Dangers in the Dust – Inside the Global Asbestos Trade – The Center for Public Integrity
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 21, 2010 – Banned or restricted in more than 50 countries, white asbestos continues to be widely used in China, India, Russia and Brazil, and many developing nations, according to Dangers in the Dust, a joint report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the BBC’s International News Services.
A multinational network of industry-backed trade associations and institutes, based in Montreal, Mexico City, New Delhi and other cities, has spent nearly $100 million [1] in public and private money since the mid-1980s to promote the international sale and use of white asbestos, or chrysotile, the joint BBC/ICIJ report revealed.
Some experts predict well over a million new deaths by 2030 could be linked to asbestos exposure, with the toll increasingly centered in developing countries. [2]
“Chrysotile and other forms of asbestos…. cause lung cancer and mesothelioma, and that’s been known for 50 years,” Vincent Cogliano of the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer told the BBC. He adds:
via Dangers in the Dust – Inside the Global Asbestos Trade – The Center for Public Integrity.
