Governments Urged To Join World ‘Asbestos Ban’
Trade Unions Call For Stop To Century-Long Carnage

Brussels, 7 June 2005 (ICFTU OnLine) Global Unions will kick off a world campaign to ban the use of asbestos on 8 June in Geneva, where some 4,000 worker, employer and government representatives from around the world have gathered for the annual conference of the UN’s 178-member International Labour Organization (ILO).

Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), will announce at a special event organised by Global Unions, the beginning of a country-by-country process that trade unions hope will bring an end to the death and destruction caused by asbestos, which continues to kill over 100,000 people per year throughout the world and inflicts suffering among millions more.

Global Unions have formally delivered a letter to every government attending the ILO Conference, asking them to become involved in nationally banning asbestos or in supporting a world ban on the commercialization and use of the product.

“We believe the evidence showing the dangers of asbestos to be irrefutable”, Ryder told governments, emphasizing that all forms of asbestos cause asbestosis, a progressive fibrotic disease of the lungs.

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