The company has been able to use intellectual property rules to maintain exclusive rights to sell the drug. Taxol costs less than 40 cents per milligram to manufacture. These costs are even more onerous in the United States with no medicare system. A report released in October by the David Suzuki Foundation says the toll could rise if the problems are ignored. It predicts that by year 2020, about 700,000 people worldwide will die prematurely each year from air pollution.
Pollution can make breathing difficult and lead to cardiac arrest.
High levels of carbon monoxide have been linked to congestive heart failure in older people. The United Kingdom seems poised to follow France and Belgium in banning the manufacture, sale or use of asbestos, despite the Canadian government's lobby to oppose a British ban. The Canadian government is taking France to the World Trade Organization over its ban which follows asbestos bans in Germany, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. The use of such pipes all over the world has been decreasing for health reasons and fears that asbestos could enter the human body and cause cancer. The government gave importers 90 days until the ban comes into effect.