Prime Minister urged to address asbestos issue

In an open letter submitted to the Prime Minister of Canada, 68 groups and 50 individuals have requested a comprehensive asbestos ban across Canada.

Signatures on the letter included the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, and many large unions, along with 50 individuals that included doctors, scientists, and family members of those who have died from asbestos-related diseases.

As discussed in the October 2016 issue of CARS magazine (see it here), asbestos has long been banned for use in manufacturing across Canada. But, it’s still coming into our country in increasing amount, embedded in imported parts like brakes, clutches, hoodliners, gaskets, heat seals, valve rings and packing materials.

Although the federal government has pledged to ban asbestos throughout Canada, no announcement has yet been made, and no timeline for a decision has been set for when this might happen.

In the letter submitted to Justin Trudeau, which you can read more about in an editorial from the Globe and Mail here, it was requested that Canada follow in the footsteps of Australia and establish an asbestos review process.

“I am both shocked and surprised that Canada still allows the use of asbestos. It causes terrible afflictions, worse than any described by Dante in his Inferno,” said Justice John O’Meally, who headed the Dust Diseases Tribunal in Australia for 22 years. “There is no known safe dose of asbestos.”