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Opinions
OPINION #1
Silica in Europe
The MPCQ is happy to see the muti-sectorial agreement for the prevention of professional exposure to respirable crystalline silica dust.
The agreement regarding assuring workers ' health by using good work procedures while handling and using crystalline silica came into force October 25th, 2006 as foreseen.
Representatives of employers and workers of 14 European industrial sectors came to an arrangement under the "European social dialogue agreement" signed April 26th, 2006.
The supporters of safe and responsible use have always been of the opinion that it was possible and desirable to establish standards and good practice rules as concerns the handling and use of non-friable products containing chrysotile fibres.
Silica, like chrysotile, is a naturally occurring mineral present on all the continents that has provided and continues to provide service to humanity. Whether it is to fabricate glass sheets, glass containers, glass fibres, cement, additives, silica has its place.
Fibro-cements, friction products, gaskets, waterproofing, asphalt coverings, etc... all chrysotile based, also have their place in a modern economy.
December 5th, 2006
OPINION #2
Asbestos : Are-you a member of the club of unconditional discreditors of asbestos or do you wish to know more about it?
With the arrival of modern wears of communication, information and opinions on all subjects circulate very rapidly. This includes information about asbestos which is very often negative and abusive.
Curiously, the distinction amongst the various types of asbestos remains unknown to the general population. Most people do not know that chrysotile (white asbestos) has a much lower potential impact on the respiratory system than amphibole fibres (blue asbestos and brown asbestos).
Many recent studies published in scientific periodicals clearly show that the biopersistance of micro fibres of chrysotile is much lower than other fibres. Thus half life of chrysotile is only 10 days while that of amosite (amphibole asbestos) is 466 days, that of refractory ceramic fibres is 60 days and that of cellulose is 1000 days.
The EPA (American Environmental Protection Agency) which does not yet recognize this scientific evidence, delays revising its risk model on which its asbestos regulations are based.
Rumours circulating in the United States suggest that there are pressures on the EPA authorities not to revise the risk model. Why? Simply because there are important financial interests behind maintaining the status quo.
A recent article published in the journal of Environmental Science & Technology1 conjectures about the existence of such pressures. In our view, the greatest beneficiaries of status quo are easy to identify : they are all the Groups who profit from an overestimate of the risks related to exposure to chrysotile and who receive evident financial benefits :
a) Large law firms specialized in class action suits related to asbestos2,3,4;
b) Firms specialized in the removal of asbestos from buildings;
c) Companies fabricating substitute materials;
d) Certain pressure groups related to environmental protection;
e) Certain publications eager for sensational subject matter;
f) Certain individuals attracted more by shoddy science than by a rigorous scientific approach leading to the future.
Are you a member of the club of discreditors of chrysotile or do you want to know more about this natural fibre present on Earth for millions of years?
For more in formation or to react to this text please communicate with us at info@proamiante.com.
March 3, 2007
References
1 RENNER, Rebecca, "U.S. EPA to revisit toxicity", Science News - January, 31, 2007 Environmental Science & Technology online news. http://pubs.acs.org/subcribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/jan/science/rr_asbestos.html
2 STRASSEL, Kimberly A., «The Great Asbestos Scam», The Wall Street journal, Page A18, April 10, 2006.
3 PARLOFF, Roger, «Diagnosing for Dollars», Fortune, Pages 96 - 110, June 13, 2005.
4 «Beware the B-Readers» The Wall Street Journal, Page A16, January 23, 2006.
OPINION # 3
ASBESTOS, SEALS AND ANIMALISTS
For many years, every springtime, animal protection Groups, come to Eastern Canada to manifest against the seal hunt.
These "well intentioned" people come mostly from Europe but also from the United States and to a lesser degree from Canada. This fringe group of animalists have long tried to impose their vision against the seal hunt on Canada and others. They have a right to their opinion and are not shy about expressing it by associating film stars, music, and media to their cause which they consider most honourable.
On the other hand, a documentary entitled "Phoques, le film" (Seals, the movie) by the film maker Raoul Jomphe broadcast at the end of March on the Réseau de l'information (RDI) of Société Radio-Canada shows us the other side of the medal.
A rigorous scientific argument and shocking images allow re-establishing the facts about this traditional activity now carried out in a more humane manner in Canada. The information manipulation techniques used by certain animalist groups are illustrated with eloquence in the documentary. It is plausible to anticipate that the perverse effects of the animalists efforts will be to :
- Rupture the ecological equilibrium and provoke, if Canada yields to their pressures, an explosion in the seal population with disastrous consequences on the animals and the alimentary chain.
