Add asbestos to world harmful products list: NDP

Canada exports $90 million of asbestos, all of it from Quebec, every year.

CBC:

The federal Opposition New Democrats have joined health activists to urge the federal government to support adding asbestos to a global list of hazardous materials because its own health officials warned the mineral is unsafe.

The calls come after CBC News reported Monday that the Conservative government rejected advice from Health Canada that asbestos be added to the hazardous materials list in 2006.

NDP MP Pat Martin, who once worked in an asbestos mine, told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa Tuesday that the Conservative government's support for mining and exporting the controversial mineral to underdeveloped nations is a "big black eye" on Canada's reputation.

"They were lying to us then about the dangers of asbestos and they're lying to us now," the outspoken MP said.

Martin said the Conservatives are going to great lengths to support a dangerous industry, instead of focusing on transitioning the industry's workers into safer occupations.

"You're not doing anybody a favour by keeping them employed in a disease factory," he said.

According to documents obtained under Access to Information, a senior Health Canada bureaucrat wrote that the agency believed that chrysotile — a form of asbestos that has been linked to cancer — should be added to a UN treaty known as the Rotterdam Convention.

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