REPORTER: GINNY STEIN
Don Carson was diagnosed with mesothelioma in December last year. Its a virulent form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. He was given six months to live. He worked for Dow Chemicals for 38 years maintaining factories riddled with asbestos cladding.
DON CARSON: I came through it when I was - you know, I was there, from early 20s and, well, it wasnt going to be me, maybe some other poor fellow, but not me. But you find out that you were wrong, you know.
Each day is now becoming that bit harder. He is growing weaker, and finding it harder to breathe.
NORMA CARSON: This is how we do it and Don lies here and he has his radio, and hes comfortable. Hes more comfortable here than a lot of other places.
DON CARSON: If I do something that demands some power, you know, like even open a window or something like that, its just... Im short of breath and kind of gagging a little bit for a minute or two, till I get my... I dont do very much, I dont do anything, actually, to be honest, and I cant do very much.
Tragically, victims are turning up all around the world where asbestos was mined or used in building materials, brake or clutch pads or cement. 50 years ago, asbestos was hailed as the wonder product - cheap, light and fire-resistant. While some people knew that 20, 30 years after exposure, its tiny fibres could kill, it was not common knowledge. But unlike most countries in the developed world that have now banned its use and stopped mining it, Canada maintains an active mining program and exports huge quantities to the Third World. For more than 100 years, Canadian miners have made this journey in search of a mineral once considered so valuable it was called white gold.
NORMAND DOUCET, MINE SUPERINTENDENT: This accelerator goes down to - at 1,200 feet a minute, so it takes about two minutes to go underground.
This mine in the French province of Quebec began as an open-cut operation before shafts were sunk deeper into the asbestos vein.
NORMAND DOUCET: OK, what you see here is a sort of a 3-dimensional view of our mine. As you can see, there is three shaft going down the mine...
Tapping into a 100km-long seam, Canada is one of the worlds largest exporters of chrysotile or white asbestos. With such a large industry to protect, mine supervisor Normand Doucet has his own spin on the dangers of asbestos.
NORMAND DOUCET: Asbestos has been... A lot of people here by generation after generation, the asbestos has provided a living for a lot of people, even if some people have died because of working in the mine or, like in any mine, I think asbestos has created more living than death.
This line is getting more difficult to sustain as the numbers of asbestos deaths worldwide continues to climb.
JOE COMARTIN, OPPOSITION MP: And we know right now on an average year 100,000 people are dying from asbestos-related illnesses, whether it is mesothelioma, which is always fatal, asbestosis, which is fatal over extended periods of time, or other types of cancers, lung cancers.
With the health dangers of asbestos now firmly established, most First World countries have already banned its use. In Australia, all forms of asbestos - blue, brown and white - were finally banned last year, as they are across much of Europe. But in Canada, workers are still exposed to the fibres, and not just in the mines, but also in the milling factories like this one at Black Lake in eastern Quebec. Here the industry claims the working conditions are so controlled that its safe to work with asbestos. The first truckloads of raw asbestos have made their way to the mill and are now being sifted, graded, bagged and sealed, ready for export.
PIERRE LAROCHE, HEALTH AND SAFETY OFFICER, BLACK LAKE MINE: The stock level, I would say, is quite low these days. Usually you can put approximately 5,000 tonnes in bags here. At the moment we are talking to each other, it should be around, I would guess, about 2,000 or 3,000 tonnes.
Under Canadian air quality regulations, only one fibre of asbestos per cubic centimetre is permitted in the mill. In days past, workers manually filled these bags and were covered in dust. Today, machines do most of the work. Whats even more surprising is that Canada still uses asbestos, although nowadays only in limited applications. On a stretch of road in front of the Black Lake mine in Quebec, asbestos dug up from below has been mixed into the asphalt to provide a more durable surface. The day before I visited, Health Department officials fitted with respirators and hazard suits took air samples to be analysed, while road workers continued to roll out asphalt unprotected.
JOE COMARTIN: I would say, without any doubt, that if you did an opinion poll asking the average Canadians whether asbestos was being used in any way in Canada at this time, they would say no, no new usage, they would know that it was still in use in some of our institutional buildings, office buildings, places like that, and we have to be careful about it there, but that is old asbestos.
