Where does asbestos come from?
Where does asbestos come from?
There are a wide range of illnesses associated with exposure to asbestos mesothelioma and cancer are just two of them.
So if asbestos is so dangerous, then which countries still mine the deadly mineral, why do they do so and which countries do they sell the product to?
No win no fee solicitors such as Claims Direct can help people diagnosed with illnesses caused by asbestos exposure receive the compensation they deserve.
But lawyers and indeed many world governments seem powerless to prevent some countries from continuing to mine asbestos.
A new documentary film called Breathtaking, made by Canadian director Kathleen Mullen, puts the spotlight on one country which still mines asbestos.
Ms Mullen didn't have to travel far to find a source of asbestos Quebec's Thetford Mines still extract the mineral.
Only 2-3 per cent of the asbestos mined in Canada is used by Canadians the country's laws regarding asbestos use are extremely tough - and yet the mines are extremely lucrative. This is because the asbestos is sold to developing countries such as India where the health and safety laws are more lax.
Breathtaking takes film viewers on a journey to India to see the devastating impact asbestos has had on workers' lives there.
Ms Mullen had much motivation for making the film as her father died from an asbestos-related disease.
She said: "As I began Breathtaking, everyone to whom I mentioned I was making the film responded with a personal story of their own. I soon realised that this story was a lot bigger than just my own family's personal grief."
A brief history of asbestos import laws in Great Britain
The use of asbestos as a cheap, flexible and highly-effective heat-insulating material meant that many construction firms in the UK were extremely reluctant to agree to a ban.
Blue asbestos was banned in 1970, with a ban on brown asbestos imports following a decade later. These bans perpetuated the myth than only brown and blue asbestos was dangerous.
In fact, white asbestos is also potentially lethal (and it made up 95 per cent of import totals). It was not until 1999 that a complete white asbestos import ban was imposed in the UK.
According to asbestosvictimadvice.com, as recently as 1995, the UK imported 10 million tonnes of asbestos, 83 per cent of which came from Canada. Around 50 per cent of these imports came through Liverpool docks. This explains why there has been such as high incidence of asbestos-related illnesses in the north-west of England.
Canada is not the world's largest producer of asbestos it produces 10 per cent of the total less than Russia's 40 per cent, China's 20 per cent and Kazakhstan's 13 per cent.
The fact it still produces this deadly mineral is a cause of national embarrassment for many, but not all, Canadians
In Quebec, there is still a town called Asbestos - a place where a local businessman controversially recently applied for a $58million loan to revitalise a local mine producing the product which gave the town its name.
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