Dr. T. K. Joshi, Director of the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health has raised concern over the high amounts of asbestos export undertaken by Canada to countries like India, despite claiming the harms associated with the product.

A report compiled by a collaboration of the Canadian Public Health Association, the Canadian Medical Association and the National Specialty Society for Community Medicine, has urged to ban the export and use of asbestos in the country.

The report’s findings have been backed by the Canadian Cancer Society, the Association des medecins specialistes en sante communautaire du Quebec and the Quebec Medical Association.

A number of studies conducted in Canada have substantiated the harmful effects of asbestos exposure in human beings.

Commission de la sante et de la securite du travail du Quebec statistics said that the most common form of ailment developed by asbestos exposure is mesothelioma. It is essentially a cancer developed in the chest lining or the abdominal cavity.

For more than 3 decades, the Government of Canada has agreed over the risks associated with the exposure to asbestos.

According to the estimations made by the WHO, as many as 90,000 people die of asbestos-related diseases annually.