The Canadian Government and their 'impartial' Asbestos Institute experts claimed that under regulated conditions asbestos could be used without posing any risk to human health. Yet in even the most stringently regulated conditions, like those in Canada and the US, workers continue to be exposed to deadly fibers and fall victim to asbestosis and mesothelioma. If workers are dying from exposure even here, imagine what conditions must be like in nations lacking even the bare minimum of regulatory mechanisms. It's precisely these countries to which Canada is exporting its 'magic mineral'.

Time and time again those who have visited asbestos-manufacturing plants in the South return with stories of horrific working conditions. A 1980s exposé of Thailand – one of Canada's key markets – revealed employees who spend their days in clouds of dust without respirators. They split open bags of asbestos with their bare hands. They walk home to their families covered in layers of dust. In India, both women and children were found working with asbestos. Many importing countries like Turkey, the Philippines and Singapore have such repressive regimes that anyone who raises concerns may find themselves out of a job or in trouble with the police. 'Controlled use' doesn't offer much protection to workers here.

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Yet Canada persists in its promotion of asbestos and has vowed to seek out new markets for the deadly fiber. One can only hope that the message is heard and understood: the Canadian Government is not selling development, but death sentences in the form of a 'magic mineral.'