31 August, 2007International Ban Asbestos Secretariat publishes Killing the Future, a report on Asbestos Use in Asia.
ASIA: In 2003 Asian countries accounted for nearly 50 per cent of global asbestos consumption with China, (491,954 tonnes), India (192,033 t) Thailand (132,983 t), Vietnam (39,382 t) and Indonesia (32,284 t) being the largest users. Within the region, only Japan has stopped the use of asbestos.
The International Ban Asbestos Secretariat has published Killing the Future, a report on Asbestos Use in Asia, which documents the wide-spread use of deadly chrysotile asbestos in a range of industries across Asia, including shipbreaking in India and Bangladesh.
This new report highlights the work of asbestos victims' groups, pioneering non-governmental organizations, the trade unions and global union federations in the fight to expose the lethal industry lobby and to protect workers' health. Photographs showing chaotic and hazardous working practices throughout Asia reveal that the reassurance of asbestos stakeholders that asbestos can be used safely under "controlled conditions" is a lie.
Author Laurie Kazan-Allen, Coordinator of the IBAS, says, "Millions of global asbestos victims have learned that when it comes to asbestos the polluter rarely pays; the real costs of using this toxic substance are borne by individuals, families, communities and countries. The best way to reduce the burden of asbestos-related disease is to ban asbestos; asbestos is yesterday's material and should be relegated to the dustbin of discredited technologies and discarded materials."
For copies of the report, please contact the IMF at [email protected] or download a copy from the IMF website.