"An international group of researchers is renewing its call for a global ban on the mining and use of asbestos, a known cause of cancer they say is unsafe in any form.

They hope to put pressure on the Canadian government to ban asbestos exports and stop providing financial support to Canadian companies that mine and export the mineral, once used widely to fireproof roofs, insulation and other building materials.

Although asbestos has been banned in 52 countries, annual world production is still more than 2 million metric tonnes, exposing an estimated 125 million people worldwide to asbestos at work, the researchers said on Thursday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives."

Julie Steenhuysen reports for Reuters July 1, 2010. [2]