At a ceremony in Welland, Ontario (Canada) held on Monday to mourn all those who lost their lives in workplace accidents and to industrial diseases, the head of the Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW) told those present that Canada must stop exporting dangerous asbestos to other countries.

According to an article in the Welland Tribune, CAW president Rick Alakas told gatherers at the annual Day of Mourning ceremony that Canada is promoting an “asbestos double standard.”

“When it comes to asbestos,” Alakas says, “it’s time Canada practices what it preaches.”

Most developed countries, including the United States and nearly all the countries of the European Union, have banned the import of asbestos, Alakas pointed out, and the Canadian government has severely restricted its use.

However, Canada continues to export asbestos mined in Quebec to several countries worldwide, mainly to Third World countries. The exporting of asbestos to poor countries has resulted in much criticism of the Canadian government.

“Most Canadians think asbestos is banned. They would be horrified to learn (the federal government) has spent millions of their dollars promoting the use of asbestos,” the union leader points out.

Alakas told the crowd he feels the bans are in place to protect human health and wonders why the federal government feels it’s all right to endanger the health of workers in foreign countries.

Canada, along with Russia and China, has also rallied to keep asbestos off an official list of toxic substances whose export should be banned worldwide.

An Auburn, NY man who was sentenced for violations of the Clean Air Act during the removal of an asbestos-wrapped boiler at the Cayuga County Board of Elections Building is set to begin serving a 15 month prison sentence today.

According to an article in the Syracuse Post-Standard, John Chick, who removed the boiler and dumped it in the Auburn landfill, maintains he was not the only county official involved in the illegal removal though others have maintained their innocence.

Chick has said time and again that former county Legislature Chairman George Fearon and former Buildings and Grounds Superintendent Ernest DiCaro should be held accountable.

“There is no justice in this situation, none whatsoever….It shouldn’t just be me going down for this but I’ll do my time,” Chick said. No one else has been charged in the case at this time.

Last month, Chick was sentenced to prison time for conspiring to violate the federal Clean Air Act while he supervised the removal of the boiler and piping from the county elections board office on Court Street in February 2006.

He was also ordered to pay a fine of $108,000 for the violations and to help alleviate the cost of cleaning up the asbestos at the site and at the landfill. Chick’s sentence also includes three years probation at the completion of his prison sentence.

At his sentencing last month, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Frederick Scullin Jr. said it was “clear to him that Chick had acted at the direction of others in removing the boiler.”

Currently, about 30 people, including many county employees, have filed lawsuits against the county for possible exposure to asbestos. Inhalation of toxic asbestos fibers can eventually cause asbestos-related diseases such as asbestosis and an asbestos cancer known as mesothelioma.

On Tuesday, a Texas state appellate court reversed a $10 million decision against Ford Motor Company, saying that a widower had no grounds to sue the auto company for asbestos exposure.

Texas’ 14^th Court of Appeals issued the reversal after asking the Michigan Supreme Court to give an opinion about whether family members for Carolyn Miller, who died in 2000, had any right to sue Ford because she never was exposed to asbestos on Ford’s property, notes an article in The Facts, a Brazoria County (Texas) newspaper.

Miller died at age 54 of mesothelioma. She allegedly had been exposed to asbestos dust from her father’s clothes. Her father was a Ford employee from 1953 to 1964, though he worked at the plant only sporadically during those years.

The Michigan Supreme Court issued a statement which said that Glenn Miller, Carolyn’s husband, had no right to sue because she never set foot on Ford’s property to be exposed to asbestos and therefore the company “owed Miller no such duty,” Justice Leslie Yates wrote in the majority opinion.

Husband Glenn Miller and father John Roland had sued Ford in 2001, and a Brazoria County jury awarded family members $10 million.

However, this time the appellate court also found Roland, who received $500,000 in the judgment for present and future damages, could not be awarded damages because his injuries did not warrant them.

“The undisputed evidence shows only that Roland might get cancer in the future, and that is not a sufficient basis to support a recovery,” Yates wrote.

The case was tried under Michigan law but in a Brazoria County courtroom in 2004 because some of the original defendants in the case, including Dow Chemical Co., have operations in the Texas county. Most of the other defendants settled before the case went to trial, the article reports.

Critics are up in arms as another US “ghost ship” – a decommissioned Navy vessel – makes it way to a shipbreaking yard in the town of Hartlepool, England for dismantling. This is the fifth asbestos-laden ghost ship to be sent to the Able UK shipyard for this purpose.

An article in the Northern Echo reports that Able UK confirmed last night that it had a contract to dismantle a ship containing more asbestos-contaminated material than all four previous ships combined.

Critics say the U.S. should not be exporting toxic materials but the English firm argues that the business could create hundreds of jobs. The company also has world-class facilities to carry out such a contract, they stress.

The article also revealed that the Hartlepool firm “has applied for an exemption from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) so the latest vessel can be dismantled and recycled.”advertisemen

Able needs special permission for the shipbreaking because the vessel, which is arriving from Europe, contains about 700 tonnes of contaminated materials and it is illegal to import asbestos to the UK.

“We have had major concerns over the consultation on this matter, having not been made aware of Able UK’s application for an exemption,” said a spokesman for the environmental group Friends of Hartlepool.

