Matt Peacock reported this story on Tuesday, November 8, 2011 18:18:00

MARK COLVIN: A Canadian health expert has described his government as a "purveyor of death" for continuing to export asbestos to India.



Asbestos is virtually banned in Canada, but the government there is assisting plans to re-open a Quebec mine to export asbestos to India, its biggest customer.



The Canadian opposition this month challenged the government to end the asbestos trade.



Health authorities warn that India's increasing use of the mineral is likely to cause an epidemic of asbestos-related deaths in decades to come.



After 35 years reporting the asbestos industry, Matt Peacock's been to India to investigate the trade there.



MATT PEACOCK: Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper's conservative government has already offered a multi-million dollar subsidy to assist in the re-opening of Quebec's mine Jeffrey, that would see a tripling of Canadian chrysotile, or white asbestos production, most of it bound for India.



AMIR ATTARAN: It amounts to Canada being a purveyor of death around the world. Our country is an exporter of a deadly substance and we enjoy it; at least our federal government does.



MATT PEACOCK: Ottawa University's Professor Amir Attaran, who along with other international health experts have condemned Canada's trade.



But in India, Canada's biggest customer, the largest asbestos cement manufacturer Hyderabad Industries’ managing director Abayyar Shankar tells tonight's Foreign Correspondent program that white asbestos doesn't really cause cancer.



ABAYYAR SHANKAR: This particular asbestos has not been known to give cancer, so far.



MATT PEACOCK: So the World Health Organisation, the ILO, the Australian Government and however many - 50 - other governments, they are all wrong?



ABAYYAR SHANKAR: They are wrong about chrysotile asbestos.



AMIR ATTARAN: The argument that chrysotile asbestos is safer than other kinds of asbestos is the most scientifically ridiculous nonsense I've ever heard; it's like saying light cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes.



MATT PEACOCK: India's use of asbestos cement in the construction industry is already big and it's getting bigger.



But a lack of sophisticated medical care in this population of more than a billion people means asbestos disease is likely undiagnosed, especially with a decades-long latency period.



US asbestos critic and author Barry Castleman fears the worst.



BARRY CASTLEMAN: It's a terrible situation and the use of asbestos in India is rising very rapidly and so one can only expect that there's going to be a very catastrophic result that's going to ultimately occur as a result of all this asbestos use in these materials.



MATT PEACOCK: The Indian industry likes to call it the "poor man's roof" and attacks western experts for ignoring the needs of India's impoverished population. Even in the remotest villages, asbestos cement is rapidly replacing traditional thatched or tiled roofs. But its cheapness ignores a huge hidden cost, according to Barry Castleman.



BARRY CASTLEMAN: If they had to warn people that this stuff causes cancer; if they had to provide dust controls on all of the construction sites where asbestos cement products are used in making, in constructing buildings and doing the other kinds of things that are called for by the International Labour Organization safeguards in working with asbestos then it would be prohibitively expensive and they would be out of business.



MATT PEACOCK: But for now at least Canada is likely to continue its toxic trade with the government insisting that if asbestos is legal in India, then Canadian producers should be allowed to export it; arguing that if they didn't, other exporting countries like Kazakhstan or Russia would quickly fill the gap.



MARK COLVIN: Matt Peacock. And you can see his report on Foreign Correspondent on ABC1 tonight.