Experts Speak on Asbestos: Asbestos is a Criminal Industry

(Transcript)

Politicians all over the world have been manipulated, have been told gross lies.

I think people need to understand that this is a criminal industry. They understand that their profits are based on avoiding the costs of prevention and compensation, that they need to do that by developing corrupt relationships with governments and politicians.

It's a crime to lie to other humans about life-threatening exposures.

And it's all national companies -- in Thailand it's Thai companies, in India it's Indian companies -- these aren't multinational corporations from some place else, they are national companies -- and they realize that in order to avoid the costs of prevention and compensation, they need to develop corrupt relationships with the government, they need to make sure that the government doesn't make them pay people that they victimize, that the government doesn't broadcast to the public about how deadly asbestos is and tell people to avoid it. That the government doesn't otherwise impose regulations on the manufacture and use of asbestos where workers are endangered, all of which increase the cost of using asbestos and in the market would favour alternative safer substitute products. So it's a political problem. More than anything else it's a political and economic problem. It's not that the public health workers in Thailand and other countries don't know that asbestos kills people. They know that very well.

I hope that men and women who have been trusted by their co-citizens to look after the public domain, will protect the public domain against a very well-known and rogue industry, and that's the asbestos industry.

They operate in countries where they can avoid regulation, where they can avoid having to compensate their victims who develop asbestos related diseases. And as long as they can avoid the costs or prevention and compensation, they can continue to make money.