The seriousness of the risk posed by Asbestos has prompted the BBC to run a feature from its home page banner called “Dangerous Dust – Inside the Global Asbestos Trade”. In this feature prominent figures underline the links between asbestos and serious diseases such as Mesothelioma and lung cancer. Some extracts are included below:
“Banned or restricted in more than 50 countries, white asbestos continues to be widely used in China, India, Russia and Brazil, and many developing countries. The BBC's Steve Bradshaw and Jim Morris from the ICIJ report on an industry supported by a global network of lobby groups. “
“The WHO says white asbestos "is a known cause of human cancer," including mesothelioma. Dr Vincent Cogliano, of the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer says: "My own personal view is that these risks are extremely high. They are as high as just about any known carcinogen that we have seen, except, perhaps, for tobacco smoke. “
“The WHO says 125 million people encounter white asbestos in the workplace, and the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 100,000 workers die each year from all asbestos-related diseases.”
When talking about supporters of asbestos use the BBC writer comments;
“…The asbestos lobby's influence reaches around the world…Critics say the groups' strategy is one borrowed from the tobacco industry: create doubt, contest litigation, and delay regulation.
The American Public Health Association (APHA) has joined the World Federation of Public Health Organizations (WFPHA), the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in calling for a global asbestos ban.”
“The HSE actively supports the EU's white asbestos ban.”
“Meanwhile, on lung cancer, Alex Burdorf, a public health professor at Rotterdam's Erasmus Medical Centre, said his recent review of earlier epidemiological studies commissioned by the Dutch government, had convinced him that white asbestos was "much more dangerous than previously thought." "What we have shown is that chrysotile is as dangerous as crocidolite [blue asbestos] for contracting lung cancer, and is also linked to mesothelioma," he said. "I don't think there is safe way of working with asbestos, so I would support a global ban on asbestos purely because of public health risks." “
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