A new report produced from the joint efforts of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) and the BBC’s International News Services sheds penetrating light on the development of asbestos issues worldwide. As the world barrels into the 21st century, seemingly aging issues such as the toxicity of construction materials continue to pose real threats to people around the globe.

Despite legal obstacles and public outcry from developed and developing nations everywhere, the asbestos industry continues to unearth and refine millions of metric tons of the cancer causing mineral chrysotile. While the sale of the toxic mineral is forbidden or heavily restricted in a vast majority of developed nations including Australia, New Zealand, the United States and most of the European Union, exports to vast nations such as India and China continue at alarming rates.

Asbestos fibers cause a variety of deadly health problems when accidentally inhaled or ingested. In addition to problems such as lung cancer, asbestosis, and a variety of painful and incurable respiratory illnesses, asbestos is the only known cause of mesothelioma, a terminal cancer of a soft tissue which encases our bodies organs. While the ill effects of asbestos have been common knowledge for more than half of a century, the industry continues spouting “safe use” propaganda that defies relevant medical and scientific findings.

Promoting the sale of asbestos isn’t a cheap business. The asbestos industry has channeled nearly $100 million in the past twenty-some years into various associations and institutes which defend its practices. Whether lobbying governments or distributing tracts which praise the mineral’s many construction uses in third world countries, the industry’s backers are fighting an uphill battle to continue the sale of the dangerous substance.

The report delivered by the ICIJ and the BBC suggests that more than a million people could die of asbestos related diseases by the year 2030. More than seventy five percent of the asbestos fibers causing these deaths will be exported by Brazil, Russia, and perhaps more surprisingly, Canada.

Vincent Cogliano, a member of the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, told the BBC:

“Chrysotile and other forms of asbestos… cause lung cancer and mesothelioma, and that’s been known for 50 years. My own personal view is that these risks… are as high as just about any known carcinogen that we have seen except perhaps tobacco smoke… so the continued export and continued use of chrysotile will increase the incidence of lung cancer and mesothelioma for many decades to come.”