Conservative leader Stephen Harper has declared that Canada will not ban the export of asbestos - despite calls from health groups - because to do so would hurt Canadian industry.

Harper brought his campaign Tuesday to the community synonymous with cancer - and amid renewed pressure to ban the export of asbestos worldwide. He came to a seniors' residence named Manoir Jeffrey - named in honor of the person who built the first asbestos mine in the town.

Speaking to reporters at the event, Harper was reminded by a journalist about the dangers of asbestos: How one of his former cabinet ministers, Chuck Strahl, contracted lung cancer from exposure to it, how the Parliament buildings are being gutted to remove the product and how Canada still exports it to other nations.

He flatly said his government will not ban the sale of the product, which he preferred to call "chrysotile" instead of asbestos. "Chrysotile specifically is permitted internationally under conditions of safe and controlled use," he said.

"Canada is one of a number of exporters of chrysotile and there are many countries where it is legal who are buyers. And this government will not put Canadian industry in a position where it is discriminated against in a market where sale is permitted."

Harper's pledge drew strong applause from the small crowd in the room, most of them seniors who live at the lodge. He appeared with the Conservative candidate in the riding of Richmond- Arthabaska, which is held by the Bloc Quebecois.

It is also adjacent to a riding held by Conservative cabinet minister Christian Paradis, whose riding includes the town of Thetford Mines, which has the last asbestos mine in Canada.

For years, Canada and Quebec have been under pressure from scientists and health groups such as the Canadian Cancer Society to stop exporting asbestos because of how its toxic elements are linked to cancer.

The use of asbestos is highly regulated in Canada because it is considered a hazardous product. The federal government allows it to be exported, arguing that it is not dangerous if handled properly. But critics say this is a hypocritical approach because once the product has left Canada, there is nothing that can be done about how companies elsewhere - often in the Third World - require their workers to use it.

For decades, the main rivals in Quebec - Liberals, Bloc Quebecois, and Conservatives - have resisted calls for a ban. Critics say they are far too interested in winning seats in the region of Quebec where asbestos has traditionally been produced - even though it is becoming a dying industry.

On Tuesday morning, in advance of Harper's visit to Asbestos, health groups, unions and environmental organizations released a joint statement calling on Harper to take action. They said Harper was holding his second event in Asbestos, a town of "around 7,000 in a country of 33 million" because he is "seeking votes by promoting himself as the political leader most dedicated to the asbestos industry."

Dr. Kapil Khatter, of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, called on Harper to "put people's lives ahead of politics." "Canada's leading medical authorities have all told you that the export of asbestos is medically and morally indefensible and will lead to an epidemic of asbestos-related disease and death overseas," he said in a statement.

The groups noted that Canada was once the world's biggest exporter of asbestos but the industry is now on hard times. "Canada is becoming known as an immoral asbestos pusher and as an enemy of global public health," said Kathleen Ruff, senior human rights adviser to the Rideau Institute. "This is not the role Canadians want to play in the world."

The Canadian Cancer Society has urged Quebec Premier Jean Charest not to breathe new life into one of the country's last remaining asbestos mines.

The province was considering a loan guarantee to help revive the ailing Jeffrey Mine in the town of Asbestos. In a letter sent to Charest's office last year, the president of the organization charged the new funding will only contribute to the global epidemic of asbestos-related cancers.

"All forms of asbestos, including chrysotile asbestos mined in Quebec, cause cancer," wrote Peter Goodhand, president and CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society. Most of Quebec's asbestos is exported to developing countries, notably in Asia.

Exposure to asbestos can cause three types of illnesses: mesothelioma, a cancer of the membrane around the lungs; asbestosis, a respiratory disease; and lung cancer.

In the past, the Canadian Cancer Society has also written directly to Harper, asking for a ban on the use and export of asbestos.

Canada has one remaining active asbestos mine in Quebec, and 90 per cent of the asbestos produced there is exported, mainly to developing countries, where it's generally used as an additive to make cement building products more durable.

The World Health Organization lists asbestos as a cancer-causing substance, and says 90,000 people a year die worldwide due to asbestos. More than 40 countries have already banned the use of chrysotile asbestos because of its health risks, including the United Kingdom, which banned imports and all uses of chrysotile asbestos in 1999.

(By Mark Kennedy, Postmedia News / Canada.com, 26/04/2011)