Joe Comartin has been fighting for asbestos victims for decades, first as a lawyer, now as a member of parliament. His electorate lies in the heart of Canadas petrochemical belt known as Chemical Valley, the same area that Don Carson worked in and contracted his mesothelioma.
REPORTER: Should it be mined? Should Canada be exporting it?
JOE COMARTIN: Im very much on the side of banning it completely. I have studied this for over 30 years now and there is just no safe way of using this substance.
Opinion in Canada is sharply divided about the wisdom of continuing to mine and export asbestos. In Quebec, the French-speaking province, where the mines and mills are located, there is staunch resistance to any move to close down the industry and lose jobs. Gary Nash, from Canadas Department of Natural Resources, has been instrumental in helping frame government policy on asbestos.
GARY NASH, ASSISTANT DEPUTY MINISTER, DEPT NATURAL RESOURCES: We do not believe that the science suggests or indicates that it cannot be used safely. So why would we give up what we believe to be a sound position? We believe that asbestos or chrysotile can be used safely and that we will do everything that we can, given our limited resources, to ensure and to promote its safe use. I mean, alcohol itself, for example, is a carcinogen. If you go to the International Agency for Research on Cancer you will see all kinds of materials and chemicals that are on the list - crystalline silica, sometimes referred to as sand.
REPORTER: But youre not seriously suggesting that its in the same league?
GARY NASH: Well, how do I know? I dont know the answer to that. But, nevertheless, if you go to the International Agency for Research on Cancer and you look at the list of materials and chemicals on the list you will find crystalline silica.
20 years ago, the Canadian and Quebec governments set up the Asbestos Institute to promote the industry. They still claim that Canadian asbestos is safe.
CLEMENT GODBOUT, ASBESTOS INSTITUTE: Well, you know, we have a product that we feel - and it has been explained, it has been studied - and people feel it is a product that it can be used safe.
Clement Godbout claims that the safe use guidelines the institute has developed will protect workers here and overseas from harm.
CLEMENT GODBOUT: We will be giving indication and information to countries and to governments and to the workers and to unions and to employers to make sure that we use this product safely.
Jim Brophy works with the victims of asbestos use from Canadas Chemical Valley.
DR JIM BROPHY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH CLINICS FOR ONTARIO WORKERS: This memorial here was put together primarily by the widows of workers who had died of work-related diseases, primarily asbestos.
Hes frustrated that the industry still claims asbestos can be used safely.
JIM BROPHY: It is ironic. I mean, if it wasnt such a tragedy, if asbestos really - the asbestos industry next to the tobacco industry, probably should have about as little credibility as one can give to people that have clearly been found guilty of not only negligence and liability, but conspiracy, literally, to keep the public in the dark about the dangers. So, really, their perspective should be held by everybody in contempt.
The current focus of the anti-asbestos lobby is the export trade. The opposition claims it amounts to government support for the global trafficking of a lethal product.
JOE COMARTIN: The governments hypocrisy here is close to being criminal, because they know about it. They know that the countries that it is being shipped into are mostly underdeveloped countries, they know that the health and safety standards there are either non-existent or not enforced, and so you have to know.
REPORTER: Are you willing to accept at all that the conditions in the developing world may not possibly be as good as they are in Canada?
CLEMENT GODBOUT: Im sure that there is a difference between Canada and other countries and not only with chrysotile. Let me suggest that its true for everything, everything.
REPORTER: So is it responsible?
CLEMENT GODBOUT: Now, just a minute now. When people have no fresh water to drink, the kids are dying by thousands because of lack of fresh water. You are not concerned about that? I am. Chrysotile cement pipes can bring to the families fresh water and we know it can be done in a safety manner and it can be done of safe way. Thats the question we have to address for the developing world. It is true with chrysotile there may be some problems, but there is problems with all products that they are using. And worse than that, they have nothing to eat, lack of fresh water, no money, no house.
REPORTER: So they should just be grateful theyre getting this product then?
CLEMENT GODBOUT: You say that. Not me. I says that we can provide a product and it can be used in a safety way.
