Chrysotile Asbestos

The Jeffrey Mine was the world’s largest supplier of chrysotile asbestos. Quebec will provide a $57 million loan to Indian investors. The money is being used to finish digging a mine that will uncover previously unreachable deposits of a type of asbestos known as chrysotile.

The plan is to ship the chrysotile asbestos to Third World nations where plants are being constructed to process the asbestos.

- Those who criticize the move accuse the government of selling out human health concerns in return for votes.

- Last month, representatives of the 300,000-member Quebec Confederation of National Trade Unions voted overwhelmingly in opposition of the Jeffrey Mine expansion.

- Organizations such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences report that there is no type or amount of asbestos that is safe.

- Health officials from all levels and from around the world have vehemently denounced it.

- Even the residents of Indian villages, including the children, are demonstrating in the streets against the building of local plants that will receive the asbestos from Canada and produce building materials such as asbestos-cement pipe and roofing and siding.

The investors, on the other hand,

- insist that chrysotile asbestos is not harmful.

- Advocates also argue that the mine will create 425 full-time jobs as well as provide millions of dollars in taxes and royalties to Quebec, therefore creating a $7.5 million economic diversification fund.

- Proponents also say that millions of people die in India every year from cholera due to the lack of clean water and proper sanitation. It is argued that the cement made from chrysotile asbestos can be used to improve these conditions and therefore improve the quality of life for the people of India.

What kind of logic is that? Because a group of people are suffering or dying from lack of employment or lack of water, we should substitute that problem with one that gives them water, but just kills them a different way?

- The investors claim that the Jeffrey mine will revitalize the dying asbestos mining industry in Canada.

Which would we prefer to die? The mining industry or the people that work in it? The answer is simple for many of us. Why isn’t so simple for the investors and the Canadian government? It is reported that elected officials in Quebec praised the decision to support the mine.

The Canadian government isn’t the only government to engage in this disastrous plan. India’s highest court is just as guilty due to their refusal to ban asbestos.

This is all about Money, Greed, and Politics … all at the expense of human life.

So many individuals and groups around the world have worked so hard and are continuing to work hard to find preventions, cures, treatments for cancer and a decision such as this is just a slap in the face.

I think it must be like cigarettes. Because they don’t kill you right away, many people don’t see the danger or don’t think it will ever happen to them. So they continue to be manufactured and people continue to buy them.

As long as decisions like this continue to be made, more and more people will die of mesothelioma. Not just today and not just tomorrow, but for years and years to come. What does it take to stop this madness?

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