Someone who occasionally comments here at reedwrites and has had personal experience with asbestos, writes about the problem from his point of view. We present it in the form of a letter.

Why Asbestos From Canada Will Continue to be a Problem

by Bill Desmond

Dear Jim and Barbara

anti asbestos poster

Sad to say, we will continue to export it and workers and the public will continue to die.

And this is why-

Canadian Asbestos Mining is based mainly in Quebec and is one of the  largest employers in the Eastern Townships., with several thousand workers involved.

The Government of Canada has, over the years and in order to curry votes, given Quebec – “Nation status”, with their own immigration policies, pensions, a lion’s share of transfer payments, the ability to ban English from signs and schools, predominance in the civil service and the military (one of the main reasons separation is feared) and many votes in the federal House of Commons.

No government forms a majority without winning Quebec, who, pragmatic always, vote with the prevailing wind, primarily in their own interest naturally. Hence, the Bloc Quebecois, which will, by the way, soon  form her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in the coming Harper Majority- much to my disgust.

( You undoubtedly know all this, Jim, even though you may not agree fully).

So the Canadian government will not ban asbestos, or close up the mines, and certainly this Conservative government, as previous Liberal governments, will do nothing to hassle Corporations.

• People will have to continue to die,
• because profits have to (and will) be made,
• taxes will have to be paid,
• the shareholders must realize a return on their investments,

Federal governments of any stripe will have to toady to the Quebecois till they or we decide we’ve had enough.

On a personal note, I’ve seen asbestos in use recently, and over the years, in India. Its used there for roofing- large sheets of it – two by eight and four by eight- most housing seems to use it. I’ve slept under it for months at a time. If its not cut or drilled into I’m willing to believe its less of a problem there than so many other hazards especially diesel pollution.

The workers who cut it, and install it no doubt suffer from its effects, or would, if their poverty, malnutrition and other diseases didn’t finish them off sooner.

So lets see – thousands of corporate jobs in Quebec, where the workers  who do suffer any effects are dying off and the workers in developing ( a nice word for poor and exploited) countries are just poor sods who don’t really count- at least not where politics and money are concerned.

As for American workers dying of asbestos poisoning? My heart goes out to them and their families. But their politicians are worse (if possible) whores than ours, and Public Health care, paid by taxes, with the well-off paying for the poor, is not and will not be an option there in the foreseeable future.

Sincerely,

Bill

Additional information can be found here.

Asbestos-related disease is discussed here.