Asbestos lives

Just saw a jaw-dropper on iView – last week’s Foreign Correspondent in India ( here for a while ). Old asbestos mountains that kids were playing in, shop assistants unaware that the asbestos roof sheeting they were selling was dangerous, company directors saying that white asbestos wasn’t dangerous if handled properly by the unskilled people cutting it. Blah.

It appears that after developed countries more or less banned asbestos, manufacturers turned to the developing world. India isn’t alone in being flooded by the deathly dust, most of South East Asia also continues to sell asbestos sheet for low cost cladding. India is one of Quebec’s main importers of asbestos. The potential for growth is so great that there are plans to reopen an old asbestos mine, despite the anger of many Canadians.

More at BBC/ICIJ’s Dangers in the Dust website.
The above image is taken from this PDF.

Posted by Peter on 16.11.11 in product