(BBC News: 21st July 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 countries. The BBC’s Steve Bradshaw and Jim Morris from the ICIJ report on an industry supported by a global network of lobby groups.

The Jeffrey asbestos mine in Quebec is an astonishing sight. “Big and beautiful,” says one of the regular flow of tourists and locals who peer into its depths from a public observation deck.

Asbestos production, consumption and export

Kites glide above the tiny azure pool far below.

Elsewhere in Quebec Province, Janice Tomkins, an amateur watercolourist, is painting birds for the first time. She does not know how many more she will paint because she has mesothelioma – a rare illness linked to asbestos.

Janice believes she is ill because of exposure decades ago to blue and brown asbestos – forms of the mineral now banned.

What is mined in Quebec is a different kind of asbestos – white asbestos or chrysotile – the only kind now used commercially worldwide. Countries like Russia, China, Brazil, and India – although not Canada – use it widely as a cheap and effective building material.

The president of the mine, Bernard Coulombe, told us their chrysotile is “sold exclusively to end-users having the same industrial hygiene practices as Canada,” and said the federal and provincial governments have proof this is the case.

But, despite still being mined in Quebec, white asbestos is now banned or restricted in some 52 countries, on the grounds that any form of asbestos can cause devastating illnesses like Janice’s.

Opposition

Many scientists fear the continued use of asbestos could significantly prolong a global epidemic of asbestos-related illnesses that began when blue and brown asbestos were legal. The WHO says white asbestos “is a known cause of human cancer,” including mesothelioma.

Dr Vincent Cogliano, of the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer says: “My own personal view is that these risks are extremely high. They are as high as just about any known carcinogen that we have seen, except, perhaps, for tobacco smoke.

“Any exposure is going to prolong the asbestos epidemic – continued export and continued use of chrysotile will increase the incidence of lung cancer and mesothelioma for many decades to come, he said.”

Janice does not want the Quebec provincial government to approve a C$58m (US$56m, £37m) loan guarantee that would enable the Jeffrey Mine to boost exports to developing nations such as India. Read the rest of this entry »