Apr 15, 2012

China & India Welcome Unregulated Asbestos: Russia & Other Nations Glad to Send It : TreeHugger


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Asbestos kills protest sign: inflatable fat-cat rat, coffin, NYC, NY, USA 2

To hell in an asbestos hand basket Asia goes, led by unfettered global trade, greed, and a general inability to manage public health risks effectively. Growing asbestos exposures in India and China - the most heavily populated nations - are such a cluster fracking it makes me glad my children live in the USA and that our Libertarian and Tea Party instincts are short term distractions from the absolute necessity of an effective regulatory regime.

Logic will soon rule again in the US, though I am not so sure about Brazil & Kazakhstan. Canada has run out of asbestos to export so it gets a free pass.

As reported on Mesothelioma.com in the story Experts Forecast Global "Catastrophe of Death and Disease" From Asbestos Use

Asia is heading for a huge jump in asbestos-related diseases in the coming decades, according to numerous scientific studies and two of the world’s most prominent experts on public health and asbestos exposure. Not surprisingly, the consequences are expected to be felt most severely in India and China, two emerging economies and most populous countries in the world.

“What we can expect is very predictable – an absolute catastrophe of death and disease,” Dr. Arthur Frank, chairman of environmental and occupational health at Drexel University, said in a recent interview with this reporter. He added that the coming catastrophe is “all preventable.”


Canadian pipes and governance in this matter, though heavily insulated with hypocrisy, seem to have run out of steam since, as Lloyd reported, theirasbestos mines are nearly depleted.

Canada, for example, has banned the use of asbestos domestically and is scheduled to begin a $1 billion renovation project to clean its parliamentary buildings of asbestos this summer.

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