Kathleen Ruff, RightOnCanada.ca<\/p>\n
Over 800 tons of asbestos, shipped by Russia to Mexico, have been left abandoned for the past eight months at the port of Veracruz, Mexico. Some sacks have broken, spilling the chrysotile asbestos out into the open. Asbestos fibres are blowing in the air and being breathed in by workers\u00a0 and anyone living in the nearby area or passing through it. See photos and article below.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sacks of Russian asbestos lying abandoned at the port of Veracruz, Mexico<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/em> Bags of Russian asbestos abandoned at the port of Veracruz, Mexico. The Mexican government’s Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection states that at least 30 bags are broken and the asbestos exposed.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Over 800 tons of asbestos lying abandoned at the port of Veracruz, Mexico<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n At the UN Rotterdam Convention conference in May this year, asbestos industry lobbyists from Russia, Mexico and elsewhere worked to sabotage the recommendation of the Convention’s expert scientific body to put chrysotile asbestos on the Convention’s list of hazardous substances. This would require that safety measures be followed when the product is exported.<\/p>\n At the May conference, the asbestos industry and its allies, such as Russia, vehemently argued that chrysotile asbestos is exported around the world under strict, controlled conditions and thus poses no threat to health and therefore does not need to be put on the list. They succeeded in defeating the listing.<\/p>\n Dr. Evgeny Kovalevskiy, a lead scientist at the Scientific Research Institute of Occupational Health of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, was part of the Russian government’s delegation at the Rotterdam Convention conference. Dr. Kovalevskiy argued at the conference, as he has argued elsewhere, that chrysotile asbestos poses no threat to health today and should not be put on the Convention’s list of hazardous substances. In spite of his denial of reputable scientific research on asbestos and in spite of his history of promoting the asbestos industry’s interests, Dr. Kovalevskiy has been appointed as a scientific collaborator<\/span><\/a><\/span> by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.<\/p>\n As demonstrated by the photos, the asbestos industry continues the same deception and lies that it has practiced for the past century. People in Mexico and elsewhere will pay the price of this deadly deception with their lives.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Russia claims that its asbestos is exported under “strict, safe conditions”<\/strong><\/h2>\n