Document Lp61bK4zVDv7b5Gxmx4eb0V53

PAGE: xxxxxxxx |C M Y K SUNDAY POST-DISPATCH Vol. 125, No. 299 2003 www.STLtoday.com PROUDLY SERVING ST. LOUIS FOR 125 YEARS OCTOBER 26, 2003 1 2 3 4 5 6 $1.25 ST. CHARLES U.S. imports of asbestos brake material are on rise Much of the material is mined in Canada, called "the great Satan of asbestos " by one public health specialist. New studies dispute Canada's assertion that its asbestos is safe. By Andrew Schneider Of the Post-Dispatch 2003, St. Louis Post-Dispatch ASBESTOS, Quebec -- Ship ments to U.S. ports of potentially hazardous asbestos brake materi al have increased 300 percent in the past decade. Rather than act ing to stem the tide, Washington lawmakers are engaged in a fierce effort to pass legislation that will prevent victims of as bestos-related disease from suing American companies. The two-year-long battle to pass the so-called Asbestos Fair ness Act would set up a govern ment-run fund for asbestos vic tims and control who could or could not sue. It was based on the premise that the cancer-causing material was no longer being used. Government records say that isn't the case. Information col lected by port inspectors of the U.S. Customs Service and re leased by the U.S. Geological Sur vey show that last year asbestos products worth $208.9 million came into the country. Of that, $124.6 million was asbestos fric tion material for brakes, more than half mined in Canada. Some government officials find the numbers astounding. "I was shocked at the increase in as bestos imports and shocked for two reasons," said Steve Johnson, the acting deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. "One is just the number, the amount of the increase. The second is that given all of the tort liability issues that are swirling around asbestos, I just can't imag ine why a manufacturer or im porter of asbestos products would want to make themselves vulnera ble to these types of suits." Johnson was with the agency in July 1989 when the EPA issued ANDREW SCHNEIDER / POST-DISPATCH A memorial to fallen miners in Asbestos, Quebec, sits next to one of the world's largest asbestos mines. For decades, it has been the source of most of the asbestos imported into the United States. Brake material imports Foreign asbestos brake material imported into the United States has increased almost 300 percent in the past 12 years. FIGURES IN MILLIONS regulations that barred the man- ufacture, importation, processing and sale of almost all products containing asbestos. Almost in stantly, U.S. asbestos manufac turers, strongly supported by the governments of Canada and Que bec province, sued the EPA. On Oct. 18, 1991, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned the ban. Today, more than 33 countries have barred as bestos but it still remains legal to mine, import and sell asbestos in the United States. "You cannot underestimate the power of the Canadians when it comes to protecting their as bestos," said Dr. Barry Castleman, a former consultant to the European Union on asbestos is sues and public health specialist. "They were effective in killing EPA's ban and their presence is still obvious. They want a bigger piece of the U.S. market. "With so many countries ban ning the import of asbestos, Canada needs to be able to point to the United States as a con sumer to convince third-world nations that it's still safe to use Canadian asbestos. Canada is tru ly the great Satan of asbestos." For decades, the Canadian as bestos industry insisted that the asbestos it mined -- chrysotile -- was safe. The few deaths that were identified at Quebec's two mines were attributed to contam inated oil, Australian asbestos used by a World War II gas mask manufacturer near the Jeffrey Mine, or from tremolite asbestos, like the fibers that killed and sickened hundreds living near a vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont., Dr. David Egilman wrote in the current issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. "The asbestos industry funded medical research which always concluded ABC. Anything but chrysotile," Egilman, a Massachu setts physician and expert in toxic materials, said in a telephone in terview. "The safety of their as bestos was the pitch that their lob byists used to the U.S. Congress to fight the ban and now, we've got a soaring number of asbestos brakes again coming in from Canada, and again we're hearing how safe their asbestos is." The illusions of the safety of Quebec asbestos may be put to rest when two reports on as bestos-related illnesses and deaths are released later this week by the Canadian National Institute of Public Health. "We have documented signifi cantly high numbers of asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothe lioma among the miners and the people living near the two mines" in Quebec, said Dr. Louise De Guire, a physician with both the national institute and the Montre al Health Department. "Here in Quebec we are sure that we have asbestos disease cases related to exposure to chrysotile coming from our mines and at a rate higher than most of the rest of the world." Pressure to sellThe Jeffrey Mine is the very heart of the town of Asbestos. It is terraced to the depth of a 100-story building and is a mile and quarter across at its center. Tailing piles of asbestos ore tower over nearby homes and a school. The downtown section of the town has been moved sev eral times as the mine expanded. Today, the mine is silent. The demand for asbestos has dimin ished to the point where Quebec's 1,200 asbestos miners work only half a year. The mine, which was once owned by an American company, made its last delivery this year to NASA. About 1.2 million pounds of baled asbestos was trucked to the ATK Thiokol plant in Utah for use as insulation in the space shuttle program. The Quebec government is do ing all it can to increase the use of asbestos. "Last year the govern ment adopted a policy to encour age the creation of new industries and development of new products to use asbestos," De Guire said. "They did it because when they send missions to other countries to sell asbestos they are asked why we don't use more asbestos here in our own country. "The unions and the govern ment are for it. Only we in public health worry about the deaths that will come for years." The Quebec government and American users of asbestos con tinue to fight efforts to again in stitute a ban, say Capitol Hill staffers watching the progress of the "Ban Asbestos in America" bill. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., introduced the legislation in each of last two sessions. Part of Murray's bill was adopt ed earlier this year by Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, as a peace offering to Democrats who found serious fault with the fairness legislation. Hatch's bill is awaiting a vote by the full Senate, but its chances of passing appear remote. Murray said that regardless of the Hatch bill, she will continue to fight for her asbestos bill. "It is outrageous that at the same time Congress is trying to protect com panies from future asbestos law suits, we continue to import and consume more and more as bestos," Murray said. Charles Arms of the Post-Dis patch staff also provided infor mation for this story.