Ban-Asbestos-India: January 2012

Saturday, January 28, 2012

asbestos victims appeal to Roshi Chadha has exported asbestos to India

Below are moving letters sent from asbestos victims to St Mary’s Hospital Foundation requesting that Roshi Chadha be asked to resign from the hospital’s Board of Directors. Roshi Chadha has exported asbestos from the Jeffrey asbestos mine in Quebec to India and other countries for the past 16 years. She is involved in a plan to open a new Jeffrey underground asbestos mine and export millions of tons of asbestos to Asia for years to come.

If you believe a leading asbestos trader should not be a member of the Board of Directors of a hospital, send a brief message requesting that she be asked to resign. Send your message to Rachel Renaud, Cynda Heward, Dr Arvind Joshi and the Board of Directors at the following email addresses: cynda.heward@ssss.gouv.qc.ca ; arvind.joshi@ssss.gouv.qc.ca ; fondation.stmary@ssss.gouv.qc.ca .

Kathleen Ruff

== ==

January 18, 2012

Dear Ms. Renaud, Ms. Heward, Dr. Joshi and Members of the Board of St Mary’s Hospital Foundation

Over the last five years, each one of us has watched one of our immediate family die from a completely preventable form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma is an excruciating painful form of cancer that causes the victims to suffocate to death. We watched parents and spouses waste away, helpless to quench their unending thirst, and unable to fill their lungs with the air they desperately needed.

The World Health Organization, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Medical Association, the Quebec Medical Association and the Quebec government’s own sixteen Directors of Public Health are just a few of the many reputable health organizations that call for a ban of chrysotile asbestos, the product that Roshi Chadha, your board member, has been involved in exporting for the past 16 years to third world and developing nations. There is no safe form of asbestos, despite what the chrysotile asbestos exporters may tell the innocent people who work in the factories that use Canadian asbestos. Please watch the CBC report, Canada’s Ugly Secret. http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/indepthanalysis/story/2010/06/28/national-asbestos.html

It has been proven that chrysotile can’t be used safely in Quebec, according to government standards, so it would be impossible for it to be used safely in the developing world. Thousands of people are going to become victims of asbestos in these countries because of Seja Trade, Ms. Chadha’s export company.

According to the President’s message the board members “lead by example”. The Foundation’s mission is to “strive to provide Healthcare on a Human Scale”. We believe having an executive of Seja Trade on your board is like having someone from the tobacco industry on your board. We ask that you remove this asbestos exporter from your board as surely there can be someone to fill her spot that does not contribute to the painful deaths of 107,000 people a year.

We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Canadian Voices of Asbestos Victims, speaking up for asbestos victims everywhere

Stacy Cattran

Leah Nielsen

Heidi von Palleske

Dr. Cathy Conrad

Michaela Keyserlingk

== ==
January 23, 2012

I am respectfully requesting that Roshi Chadha be removed as a member of the Board of St. Mary's Hospital Foundation. Her role as an asbestos exporter is in direct conflict with what a medical institution stands for. Please know that asbestos-related diseases are the #1 occupational killer across Canada, there is no known safe exposure limit, and there are no known cures for the diseases that it creates. The WHO has asked for a complete asbestos ban due to the serious and significant negative health impacts of asbestos worldwide.

I watched my Dad die from mesothelioma, a very painful, terminal cancer cause by asbestos, just as he and my Mum were settling into a well-deserved retirement. No one should have to go through what we went through, yet every year thousands more follow in our footsteps as loved ones fall ill and die due to asbestos exposure. My Dad was an electrician - he never worked in a mine or a factory; he never knew that he had been exposed. Back in1953 asbestos was listed as a carcinogen in one of the world's oldest, best known, and most respected medical journals. My Dad was just a boy in 1953, if we had heeded the warnings then, my Dad would still be alive today. This deadly mineral is odourless, tasteless and invisible. The only way to end these senseless deaths from this known carcinogen is to ban asbestos.