Canada has actively sought out Asia as the market with the potential and will to buy what is has to sell. The most recent government statistics show demand for asbestos increasing across Asia, with Canada a major supplier to Thailand and India. Thailand has been importing asbestos for 30 years, and this is the reality of handling asbestos in Thailand. Here in Bangkoks crowded Chinatown district, clutch plates and brake pads containing asbestos are recycled back to life. There are no visible regulations about cutting or grinding, which releases the fibres. Safe use here amounts to knowing that youre working with asbestos.
THAI MAN (TRANSLATION): We work with asbestos. We dont produce it. We get it from our agents.
In the minds of these employees, the use of safety equipment seems bizarrely linked to workload - only if youre working hard do you need to protect yourself.
THAI MAN (TRANSLATION): We do wear a mask sometimes. But there are less jobs at the moment. If we have a lot of work to do, we will put on the mask.
Behind me is one of Thailands largest cement factories. Siam Cement is a heavy user of asbestos. But the owners wont let me in to film their operation because health and safety standards, when it comes to asbestos use, are a sensitive issue in Thailand. Based on industrial practices elsewhere in the country, its extremely unlikely that Canadas safe-use recommendations are strictly adhered to in this plant, creating a potentially lethal time-bomb for the workers.
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG, OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH RESEARCHER: Here you will see an infiltration.
REPORTER: And yet thats caused by?
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG: Caused by the dust, caused by the dust, especially the asbestos, and I am going to show you the asbestosis that I found.
Dr Orapan Maytaditagong is one of Thailands handful of occupational health specialists, and one of the very few to have carried out any field research into industrial lung damage.
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG: This is the one in Thailand and this is the worst case of the standard. And there are so many in Thai, but it is in here. It is here. I am so sorry about it, it is so terrible. It is in here, all the - not so good, huh?
REPORTER: They are example of asbestos?
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG: Asbestosis and silicosis.
But asbestos-related disease remains a silent killer in Thailand. The time lag between exposure and lung damage makes it difficult to pin the blame on asbestos and virtually no-one is looking for it.
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG: If the worker get sick of asbestos, an asbestos-related disease, it depend on the diagnosis again. Very few will be diagnosed. If they was diagnosed, it depend on the worker decides to ask for compensation or not. But most of them dont know that this is the disease related to their work.
Somkiat Siriruttanapruk is from Thailands Occupational and Environmental Disease Bureau.
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK, MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH, THAILAND: Right now there are three main countries that we import asbestos to our country. One is Canada, the second one is Russia and Brazil.
He says Thailands appetite for the deadly fibre is growing.
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: There is quite a lot. For example, in the year 2002 the number is about 200,000 tonne in that year.
REPORTER: And the number - the amount, its going up or is it...?
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: Yes, it seems to me that the trend is going up.
REPORTER: Why is that? Why is asbestos so popular in Thailand?
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: Because asbestos is used in many products in our country. For example, we produce the roof tile, the clutch and brake. and in many - in cement product.
Like Dr Orapan, Somkiat believes Thailand is on the verge of an epidemic.
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: I think if we dont do anything now I think in the future we can face many problems like many countries in Europe or in America, that they face the problem of asbestos cases.
Somkiat believes all forms of asbestos should be banned but that is a decision the Thai Government is not likely to take as long as there is pressure from the business community.
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: Yes, yes. We first happen two months ago, I joined the meeting between ministries and we raised this topic in the meeting but, for the employer side of view, they said right now if they change to use another material, the price will increase and it will affect the industry in our country.
Back in Canada, a shift in public awareness about asbestos is clearly under way. Removing the dangerous fibres from public buildings now employs more people than mining or processing asbestos.
GLENN EDWARDS, ASBESTOS REMOVAL CONTRACTOR: A lot of people are starting to go to a zero tolerance where they are trying to get rid of asbestos altogether. Yet the unfortunate thing is that some of the buildings have so much of it in it, it is not conceivable or practical in their budgets to get it out.
TODD JEFFREY, ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT: You can get into the $10 million range, I mean, theres major facilities, government facilities that have spent over $10 million on asbestos removal, just trying to get it clean.
