Dear editor,
We have been repeatedly condemned by the EU, Australia and many other First World countries for our exportation of chrysotile asbestos to developing nations.
India is one of our top export destinations. In that country chrysotile asbestos is called the "poor man's roof" and countless numbers of people breath its carcinogenic dust 24/7.
The Canadian Cancer Society, Canadian Medical Society, U.S. Department of Health, World Heath Organization and many other reputable agencies unanimously condemn chrysotile asbestos as a cause of lung cancer and mesothelioma.
Our Canadian chrysotile asbestos industry actively exports its dangerous cancer inducing product abroad, knowing that it can only be used in Canada under the most carefully supervised and rigorous safety standards. Countries such as India who among others buy 95 per cent of the product manufactured here do not observe such safety standards; therefore, their citizens are unknowingly at risk.
There is a terrible double standard at play here. Our complicity is despicable.
It is time our prime minister and his cabinet did the right thing and stopped actively supporting the exportation of chrysotile asbestos to developing nations and instead enacted legislation which would make it illegal for the exportation of this product, which is in reality the exportation of death to millions of unsuspecting victims.
W. Hunter,
Courtenay