The Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) will mobilize their members throughout the world on 28 April to engage in peaceful demonstrations and petitions at Canadian Embassies and Consulates to convince the Canadian government to call a halt to its aggressive marketing and promotion of asbestos in developing countries such as India, Zimbabwe and Brazil. 

BWI General Secretary, Anita Normark, today appealed to all trade unions to join the effort to help convince the Canadian Government to recognize that asbestos is the world’s biggest industrial killer and that it should be banned in all countries.

Anita Normark said: "Today's exposures guarantee an epidemic lasting at least another generation, with the asbestos graveyards shifting from the developed to the developing world."

"At the moment, there is at least one death every 5 minutes, and some jobs are effectively a death sentence. There is no safe level of exposure, so there is no acceptable level of exposure. This is the preventable industrial health calamity of the modern era."

Our aim is to eliminate the suffering and save the lives of workers who continue to die from the debilitating diseases that result from exposure to this extremely dangerous product. More than 100,000 people die of asbestos diseases annually and most of these people were exposed to asbestos in the building trades. Today, 90% of asbestos is used in cement products for roofing and building materials and cement pipes. More building workers die each year from past exposure to asbestos than those who are killed in falls – yet occupational ill health is largely invisible and ignored.

Canada is one of the largest exporters of asbestos said Normark and “we aim to show its Government that workers in a large number of countries are concerned about its disdain for the occupational and public health of citizens and workers throughout the world. Russia, China and Brazil are also big producers and exporters of asbestos, and we need to convince them to use alternative materials. However, their governments, unlike the Canadian government, do not finance massive advertising campaigns in developing countries to convince them that asbestos is perfectly safe. This behaviour is immoral, and is social dumping of the most cynical kind. Whilst forty industrialized countries have banned asbestos, and are using alternative materials, developing countries are targeted by the asbestos salesmen who will deny the health hazards in order to make profits.

The BWI actions will be organized in time for the 28 April “International Workers Memorial Day”, which this year calls for action on asbestos, with a view to convince governments and employers to support a total ban.

For 28 April more than one hundred building unions belonging to the Building and Woodworkers International are already planning a wide range of activities, from small and large rallies to educational and training events, including basic information dissemination, through public and membership meetings.

Anita Normark points to the potentially powerful effect for unions to use 28th April means of raising the awareness of the Canadian government diplomats and the government in their own country about asbestos and its devastating impact on health.

“In June 2005 Global Unions kicked off a campaign for a world ban of asbestos. Recently the ICFTU wrote to it’s affiliates world-wide, asking that they step up efforts aimed at governments to adopt an asbestos ban. “We now invite national affiliates of all unions to join our effort to impress upon the Canadian government, wherever its representatives are located, that the world is watching”, she concluded.