The disparity between Canada spending millions to remove asbestos from their buildings while exporting it to the developing world is not lost on Thai officials.
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: I think if you are - if I am the Canadian people, I will try to let my government, the Canadian Government know that if you think it is not good for your people, you not sell this kind of product, to make the profit to your country, to another country.
REPORTER: Its irresponsible?
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: I think so.
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG: The Canadian Government, as a good government, should know that this is harmful for the health of the mankind. Should stop and do other business and promote other business.
Last week the Canadian Government faced an important watershed in its attitude to asbestos. Chrysotile was up for listing as a hazardous material by the United Nations in Geneva. This formal listing would have required importers to acknowledge its deadly potential - known as prior informed consent.
GARY NASH: Right now the chrysotile asbestos producers in Quebec are in very serious trouble. The mines are vulnerable, the communities are vulnerable. Up until now, a number of companies have withdrawn from the mining of chrysotile asbestos because of the fall in the market and so, consequently, should the prior informed consent cause significant delays in exports and that there are other producers of chrysotile asbestos that could supply that market and who are not part of the Rotterdam, this indeed, could indeed injure significantly the current producers in Quebec.
In the end, the government sided with the asbestos industry. They refused to support the listing, which killed it, because decisions need to be supported unanimously.
JOE COMARTIN: Its really unfortunate because in a number of ways Canada has led the banning of any number of other substances. But in this one area it is particularly flagrant that we have put the interest of this very small industry ahead of the interests and health of lots of people in the underdeveloped world.
In Quebecs aptly named mining towns of Asbestos and Thetford Mines, the latest government research has revealed a new startling claim to fame - the highest rate of mesothelioma amongst women in the world. It can only be a matter of time before the pain of asbestos victims at home overwhelms a government prepared to support its export.
NORMA CARSON: There is no cure for this. They are very straightforward with you and tell you this. So... Its scary. (Laughs) I have known Don since I was 15 and Im 68 years old, so Im... Like he said, I dont want to go now, weve got all these grandkids, we want to be around and see whats going on, and its hard.
Don Carson was diagnosed with mesothelioma in December last year. Its a virulent form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. He was given six months to live. He worked for Dow Chemicals for 38 years maintaining factories riddled with asbestos cladding.
DON CARSON: I came through it when I was - you know, I was there, from early 20s and, well, it wasnt going to be me, maybe some other poor fellow, but not me. But you find out that you were wrong, you know.
Each day is now becoming that bit harder. He is growing weaker, and finding it harder to breathe.
NORMA CARSON: This is how we do it and Don lies here and he has his radio, and hes comfortable. Hes more comfortable here than a lot of other places.
DON CARSON: If I do something that demands some power, you know, like even open a window or something like that, its just... Im short of breath and kind of gagging a little bit for a minute or two, till I get my... I dont do very much, I dont do anything, actually, to be honest, and I cant do very much.
Tragically, victims are turning up all around the world where asbestos was mined or used in building materials, brake or clutch pads or cement. 50 years ago, asbestos was hailed as the wonder product - cheap, light and fire-resistant. While some people knew that 20, 30 years after exposure, its tiny fibres could kill, it was not common knowledge. But unlike most countries in the developed world that have now banned its use and stopped mining it, Canada maintains an active mining program and exports huge quantities to the Third World. For more than 100 years, Canadian miners have made this journey in search of a mineral once considered so valuable it was called white gold.
NORMAND DOUCET, MINE SUPERINTENDENT: This accelerator goes down to - at 1,200 feet a minute, so it takes about two minutes to go underground.
This mine in the French province of Quebec began as an open-cut operation before shafts were sunk deeper into the asbestos vein.
NORMAND DOUCET: OK, what you see here is a sort of a 3-dimensional view of our mine. As you can see, there is three shaft going down the mine...
Tapping into a 100km-long seam, Canada is one of the worlds largest exporters of chrysotile or white asbestos. With such a large industry to protect, mine supervisor Normand Doucet has his own spin on the dangers of asbestos.
NORMAND DOUCET: Asbestos has been... A lot of people here by generation after generation, the asbestos has provided a living for a lot of people, even if some people have died because of working in the mine or, like in any mine, I think asbestos has created more living than death.
