quote:The federal government has helped to scuttle an effort by a UN-organized body to place chrysotile asbestos on the list of the world's most hazardous substances.

The decision is a blow to international public-health efforts to limit exports of asbestos to developing countries, but it is a victory for the Canadian government, which opposed additional controls on the controversial cancer-causing substance.

Canada is the world's No. 2 exporter of asbestos after Russia.

The UN body, known as the Rotterdam Convention, compiles a global watch list of substances that are so dangerous to the environment or human health that countries have to agree in advance to accept any shipments.

The convention operates by consensus, so Canada was able to block the move to list chrysotile, the most widely sold type of asbestos, by issuing a statement that it objected to the move.
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"I think it's morally reprehensible. I think it's a complete contradiction of what Canada purports to stand for," says Larry Stoffman, Vancouver-based chairman of the National Environmental and Occupational Exposures Committee.
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The World Health Organization says that chrysotile is a cancer-causing substance, and estimates that at least 90,000 people die each year of asbestos-related diseases, such as mesothelioma and lung cancer. SourceNDP's reaction