April 1993
The Ban Asbestos coalition, whose home base is in France, published its manifesto entitled Le livre noir de l'amiante (The Black Book on Asbestos). This document calls for a world-wide ban of all asbestos mining, manufacture and use as well as the immediate and universal removal of all in-place asbestos materials. In March 1994, the Ban Asbestos movement held a conference in Brazil to broaden the scope of its activities in Latin America. Several of the European experts brought in for this conference would play a role in furthering the Ban Asbestos cause in France. One specialist flown in by the Ban Asbestos group was a senior consultant for the French trade unions on fibre-related health issues. He would also act as an advisor for the INSERM report upon which the French Ban rule is supposedly based.
July 1994
In France, reports of several teachers dying of lung cancer after having worked in buildings containing low density asbestos insulation materials sparked a number of alarming media reports of the potential risks of exposure. Ultimately, the wives of the teachers would initiate charges of involuntary manslaughter. The government of France, asbestos product manufacturers, building managers and others have been implicated.
October 1994
At Jussieu University in France, the presence of asbestos insulation materials had begun to raise concerns over the safety of building workers and general occupants. This resulted in the creation of the Comité Anti-Amiante Jussieu, (the anti-asbestos committee) which would begin to be increasingly vocal in sounding out the hazards of "asbestos-contaminated air".
April 1995
The "Comité anti-amiante" organized a press conference entitled Asbestos: a public health problem. Several scientists were invited to speak out on the risks of asbestos - most notably, British epidemiologist Julian Peto, who had recently published estimates in the journal The Lancet, which projected increased mortality rates amongst building maintenance and repair workers exposed to asbestos.
May 1995
National elections in France resulted in the government entering its mandate in a highly charged political atmosphere in which they faced a debilitating general strike as well as tremendous international pressure for conducting nuclear testing in the South Pacific. On May 30th, several "public interest" groups would join forces and hold a widely attended press conference at which they spoke of the dangers of asbestos, the need for new preventive measures to control asbestos in buildings as well as a total ban of asbestos. They urged the government to act quickly and forcefully to remedy the situation.
June 1995
The appearance of an article in the widely circulated publication Sciences et Avenir alerted the French public to "a deadly epidemic which affects all of us" - namely the dangers of in-place asbestos insulation materials in public and commercial buildings. The article accused French industry and government officials of collaborating in a carefully orchestrated cover-up operation to conceal the true risks of asbestos from the French public.
July 1995
INSERM, a government-sponsored research group in France, was mandated to complete a detailed review of the health risks associated with asbestos exposure "based on internationally published scientific literature."
September 1995
Based on the Sciences et Avenir article in June, an inflammatory television show entitled "Mortel Amiante" (deadly asbestos) was aired. As in the original article, taken almost verbatim from the anti-asbestos groups, the hazards related to workers installing friable insulation in the past, the risks of different fibre types, the exposures in occupational settings and the exposures in buildings were all treated together, leaving readers with the impression that all types of asbestos fibres and products present a grave risk to the general public and workers.
October 1995
In response to intense pressure from special interest groups and the media, the government of France announced its intention to introduce new legislation requiring the development of a country-wide registry of asbestos containing buildings and a plan for the monitoring and management of inplace materials. A second decree dealt with exposure limit values and set a two-stage plan for reducing the standard from 0.6 f/cc to of 0.3 f/cc effective February 1996, and then from 0.3 f/cc to 0.1 f/cc, effective February 1998. A cabinet shuffle occurring soon after this announcement led a delay in the implementation of the legislation.
February 1996
The "victims' rights" group ANDEVA was formed to increase pressure on the government to institute a ban, and most importantly, seek compensation for those who had come forward as victims of asbestos-related disease. The French government finally enacted the asbestos legislation it had announced in October 1995.
June 1996
On June 23, ANDEVA issued a civil law suit which accused asbestos industry officials, technical and scientific consultants as well as French government officials of having conspired to delay the introduction of new, more stringent regulations on asbestos in buildings as well as to delay the ban of all uses of asbestos despite knowledge of its inherent health risks.
July 1996
A preliminary summary of the INSERM report dated June 21, was released to the public and media on July 2. Only three official copies of the draft final report were made available. It is expected that the final report, complete with annexes and bibliographies, will not be issued until September.
July 1996
On July 3, and after convening an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the conclusions of the INSERM report, the government of France announced its decision to ban the manufacture, import and use of almost all asbestos-containing products, effective January 1, 1997.
July 22, 1996