This line is getting more difficult to sustain as the numbers of asbestos deaths worldwide continues to climb.
JOE COMARTIN, OPPOSITION MP: And we know right now on an average year 100,000 people are dying from asbestos-related illnesses, whether it is mesothelioma, which is always fatal, asbestosis, which is fatal over extended periods of time, or other types of cancers, lung cancers.
With the health dangers of asbestos now firmly established, most First World countries have already banned its use. In Australia, all forms of asbestos - blue, brown and white - were finally banned last year, as they are across much of Europe. But in Canada, workers are still exposed to the fibres, and not just in the mines, but also in the milling factories like this one at Black Lake in eastern Quebec. Here the industry claims the working conditions are so controlled that its safe to work with asbestos. The first truckloads of raw asbestos have made their way to the mill and are now being sifted, graded, bagged and sealed, ready for export.
PIERRE LAROCHE, HEALTH AND SAFETY OFFICER, BLACK LAKE MINE: The stock level, I would say, is quite low these days. Usually you can put approximately 5,000 tonnes in bags here. At the moment we are talking to each other, it should be around, I would guess, about 2,000 or 3,000 tonnes.
Under Canadian air quality regulations, only one fibre of asbestos per cubic centimetre is permitted in the mill. In days past, workers manually filled these bags and were covered in dust. Today, machines do most of the work. Whats even more surprising is that Canada still uses asbestos, although nowadays only in limited applications. On a stretch of road in front of the Black Lake mine in Quebec, asbestos dug up from below has been mixed into the asphalt to provide a more durable surface. The day before I visited, Health Department officials fitted with respirators and hazard suits took air samples to be analysed, while road workers continued to roll out asphalt unprotected.
JOE COMARTIN: I would say, without any doubt, that if you did an opinion poll asking the average Canadians whether asbestos was being used in any way in Canada at this time, they would say no, no new usage, they would know that it was still in use in some of our institutional buildings, office buildings, places like that, and we have to be careful about it there, but that is old asbestos.
Joe Comartin has been fighting for asbestos victims for decades, first as a lawyer, now as a member of parliament. His electorate lies in the heart of Canadas petrochemical belt known as Chemical Valley, the same area that Don Carson worked in and contracted his mesothelioma.
REPORTER: Should it be mined? Should Canada be exporting it?
JOE COMARTIN: Im very much on the side of banning it completely. I have studied this for over 30 years now and there is just no safe way of using this substance.
Opinion in Canada is sharply divided about the wisdom of continuing to mine and export asbestos. In Quebec, the French-speaking province, where the mines and mills are located, there is staunch resistance to any move to close down the industry and lose jobs. Gary Nash, from Canadas Department of Natural Resources, has been instrumental in helping frame government policy on asbestos.
GARY NASH, ASSISTANT DEPUTY MINISTER, DEPT NATURAL RESOURCES: We do not believe that the science suggests or indicates that it cannot be used safely. So why would we give up what we believe to be a sound position? We believe that asbestos or chrysotile can be used safely and that we will do everything that we can, given our limited resources, to ensure and to promote its safe use. I mean, alcohol itself, for example, is a carcinogen. If you go to the International Agency for Research on Cancer you will see all kinds of materials and chemicals that are on the list - crystalline silica, sometimes referred to as sand.
REPORTER: But youre not seriously suggesting that its in the same league?
GARY NASH: Well, how do I know? I dont know the answer to that. But, nevertheless, if you go to the International Agency for Research on Cancer and you look at the list of materials and chemicals on the list you will find crystalline silica.
20 years ago, the Canadian and Quebec governments set up the Asbestos Institute to promote the industry. They still claim that Canadian asbestos is safe.
CLEMENT GODBOUT, ASBESTOS INSTITUTE: Well, you know, we have a product that we feel - and it has been explained, it has been studied - and people feel it is a product that it can be used safe.
Clement Godbout claims that the safe use guidelines the institute has developed will protect workers here and overseas from harm.
CLEMENT GODBOUT: We will be giving indication and information to countries and to governments and to the workers and to unions and to employers to make sure that we use this product safely.
