Jul. 4 EU: Canada, others block asbestos from U.N. hazardous list

From Reuters:

Chrysotile asbestos will not be listed as a hazardous industrial chemical that can be banned from import after countries including Canada and Ukraine blocked consensus, a United Nations spokesman said Friday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of states that have ratified the Rotterdam Convention despite the treaty’s scientific review body having recommended the inclusion of “white” asbestos on health grounds, a U.N. spokesman said.

“Several countries declared in plenary problems they had with the inclusion of chrysotile (asbestos), including Canada, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam,” U.N. spokesman Michael Stanley-Jones told a news briefing in Geneva.

Australia, Chile and the European Union (EU) were among those seeking the inclusion of chrysotile on the 2004 treaty’s trade “watch list” of chemicals and severely hazardous pesticides which exporters must share information on.

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