- Make it impossible to use seal meat for consumption (because of boycotts) and therapeutic purposes (meat rich in collagen and omega 3).
Canadian citizens who have been subjected to brain washing in the media for nearly 25 years by the anti-asbestos groups (manly from Europe) will doubtless see the coming together of these two litigious dossiers. "À beau mentir qui vient de ion" (lies are more believable from someone from afar) says the old proverb but the real truth will eventually emerge from this nearly religious animosity. No doubt this battle is commercially motivated as well as being diametrically opposed to sustainable development. The safe use of non friable chrysotile based products and the seal hunt carried out in a responsible way are two contemporary realities. Denying this evidence would be irresponsible and retrograde.
April 10, 2007
OPINION # 4
Thetford Mines looks to the future
After the upheavals caused by the closing of several mines over the last 20 years, Thetford Mines and the surrounding region are making a spectacular turnaround.
The economy is diversifying, the population is no longer declining and optimism has returned. Metal fabrication enterprises, industrial equipment manufacturers, and companies specializing in plastics, metallurgy and composites have compensated for the declining mining sector.
The tertiary sector has developed as well: financial institutions, call centers, the commercial sector, business services, two centres for research and transfer of technology, etc.
The apostles of the apocalypse who foresaw the death of Thetford Mines were completely wrong.
Even the chrysotile sector is now consolidating by regrouping its marketing strength. There is considerable demand for construction fibre (chrysotile). Construction of urban infrastructure requires large quantities of fibre-cement pipes and sheets.
The Thetford Mines region is turning towards sustainable development. On May 5th, 2008 a wind turbine project to locally produce 156 megawatts (MW) of "clean" electricity was approved by Hydro-Quebec as part of their request for tenders for 2000 MW.
Approximately 78 wind turbines will be installed in three regional municipalities to produce the electricity by 2011. Another example demonstrating that chrysotile and sustainable development are allies.
Thetford Mines May 26th, 2008
OPINION # 5
Asbestos : After the continental drift, the drift of ideas.
Of all industrial substances used, asbestos and its declensions chrysotile and amphiboles are probably those which have been the most studied and in the end, the least understood.
After having made the industrial empires rich in Europe and North America, it lost its lustre owing to its association with some occupational diseases like asbestosis and other respiratory illnesses. Later, the riches went into the purses of other empires, medical- legal litigation, substitute manufacturing, asbestos removal cartels and other lucrative entities.
The political world was not idle. The European greens relying firmly on shoddy science, based on "facts with variable geometry", have managed, with well orchestrated blackmail manoeuvers with unscrupulous media, to propagate a medievally inspired panic. The memory of the Great Plague which decimated one third of the European population during the Middle Ages came to haunt a certain easily alarmed fringe of the population as well as some faint hearted politicians.
The "Pied Piper" effect was started towards the banning of a damned substance which however had permitted "old Europe" to reconstruct after the second World War. In addition to banning all kinds of uses for all types of asbestos, including non friable and very safe products, like fibre-cement, these well meaning pious knights, like at the time of the Crusades, decided to cleave and drive the monster fibre outside of their borders.
At the same time the North American colonists, in the United States and in Canada decided to fall in step. Panic can be exported and be profitable to its breeders and parasites : large firms of lawyers expert in legal recourse, professional agitators shielded under the umbrella of radical ecology, little political groups thirsty for power and used to blackmailing traditional political groups, etc.
Seen from the mining regions, these media diversions created from whatever, have discouraged generations of miners who have worked hard to obtain safe and healthy working conditions.
What should we conclude from these observations?
- First, the search for truth is not a priority for many of the media which thrive on sensationalism. These emotions sell newspapers and airtime, but not the real and less catchy truth.
- The protection of the health of workers and the public is not a priority for the so called defenders of the environment and of human health.
These groups of excessive people, lacking in vision, are above all anxious for media visibility to increase their membership and to fill their coffers with cash. It takes lots of money to clone and disseminate the results of their laborious and senseless research. - The thirst for political and economic power over the masses often transcends the desire for equity, for real science and for the sense of the common good.
- What should we say about this army of " pencil pushers " from diverse regulating agencies that clutter our so called democratic landscape?
These non elected people don't hesitate to invent tons of regulations often farfetched and which are often impossible to apply under many circumstances.
Go away you anti-asbestos carpers and your hordes of racketeers and parasites of a feather. Your evident bad faith stares you in the face!
Thetford Mines, Québec, Canada
