Nearly 40,000 Americans die from preventable asbestos-caused diseases every year, yet the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) still hasn't banned this toxic substance. Asbestos was once marketed as a "miracle mineral" for its flame-resistance, strength and flexibility to use in construction, but has since been revealed for what it truly is: a … [Read more...]
‘This house killed me’: DIY home renovators the third wave of asbestos victims
It was a winter's day when Herman Maifoffer walked out of his home for what he knew would be the last time. He had helped build the small three-bedroom house in Cabramatta where his three children had grown up and where he had lived for 40 years. As he was wheeled into an ambulance, his wife Rosemary asked if he wanted one last look around. … [Read more...]
Asbestos, spying and the Canadian connection
This week in Geneva, delegates to a conference of the parties to the Rotterdam Convention are again discussing whether chrysotile asbestos should be put on the list of hazardous substances. One hot topic is sure to be Canada, which until 2012 was a major exporter of chrysotile — the most common form of asbestos — and opposed its inclusion on the … [Read more...]
EPA Asbestos Review May Trigger Probe of Chlorine Industry
Chlorine manufacturers, which currently are the largest U.S. importers of asbestos, could have their use of the mineral reviewed soon if the Environmental Protection Agency selects asbestos as one of the first 10 substances it will analyze under the amended chemicals law. Chlorine and caustic soda are manufactured by the chlor-alkali industry, … [Read more...]
Mesothelioma deaths alert US to continuing asbestos exposure
Chloralkali industry may face pressure with 90% domestic asbestos consumption A paper from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) reveals that the latest data for deaths linked to mesothelioma show increases between 1999 and 2009. The trend was for both sexes and all ethnic groups, and the authors remark that the … [Read more...]
Asbestos ban to be announced by federal government next week
The federal government plans to announce a comprehensive ban on asbestos in Canada next week, CBC News has learned. The country currently allows imports of construction products and automotive parts that contain the toxic fibre, even though Canada no longer exports the material. Asbestos is known to cause deadly cancers and lung diseases, and … [Read more...]
Canada should stop importing deadly asbestos, labour group says
The Canadian Labour Congress is calling for a ban on asbestos. Exposure to asbestos — a fibrous mineral used in building and construction — is the leading cause of workplace-related death in Canada. Canada stopped exporting asbestos in 2011, and its last asbestos mine closed in 2012. But Canada still imports asbestos for use in construction … [Read more...]
Asbestos and product defence science
In 2015, the Collegium Ramazzini, an independent, international academy of experts in occupational and environmental health, released three statements on asbestos.1–3 The documents are focused on the only form of asbestos remaining in use, i.e. chrysotile (white asbestos). The Collegium is concerned by the persisting use of chrysotile in many … [Read more...]
Ford spent $40 million to reshape asbestos science
The lawyer, Darrell Grams, explained that Ford had been losing lawsuits filed by former auto mechanics alleging asbestos in brakes had given them mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer virtually always tied to asbestos exposure. Grams asked Paustenbach, then a vice president with the consulting firm Exponent, if he had any interest in studying the … [Read more...]
Company Sanctioned for Not Preserving Asbestos Documents
A company that made asbestos products in the 1980s should have anticipated it would be sued, and therefore the destruction of dozens of boxes of related documents in the 1990s was spoliation requiring sanction, a Manhattan state judge has ruled. Justice Peter Moulton rejected claims by J-M Manufacturing Company, one of the defendants in Warren … [Read more...]