Concordia University withdraws asbestos report

Thu, Apr 27, 2017

Asbestos

Kathleen Ruff, RightOnCanada.ca

In response to a complaint from scientists, academics and civil society organisations, Concordia University in Montreal has posted a notice that Concordia has withdrawn a report that the university funded and published in 2015, Lessons from the Quebec Asbestos Industry: Can there be meaningful dialogue and consensus when facts come up against feelings?  The notice states that the report should not be used or cited.

In a letter of April 26, 2017, the President of Concordia, Alan Shepard, states that Concordia has instructed the International Chrysotile Association (ICA) to remove text taken from the Concordia report that the ICA included in its document, Rotterdam Convention – COP8 Meeting – 2017. The ICA is currently using this document at a UN conference in Geneva to try to defeat the listing of chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous substance under the Rotterdam Convention.

The ICA has therefore been required to remove the text on page 4 of their Rotterdam Convention lobbying document, which criticized those who oppose the use of asbestos as engaging in a highly emotional campaign, ignoring scientific evidence, and promoting their position as scientific but without offering real scientific published studies.

The text on page 4 of the ICA’s document had been taken directly from the Concordia report.

Page 4 of the of the ICA’s Rotterdam Convention – COP8 Meeting – 2017  document is now a blank page.

In a letter of April 18, 2017 to President Shepard, dozens of scientists, academics and civil society organisations in Quebec, Canada and around the world, pointed out that: “The false scientific information and the irresponsible arguments put forward in the report are currently being quoted and used in order to undermine the work of the upcoming United Nations (UN) Conference on trade in hazardous substances that takes place in Geneva April 24 – May 5, 2017.” They called on Concordia to retract the report and to instruct the ICA to stop using it.

In a message to President Shepard on behalf of the signers, Kathleen Ruff welcomed the actions that Concordia has taken, noting that: “In the opinion of scientists in Quebec and around the world, the asbestos report that Concordia published put forward inaccurate, misleading information that serves the interests of the asbestos industry, causes harm to human and environmental health and does not meet academic standards. It is therefore, in our opinion, a positive step that Concordia has withdrawn the report and told the asbestos lobby organisation to stop using material from it.”

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One Response to “Concordia University withdraws asbestos report”

  1. Olha Says:

    Dangerous asbestos has long been proven. And it was necessary to forbid this before! Asbestos is seriously injurious to health! Asbestos was a popular building material and was widely used all over the world, but now it should be avoided. Asbestos was banned in many countries because of the high risk of harm to health. In Canada, asbestos began to be banned, but it can still be found in many old houses, and you need to know how to get rid of it. Changes in asbestos begin to work, and many people in Canada are thinking how to rid their house of asbestos. There is a lot of information about this, but it is necessary to be able to do it correctly. It is very useful to learn how to deal with asbestos, I read here http://astra-management.ca/asbestos. In addition, the removal of asbestos requires financial costs, so many think about lending, here it is written http://www.vrba.ca/national-renovation-rebate-needed-to-address-asbestos/. Asbestos should be banned as soon as possible and removed from the lives of every Canadian citizen. The health of the nation depends on the removal of asbestos, because of this about 2000 Canadians die. The damage to asbestos for health can be found here http://blog.homestars.com/archives/asbestos-awareness/. All Canadian citizens must protect the health of the nation and remove asbestos from their homes and offices.


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