Good Day Brothers and Sisters,
The Government of Canada announced a strategy today towards a comprehensive ban on asbestos to protect the health and safety of Canadians. This is very good news.
This comprehensive ban on asbestos will include:
- creating new regulations that ban the manufacture, use, import and export of asbestos under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, the legislative framework that protects people from the risks associated with hazardous substances such as asbestos;
- establishing new federal workplace health and safety rules that will drastically limit the risk of people coming into contact with asbestos on the job;
- expanding the current online list of asbestos-containing buildings owned or leased by the Government of Canada;
- working in collaboration with our provincial and territorial partners to change the national, provincial and territorial building codes to prohibit the use of asbestos in new construction and renovation projects across Canada;
- updating Canada's international position regarding the listing of asbestos as a hazardous material based on Canada's domestic ban before next year's meeting of parties to the Rotterdam Convention, an international treaty involving more than 150 countries that support listing asbestos as a hazard; and
- raising awareness of the health impacts of asbestos to help reduce the incidence of lung cancer and other asbestos-related diseases.
The Government of Canada will work with the health, labour, trade and commercial sectors, among others, to fulfill its commitment to ban asbestos by 2018.
A link to this Ban Asbestos announcement, with further information:
Local 110 has a long history fighting for a ban on asbestos, as too many Members have been lost to Asbestosis, Mesothelioma, and other asbestos-related diseases.
This is an important step forward for all workers across Canada, and the Government of Canada’s strategy is receiving clear support from Labour and other organizations.
We are so thankful that Labour’s and our efforts have been successful, that going forward fewer and fewer of our Brothers and Sisters will be plagued by the effects of asbestos. We know that this doesn’t make up for all the loved ones we have lost, we can take some comfort in knowing that their deaths were not in vain, their lives mattered, and that they have been greatly instrumental in helping future generations avoid the same fates.
In Solidarity,
Kevin Lecht