Hartlepool councillor Stephen Allison said it was “vital for public confidence that local residents were kept informed and that both Able and the authorities involved ‘went the extra mile’ to reassure them over the company’s plans.”

However, in November, the company was fined £22,000 after it failed to dispose of asbestos properly on two occasions at its Seaton Meadows landfill site in Hartlepool. The company blamed a subcontractor for the infraction.

In a recent press release, public health advocates, led by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) and The John McNamara Foundation, today announced the formation of the new Committee to Ban Asbestos in America (CBAA).

“As recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 1976 the only way to prevent asbestos-related diseases is to ban its use, the CBAA supports language in a Committee Print before the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Environment & Hazardous Materials,” said Linda Reinstein, Chairperson of the Committee to Ban Asbestos in America. “We are calling on the U.S. Congress and the President to do the right thing and ban asbestos in America and fund critical medical programs. Doctors and scientists agree: asbestos is a carcinogen and that there is no safe level of exposure. Preventing asbestos exposure is the only way to eliminate asbestos caused diseases. Recent ADAO product testing confirmed asbestos is still found in consumer products including toys.”

“Asbestos and the manufacturers of asbestos are responsible for creating the largest man made health crisis in this country,” said TC McNamara, Founder of The John McNamara Foundation. “Asbestos went from being a miracle product to a serial killer which makes this legislation long overdue, but now is the time to ban asbestos in America.”

The committee hopes to become a leader in the fight to prevent asbestos exposure and eliminate asbestos-caused diseases, the press release points out.

A Clay, NY asbestos abatement company has admitted to illegally stripping, bagging, removing, transporting and disposing of asbestos at several jobsites throughout the past 12 years, an Assistant U.S Attorney announced yesterday.

According to an article in the Syracuse Post-Standard, AAPEX Environmental Services Inc. and owner John Leathly, 50, of Manlius, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act.

Under the plea agreement, Leathly faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, says Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Benedict. AAPEX will also be forbidden from ever re-applying for asbestos-related licenses, he added.

Benedict said he doesn’t know how many building owners AAPEX “ripped off” because the company did not keep records. “Sometimes, it was no more complicated than opening the door and seeing asbestos on the first step in,” Benedict said . “They could have left the place in a mess.”

Prosecutors say AAPEX also paid off air monitoring companies to provide false results from air analysis tests in order to mislead building owners and local inspectors. Company officials also hid asbestos activities from its insurance company in order to garner lower rates.

On Monday, June 2, a federal bankruptcy judge approved an agreement for W.R. Grace to reimburse the federal government $250 million for the investigation and cleanup of asbestos contamination in Libby, Mont.

According to a Washington Post article, the order was signed by Judge Judith Fitzgerald during a hearing in Pittsburgh and gives Grace 30 days to pay the money.

The company, based in Columbia, Md., agreed to the settlement in March. According to the article, the funds will be used to settle a bankruptcy claim brought by the government to recover money for the past and future cleanup of contaminated schools, homes and businesses in Libby, dubbed the site of the worst industrial contamination ever to occur in the U.S.

“The settlement would be the largest-ever reimbursement through the government’s Superfund program,” the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department have said.

Justice Department attorney James Freeman called the payment a “substantial compromise” for the government, but said that prompt payment by Grace would allow the all important clean up to continue without interruption. So far, taxpayers have been footing the bill for the cleanup, which has already cost approximately $168 million. It will take an estimated three to five years more to complete the cleanup, the EPA estimates.

W.R. Grace’s vermiculite mine in Libby, a town in northwestern Montana, operated from 1963 until 1990, when it closed. The asbestos-contaminated vermiculite mined in Libby has been blamed for the hundreds of deaths amongst workers and community members, many of whom developed mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer for which the only known cause is asbestos exposure.

An Irish man diagnosed with mesothelioma more than two years ago placed a bet that he would still be alive today and won – with odds of 50 to 1.

The gentleman, John Matthews, age 58 of Milton Keyes, Bucks County, wanted to bet that he could beat doctor’s predictions and outlive most individuals who are diagnosed with mesothelioma. So he decided to put his money where his mouth is…so to speak.

According to an article in the Irish Examiner, eight months ago Matthews was told “don’t make any plans for Christmas”, but bet £100 he would survive and won £5,000 in the wager.

“The doctors said I wouldn’t live until the end of the year. They said don’t make any plans for Christmas, but I’m still here,” Matthews explained.

“I got to last year about this time and I thought ‘I don’t feel too bad’. Then I got hold of William Hill and placed a bet. They checked all the facts out and that’s why they gave me odds of 50/1.”

Matthews was first diagnosed with the asbestos-related cancer in April 2006. So far, his doctor has told him that he is the longest surviving patient in his practice and others in the area – surviving for more than 25 months after the dreaded diagnosis.

“Today is 25 months and a week so I’ve beaten that record,” Matthews stressed. “I do get bad days obviously but I’m feeling fine today. Everyone’s feeling fine if they’re going to pick up five grand!”

Most mesothelioma victims die within a year of diagnosis because the disease is generally not diagnosed until it reaches stages 3 and 4. At that point, treatments provide little relief and absolutely no hope for a cure.