[getsmart-l] "Harper government gives science a raw deal" and Health Canada defends Asbestos!!??

[John O'Gorman]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080222.wscience22/BNStory/National/
Harper government gives science a raw deal, journal Nature says
UNNATI GANDHI Globe and Mail Update February 22, 2008 at 12:27 AM EST

One of the world's most respected journals has dealt a strong blow to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative government's “manifest disregard for science.”

In a strongly worded editorial, entitled Science in Retreat and published in Thursday's issue, the British journal Nature wrote that while Canada's researchers consistently rank among the world's finest, the same cannot be said for the federal government's position on science and research.

“Science has long faced an uphill battle for recognition in Canada, but the slope became steeper when the Conservative government was elected in 2006,” the editorial says.

It goes on to list the Conservatives' skepticism on the science of climate change and its retreat from Canada's Kyoto commitment.

In particular, the editorial lambastes the government's decision to move the office of chemist Arthur Carty – appointed in 2004 by then-prime-minister Paul Martin as Canada's independent national science adviser – away from the Prime Minister's Office to Industry Canada. Mr. Harper's government, the editorial says, set the office up to “fail” by giving it an “abysmal” budget and a “vague” mandate. The government then told Dr. Carty he was no longer needed as science adviser, and Dr. Carty offered his resignation.

Reached at his Ottawa home last night, Dr. Carty told The Globe and Mail he believes that the Conservative government needs to put a lot more effort into supporting science in Canada. 

“The editorial is factual. I don't have much more to say, other than I think the facts are pretty right.”

In Dr. Carty's place, the government last year formed the 18-member Science, Technology and Innovation Council, which the editorial says was expected to be “markedly less independent” because several government administrators also hold seats.

In a rebuttal letter to Nature, Industry Minister Jim Prentice writes that the government is committed to “supporting world-leading research.”

“How anyone can state that 18 bright minds cannot perform the task of one science adviser – who decided to retire after years of dedicated public service – is incomprehensible,” he writes.

In response to the government's attitude toward climate change, the letter says: “[B]oth the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Environment have been clear on numerous occasions that the government considers climate change to be one of the greatest threats facing the world today.”

With a report from Gloria Galloway

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080222.wasbestos22/BNStory/National/

Health Canada assessing risk of chrysotile asbestos
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT Globe and Mail February 22, 2008 at 4:02 AM EST

The World Health Organization says the chrysotile variety of asbestos is a health hazard and recommends its use be stopped to prevent cancer. So does the Canadian Cancer Society, and other respected public health agencies. But not Health Canada.

The federal health agency has quietly begun a study on the dangers of the asbestos type, the last remaining variety of the controversial mineral in widespread commercial use and the only one produced by mines in Canada.

The study is to try to determine the relationship between chrysotile fibres and the risk of contracting several diseases -such as lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma - and investigate the relative dangers of the Canadian variety compared with another type, known as amphibole.

But many public health advocates say repeated scientific reviews by respected international bodies have already found that all types of asbestos, including Canada's, cause cancer. 

"Every legitimate world organization ... [has] concluded that chrysotile does indeed cause all asbestos-related diseases," said Richard Lemen, a retired assistant U.S. surgeon-general. The U.S. voted last year to ban all kinds of asbestos, Dr. Lemen said.

In an e-mailed statement, Health Canada said it was undertaking the research "to help further Canada's knowledge of chrysotile asbestos fibres in relation to human health," and to update the World Health Organization's last published assessment on the subject from 1998.

That assessment said all forms of asbestos were responsible for "a high incidence" of lung cancer and were so dangerous the safe exposure level was unknown at the time.

Critics say the government hopes the research might help sway opinion at key international talks, known as the Rotterdam Convention, which are scheduled for later this year and will discuss placing chrysotile on the list of the world's most hazardous substances.

Canada led efforts to scuttle the listing at the last round of these UN-sponsored talks two years ago.

"It would make sense that they would want to bolster their argument since it's coming up again this fall," said Larry Stoffman, Vancouver-based chairman of the National Environmental and Occupational Exposures Committee, an independent, cancer-prevention organization funded by Health Canada.

Mr. Stoffman said that chrysotile should be listed because "the overwhelming evidence is that this material is very dangerous" and that Canada would risk further damage to its international reputation by undermining efforts to control the product.

Health Canada said it hasn't decided whether the new research will be presented at the talks.

Health Canada didn't publicly announce the study, but its existence was revealed this month by the Quebec Federation of Labour, which used the ongoing federal review to persuade the Canadian Labour Congress to delay a vote supporting a ban on the material.

The only remaining Canadian asbestos mines are in Quebec, where parts of the labour movement support continued extraction of the resource.

Any findings by Health Canada on the health hazards of the mineral will be of little use to Canadians because not much asbestos is used domestically, out of concerns for health and litigation risk. About 95 per cent of domestic output is exported, mainly to developing countries.
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