Jim Brophy works with the victims of asbestos use from Canadas Chemical Valley.
DR JIM BROPHY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH CLINICS FOR ONTARIO WORKERS: This memorial here was put together primarily by the widows of workers who had died of work-related diseases, primarily asbestos.
Hes frustrated that the industry still claims asbestos can be used safely.
JIM BROPHY: It is ironic. I mean, if it wasnt such a tragedy, if asbestos really - the asbestos industry next to the tobacco industry, probably should have about as little credibility as one can give to people that have clearly been found guilty of not only negligence and liability, but conspiracy, literally, to keep the public in the dark about the dangers. So, really, their perspective should be held by everybody in contempt.
The current focus of the anti-asbestos lobby is the export trade. The opposition claims it amounts to government support for the global trafficking of a lethal product.
JOE COMARTIN: The governments hypocrisy here is close to being criminal, because they know about it. They know that the countries that it is being shipped into are mostly underdeveloped countries, they know that the health and safety standards there are either non-existent or not enforced, and so you have to know.
REPORTER: Are you willing to accept at all that the conditions in the developing world may not possibly be as good as they are in Canada?
CLEMENT GODBOUT: Im sure that there is a difference between Canada and other countries and not only with chrysotile. Let me suggest that its true for everything, everything.
REPORTER: So is it responsible?
CLEMENT GODBOUT: Now, just a minute now. When people have no fresh water to drink, the kids are dying by thousands because of lack of fresh water. You are not concerned about that? I am. Chrysotile cement pipes can bring to the families fresh water and we know it can be done in a safety manner and it can be done of safe way. Thats the question we have to address for the developing world. It is true with chrysotile there may be some problems, but there is problems with all products that they are using. And worse than that, they have nothing to eat, lack of fresh water, no money, no house.
REPORTER: So they should just be grateful theyre getting this product then?
CLEMENT GODBOUT: You say that. Not me. I says that we can provide a product and it can be used in a safety way.
Canada has actively sought out Asia as the market with the potential and will to buy what is has to sell. The most recent government statistics show demand for asbestos increasing across Asia, with Canada a major supplier to Thailand and India. Thailand has been importing asbestos for 30 years, and this is the reality of handling asbestos in Thailand. Here in Bangkoks crowded Chinatown district, clutch plates and brake pads containing asbestos are recycled back to life. There are no visible regulations about cutting or grinding, which releases the fibres. Safe use here amounts to knowing that youre working with asbestos.
THAI MAN (TRANSLATION): We work with asbestos. We dont produce it. We get it from our agents.
In the minds of these employees, the use of safety equipment seems bizarrely linked to workload - only if youre working hard do you need to protect yourself.
THAI MAN (TRANSLATION): We do wear a mask sometimes. But there are less jobs at the moment. If we have a lot of work to do, we will put on the mask.
Behind me is one of Thailands largest cement factories. Siam Cement is a heavy user of asbestos. But the owners wont let me in to film their operation because health and safety standards, when it comes to asbestos use, are a sensitive issue in Thailand. Based on industrial practices elsewhere in the country, its extremely unlikely that Canadas safe-use recommendations are strictly adhered to in this plant, creating a potentially lethal time-bomb for the workers.
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG, OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH RESEARCHER: Here you will see an infiltration.
REPORTER: And yet thats caused by?
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG: Caused by the dust, caused by the dust, especially the asbestos, and I am going to show you the asbestosis that I found.
Dr Orapan Maytaditagong is one of Thailands handful of occupational health specialists, and one of the very few to have carried out any field research into industrial lung damage.
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG: This is the one in Thailand and this is the worst case of the standard. And there are so many in Thai, but it is in here. It is here. I am so sorry about it, it is so terrible. It is in here, all the - not so good, huh?
REPORTER: They are example of asbestos?
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG: Asbestosis and silicosis.
But asbestos-related disease remains a silent killer in Thailand. The time lag between exposure and lung damage makes it difficult to pin the blame on asbestos and virtually no-one is looking for it.