No one who supports the asbestos industry in any way should be a board member of any health organization. Your website uses the word "compassionate" over and over again to emphasize this characteristic of St. Mary's Hospital. Your board needs to lead by example; the example that Roshi Chadha is setting is not one to be followed, and is not one of compassion.

Please, I implore you, request that Roshi Chadha resign as a member of the St. Mary's Hospital Foundation Board.

Kind Regards,
Tracy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tracy Ford
AREA Fund Co-Founder
tracy@areafund.ca
www.areafund.ca

Ban on Asbestos is a Must

A study in a peer-reviewed journal had earlier estimated that there could be more than 6,000 workers affected by asbestosis (an untreatable lung ailment) and another 600 suffering at the minimum from asbestosis-related lung cancer in India at present. Occupational cancer from asbestos, the disease caused by emissions at the work place, poses an increasingly serious health problem. But the subject has attracted relatively little attention from industry, labour, public health bodies or the medical profession. Asbestos is one of the single largest sources of occupational cancer. Indian polticians are acting as if they are bonded workers of asbestos industry.

World Trade Center, New York collapsed Thousands of tons of asbestos became airborne.

Back in 1981, there was research coming out that Asbestos was cancer causing and this ad was in rebuttal to that research touting the benefits of using Asbestos. The text over the Twin Towers states, "When the Fire Alarm Went Off, It Took Two Hours to Evacuate New York's World Trade Center." I do not need to remind anyone of the images of September 11th and this ad. The copy below the ad goes on to mention all of the places that Asbestos was used in the World Trade Center. I can not not think of all of the innocent victims in the area that were exposed to all of the dust, smoke and inherent asbestos that was in the air after the buildings collapsed. The cloud of smoke went across the entire city and potentially exposed hundreds of thousands of individuals to asbestos. Hopefully there can be a cure or treatment for Mesothelioma before all of these potential victims are diagnosed.

Apex Court allocates meagre compensation for asbetsos victims

In 1995, the Supreme Court of India fixed Rs 1 lakh compensation amount and identified National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH) as the final authority to certify asbestosis cases. Compensations are given through the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). Two workers in Ahmedabad Electricity Company diagnosed as having asbestosis by NIOH have been compensated by Gujarat High Court. Twenty-five workers in asbestos jointing and packing industry at Mumbai were compensated by the Special medical board of ESIC. The court ruled that the industrial units must maintain a health record of every worker up to a minimum period of 40 years; insure workers under the Employees State Insurance Act or Workmen’s Compensation Act and give health coverage to every worker.

Asbestos Victims

Every day estimated 30 deaths in India is under way due to the ongoing trade and use of white asbestos. 'Asbestos' in Greek means 'indestructible'. Greeks called asbestos the 'magic mineral'. Asbestos is a generic term, referring usually to six kinds of naturally occuring mineral fibres. Of these six, three are used more commonly. Chrysotile is the most common, accounts for almost 90 per cent of the asbestos used in the industry, but it is not unusual to encounter Amosite or Crocidolite as well. Though Crocidolite asbestos is banned in India, it can still be found in old insulation material, old ships that come from other countries for wrecking in India. All types of asbestos tend to break into very tiny fibre, almost microscopic. In fact, some of them may be up to 700 times smaller than human hair. Because of their small size, once released into the air, they may stay suspended in the air for hours or even days. Asbestos fibres are virtually indestructible. They are resistant to chemicals and heat, and are very stable in the environment. They do not evaporate into air or dissolve in water, and they do not break down over time. Because of its high durability and with tensile strength asbestos has been widely used inconstruction and insulation materials - it has been used in over 3,000 different products. Where do we use it? In India, asbestos is used in manufacture of pressure and non pressure pipes used for water supply, sewage, irrigation and drainage system in urban and rural areas, asbestos textiles, laminated products, tape, gland packing, packing ropes, brake lining and jointing used in core sector industries such as automobile, heavy equipment, petro-chemicals, nuclear power plants, fertilizers, thermal power plants, transportation, defence.

Make India Asbestos Free

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

asbestos victims appeal to Roshi Chadha has exported asbestos to India

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