestos

October 1, 2016, joining 57 countries banning asbestos

Helen Kelly, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions President, passed away from cancer October 14, 2016

It is appalling that this litany of death be allowed to continue

Don’t let us continue to be able to mine and export asbestos, killer dust!

Don’t let us continue to be able to import and use asbestos from other countries!

Canada should Ban Asbestos!

Thanks very much!