15 July, 2010With the highest incidence of asbestos-related diseases in the world, unions and asbestos support groups in Australia call for the removal of all asbestos from public and private buildings by 2030. Elsewhere, Mercosur Health Ministers call for a ban on asbestos mining and use.
AUSTRALIA: The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU), the Australian Workers Union (AWU), the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Cancer Council Australia convened a national summit on June 29, 2010 calling for coordinated national action on asbestos removal.
In a national declaration the summit called on the Australian Federal Government to establish a National Asbestos Authority and to ensure the removal of all asbestos from public and private buildings by 2030.
Asbestos still lurks in the bathrooms, kitchens, roofs and garages of two out of every three Australian homes built between 1945 and 1980, an estimated one million homes, and is still present in many schools, public buildings and workplaces.
Australia has the unenviable record of having the highest incidence of asbestos related diseases in the world, and it's estimated that up to 18,000 Australians are likely to die from mesothelioma by 2020.
AMWU National President, Paul Bastian, said the aim of the summit is to call for the establishment of an independent national authority on asbestos to work across all jurisdictions.
"The problem is compounded by poor community awareness and a disjointed approach from national, state and local governments," explained Paul Bastian.
"We call on the Federal Government to urgently address this issue by creating a dedicated National Asbestos Unit. This unit would act as an information hub and coordinate national action on asbestos removal and education."
Unions secured a ban on the use of asbestos in Australian workplaces in 2003 and now seek to protect future generations of people who live in homes, go to schools, play sport and work in asbestos-riddled environments.
Meanwhile, the Ministers of Health of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador and Peru adopted a declaration calling for the ban of asbestos mining and use.
At their XXVIII meeting on June 9, 2010, the Health Ministers of the Mercosur and associated states, "Expressed the commitment of their Ministries to take steps, involving other competent areas of their governments, to develop and effectively implement national policies that advance the prohibition of the import, mining, production and trade of asbestos and products containing asbestos, in all the countries of Mercosur and associated States in which a ban has not yet been established."