Asbestos lobby resorts to threats

Asbestos lobby resorts to threats

Shady asbestos industry lobbyists are running a campaign of intimidation targeting key campaigners seeking to ban the deadly fibre. The UK-based International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS), which coordinates a network for campaign groups worldwide, says in recent weeks 'the internet has been flooded by accusations against individuals and groups campaigning to ban asbestos.' IBAS says 'it seems more likely than not that the current public relations offensive originated in Russia, the country with the highest earnings from asbestos production and exports.' It adds: 'The latest industry diatribes, most of which focus on the work of IBAS, were not unexpected. Threats to the asbestos industry have traditionally been met by verbal attacks, legal action or physical intimidation.' IBAS says the latest round of attacks brands ban asbestos campaigners as eco-terrorists and pseudo-environmentalists who are part of the 'powerful industry of the international anti-asbestos lobby... a supranational industry of money-pumping.' In an online rebuttal of the pro-asbestos attacks, IBAS notes: 'Whether or not the asbestos defenders are ready for the demise of the asbestos milch cow is irrelevant. Progress is represented by those mobilising around the world to end the decades of destruction wrought by this industry and not by those desperate for yet one more asbestos dividend. While attacking their critics might be cathartic for the old guard, it will not change the course of history. There is no place in the future for this dying industry.'

IBAS news report.