by Kathleen Ruff



At the Rotterdam Convention conference in Geneva, the asbestos industry has succeeded in defeating the recommendation to place chrysotile asbestos on the Convention’s list of hazardous substances.



Out of the 143 countries attending the conference, 7 countries – Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, India and Vietnam – opposed the listing.listing. Thus it was not possible to achieve consensus and the recommendation to list chrysotile asbestos will be put forward again, for the 5th time, at the Conference of the Parties in 2015.



When the listing of chrysotile asbestos was put forward on the first day, the President of the conference recalled how Canada had refused to allow the listing at the previous conference in 2011 and Canada then stated that it did not oppose the listing of chrysotile asbestos.



The African group of countries earlier made a statement that – with the exception of Zimbabwe – they were united in… Continue

Rotterdam Convention Asbestos Side Event



by Laurie Kazan-Allen



From 1:15 until 3 p.m. today (May 8) at the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Conventon, an event took place in Room 4 of the International Conference Centre. Reflecting the high degree of interest regarding chrysotile asbestos generated by the obstructive behaviour of asbestos vested interests, there was a very good turnout.



As well as dozens of official delegates from Iran, Bahrain, Malaysia, Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, were representatives of Russian and Brazilian trade unionis aligned with the asbestos industry.



The panel of speakers consisted of campaigner Sugio Furuya from the Japan Occupational Health and Safety Centre, Brazilian Labor Inspector Fernanda Giannasi, filmmaker and Italian researcher Alessandro Pugno and activists Vladimir Kototenko and Elina Doszhanova from Kyrgyzstan and Kazaksthan respectively.



The side event was organized by the… Continue

The council of Europe  (Not to be confused with European Council or Council of the European Union[1].) . includes countries such as Russia and most of the former Eastern European block.  The deputy mayor of Frassineto, former Senator Muzio  is presenting an appeal (attached in French) also signed by other Italians, French, Rumanians,  Poles, German, Armenians and Norwegian representatives of Local Authorities which was presented at the 22^nd Local and Regional Authority Conference [2]  and will be discussed at the next meeting in Ankara on June the 27^th. The current vice president and  past president is Merces Bresso former Chair of the Region Piedmont who was involved in the…

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On february 28th many people of Andeva (french association) with the support of two delegation from Belgium (abeva) and Casale (Afeva) gathered in front of the Palais de justice of Paris demanding a fair process against asbestos industries. The french appeal court is examinating the position of nine people - many of them former Ceo of Asbestos companies. The court will decide wether there are evidences to open a process or not. We will wait with hope.Original news (in french)

A report published by the European Environmental Agency (EEA), ‘Late Lessons from Early Warnings, volume II’, provides historical case studies, which show that warnings about asbestos were ignored or sidelined until damage to health and the environment was inevitable.

The ensuing human, social and economic costs…

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Further hearings will commence on February 14, 2013 in the case which has become known as the “Great Asbestos Trial.” Hundreds of pages of legal argument submitted to the Turin Court challenge first degree guilty verdicts handed down one year ago by a three-judge panel to defendants Stephan Schmidheiny (Switzerland) and Baron Louis de Cartier (Belgium). Neither one of the former asbestos executives, both of whom were convicted for their part in the causation of an Italian asbestos disaster, has complied with court orders to pay compensation to thousands of victims, associations, municipal authorities and civic bodies.

In an article published on January 26, 2013 in La Stampa de Cartier's lawyers Carlo Enrico Paliero and Cesare Zaccone called the €89 million fine “intolerable”. There is, de Cartier's lawyers say, no proof of any causal link between the incidence of occupational asbestos disease and their client's actions. Schmidheiney's lawyers are trying to overturn the…

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On June 28 2012, the Turin Public Prosecutor who pioneered this case – Raffaele Guariniello – announced that he
had appealed the judgment. Considering the crimes committed, 16 years in jail was an insufficient punishment. Guariniello is calling for the sentences to be increased to 20 years for both defendants. The public prosecutor’s office, he added, is now  investigating the deaths of 117 Italians who worked in the Swiss and German Eternit plants and as well as the asbestos deaths of Italians in Brazil and France who were exposed to Eternit asbestos.

The involvement of the Italian Government in the Turin proceedings has produced multiple benefits including pressure being exerted by Italian politicians on European Union officials to act on the European asbestos catastrophe. At a meeting in April 2012, the Italian Government called on EU Commissioner John Dalli to create an EU network of asbestos-related disease centres of excellence. See: Italian Government takes Asbestos Safety and Care Concerns to EU! http://ibasecretariat.org/bm-italian-government-takes-asbestos-safety-concerns-to-eu.php

Just weeks after the historic verdict in Turin, one of the world's leading asbestos lobbying groups closed down! On May 1, news was obtained which verified the fact that at the end of March 2012, the offices rented by the Chrysotile Institute in downtown Montreal had been vacated. Days later the Institute surrendered its charter to the Canadian Government and thereby signalled the end to nearly 30 years of asbestos lobbying. This is a historic event and one which is a huge victory for all those people, in Italy and elsewhere, who have been campaigning to ban asbestos. These developments are documented in an article entitled: The rise and Fall of the Chrysotile Institute which can be read at:…

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We're glad to publish a news from Canda by Kathleen Ruff.

For 27 years, the federal government has financed the Chrysotile Institute (previously called the Asbestos Institute) and has given it over $20 million in funding. In April 2011, in the face of mounting strong criticism, the Harper government stopped its funding, although the Quebec government continued its funding.

Around the world the Chrysotile Institute has played the leading role of propagandist for the global asbestos industry and has been condemned by scientists for the false and dangerous misinformation it has disseminated. The Chrysotile Institute had earlier tried to put pressure on the federal government to continue financing…

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