"Asbestos has been banned throughout the European Union since 1 January 2005. But the joy is tinged with bitterness. Joy at a ban won after a long and difficult struggle by trade unions and victim groups. Bitter, because the time lost in getting to a total asbestos ban still leaves a death sentence hanging over hundreds of thousands of people.Nor is it the end of the story. The huge quantities of asbestos used in Europe throughout the 20th century will continue to kill tens of thousands of people every year for the next two decades. European Union experts estimate that asbestos-related cancers will cause approximately 500 000 deaths up to the year 2030 in Western Europe alone. Legacy asbestos - especially in waste disposal and building asbestos-stripping operations - puts workers and the community at immense risk. The high cost of these alone should be enough to show up the flaws in industry arguments against replacing carcinogens in production processes. ..."

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