CBC Radio - World Report
April 29, 2006

http://www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org/temp/Chuck_Pat_CBC.pdf

DWIGHT SMITH (NEWSCASTER): Two members of parliament are calling on the federal government to stop promoting asbestos in developing countries. Most of the asbestos mined in Canada is exported, often to countries that either don't follow or aren't aware of the need for safety precautions. Asbestos is a carcinogen. Its tiny fibres can spend up to three decades incubating in the lungs before they cause cancer or other illnesses. As Alison Myers reports, the two MPs are coming at the issue from differing politics but similar personal histories.

ALISON MYERS (REPORTER): Pat Martin is well aware of what inhaling asbestos can do. The NDP Member of Parliament for Manitoba worked in asbestos mines in the Yukon when he was a teenager. Decades later, the tiny fibres have now scarred his lungs and forced him to get regular chest x-rays to check his condition. Martin wants Canada's asbestos industry shut down. Perhaps a more realistic goal, he says, would be to end the Canadian government's lobby to convince other countries that the product is safe.

PAT MARTIN (N.D.P. ETHICS COMMISSIONER): Other developed nations are banning asbestos. Canada is still spending a fortune trying to promote what they call safe uses of asbestos. The rest of the world doesn't believe that there are safe uses.

ALISON MYERS (REPORTER): Exports of asbestos have dropped significantly over the past decade, by more than 200 million dollars. Asbestos is still mined in Quebec, and politicians from that province continue to pressure Ottawa to help the industry stay on its feet. The federal government has organised international conferences to promote asbestos, and paid for junkets for foreign journalists, something Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl wants to see come to an end.

CHUCK STRAHL (AGRICULTURE MINISTER): I don't think the government of Canada has a business in promoting the product. This is a case where, you know, we'll let the industry flog their own product, and I'd just as soon we got out of it.

ALISON MYERS (REPORTER): The Conservative MP says he hopes to make that argument to his colleagues. Like Martin, Strahl worked with asbestos when he was young. Since then, he's developed mesothelioma, the incurable cancer that is undoubtably (sic) caused by exposure to asbestos. Alison Myers, CBC News, Vancouver.

DWIGHT SMITH (NEWSCASTER): As part of "Dying for a Job", CBC Radio's ongoing series on workplace safety, Alison Myers will bring you a closer look at this story on The House, with her documentary "A Long Goodbye". That's right after the nine o'clock news.

*** POSTED MAY 2, 2006 ***