Labor Group Slams Ambassador Thornley for Canada’s Loan Re-Starting Jeffrey Asbestos Mine

Canadian ambassador Christopher Thornley

   Canadian ambassador Christopher Thornley was chided by a labor group the other day for his government’s 58 million dollar loan two weeks ago which will re-operate the Jeffrey Asbestos Mine in Quebec and continue its export of cancer-causing asbestos to the Philippines.

   After producing asbestos for several decades, the Jeffrey Mines cease operations for almost a year last year due to bankruptcy. But Balcorpm

   “The Canadian government has banned the use of all asbestos in their soil but they just gave money that allows again the unimpeded flow of cancer-causing raw and asbestos-containing materials into the unwitting Philippine general population—is this not reprehensible?,’’ said Gerard R. Seno, Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines national vice president and coordinator of its anti-asbestos campaign Ban Asbestos Philippines.

   The ALU-TUCP sent a letter to Thornley Wednesday saying the repercussions of the loan undermined the country’s ongoing campaign to phase out the use of asbestos and develop alternative materials to it.

   “We conveyed to Ambassador Christopher Thornley how his government’s particular action deeply dismayed our campaign here to phase out asbestos-related diseases in the Philippines and lessen the exposure of millions of Filipino workers to cancer-causing asbestos dusts,”  Seno added of the letter ALU sent to the embassy Wednesday.

   He added saying: “we hope that our collective conscience will warm down the reprehensible decision Canadian government have made and take back the loan for the sake of the well-being of workers and their families.”

   He said local asbestos manufacturers import 4,000 to 5,000 metric tonnes of unlabelled raw asbestos from Canada every year. These are mixed with other materials for insulation against heat and chemicals. The most common are asbestos-laden roofs in homes, brake and clutch pads for all motor vehicles.

   The World Health Organization found that more a hundred thousand people dies every year after direct or second-hand exposure to its dust 10 to 15 years later. In the Philippines, government estimate there are 3 million workers, particularly those working in building constructions, who are significantly exposed to the deadly dust every day. The estimate, though, does not include those exposed to secondary exposure like workers’ wives and children.

   Asbestos is classified as a known human carcinogen by the WHO, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the EPA, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

   When disturbed, asbestos dust enters through the nose and stuck in the lungs or in various other internal organs which develop into fatal diseases including various incurable cancers. (ALU-TUCP)