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG: If the worker get sick of asbestos, an asbestos-related disease, it depend on the diagnosis again. Very few will be diagnosed. If they was diagnosed, it depend on the worker decides to ask for compensation or not. But most of them dont know that this is the disease related to their work.
Somkiat Siriruttanapruk is from Thailands Occupational and Environmental Disease Bureau.
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK, MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH, THAILAND: Right now there are three main countries that we import asbestos to our country. One is Canada, the second one is Russia and Brazil.
He says Thailands appetite for the deadly fibre is growing.
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: There is quite a lot. For example, in the year 2002 the number is about 200,000 tonne in that year.
REPORTER: And the number - the amount, its going up or is it...?
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: Yes, it seems to me that the trend is going up.
REPORTER: Why is that? Why is asbestos so popular in Thailand?
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: Because asbestos is used in many products in our country. For example, we produce the roof tile, the clutch and brake. and in many - in cement product.
Like Dr Orapan, Somkiat believes Thailand is on the verge of an epidemic.
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: I think if we dont do anything now I think in the future we can face many problems like many countries in Europe or in America, that they face the problem of asbestos cases.
Somkiat believes all forms of asbestos should be banned but that is a decision the Thai Government is not likely to take as long as there is pressure from the business community.
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: Yes, yes. We first happen two months ago, I joined the meeting between ministries and we raised this topic in the meeting but, for the employer side of view, they said right now if they change to use another material, the price will increase and it will affect the industry in our country.
Back in Canada, a shift in public awareness about asbestos is clearly under way. Removing the dangerous fibres from public buildings now employs more people than mining or processing asbestos.
GLENN EDWARDS, ASBESTOS REMOVAL CONTRACTOR: A lot of people are starting to go to a zero tolerance where they are trying to get rid of asbestos altogether. Yet the unfortunate thing is that some of the buildings have so much of it in it, it is not conceivable or practical in their budgets to get it out.
TODD JEFFREY, ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT: You can get into the $10 million range, I mean, theres major facilities, government facilities that have spent over $10 million on asbestos removal, just trying to get it clean.
The disparity between Canada spending millions to remove asbestos from their buildings while exporting it to the developing world is not lost on Thai officials.
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: I think if you are - if I am the Canadian people, I will try to let my government, the Canadian Government know that if you think it is not good for your people, you not sell this kind of product, to make the profit to your country, to another country.
REPORTER: Its irresponsible?
SOMKIAT SIRIRUTTANAPRUK: I think so.
DR ORAPAN MAYTADITAGONG: The Canadian Government, as a good government, should know that this is harmful for the health of the mankind. Should stop and do other business and promote other business.
Last week the Canadian Government faced an important watershed in its attitude to asbestos. Chrysotile was up for listing as a hazardous material by the United Nations in Geneva. This formal listing would have required importers to acknowledge its deadly potential - known as prior informed consent.
GARY NASH: Right now the chrysotile asbestos producers in Quebec are in very serious trouble. The mines are vulnerable, the communities are vulnerable. Up until now, a number of companies have withdrawn from the mining of chrysotile asbestos because of the fall in the market and so, consequently, should the prior informed consent cause significant delays in exports and that there are other producers of chrysotile asbestos that could supply that market and who are not part of the Rotterdam, this indeed, could indeed injure significantly the current producers in Quebec.
In the end, the government sided with the asbestos industry. They refused to support the listing, which killed it, because decisions need to be supported unanimously.
JOE COMARTIN: Its really unfortunate because in a number of ways Canada has led the banning of any number of other substances. But in this one area it is particularly flagrant that we have put the interest of this very small industry ahead of the interests and health of lots of people in the underdeveloped world.
In Quebecs aptly named mining towns of Asbestos and Thetford Mines, the latest government research has revealed a new startling claim to fame - the highest rate of mesothelioma amongst women in the world. It can only be a matter of time before the pain of asbestos victims at home overwhelms a government prepared to support its export.
NORMA CARSON: There is no cure for this. They are very straightforward with you and tell you this. So... Its scary. (Laughs) I have known Don since I was 15 and Im 68 years old, so Im... Like he said, I dont want to go now, weve got all these grandkids, we want to be around and see whats going on, and its hard.