A Russian manufacturer of the hazardous chemical substance asbestos is using President Trump’s likeness on shipments to the United States.
The company, Uralasbest, posted photos of large shipping pallets with Trump’s face emblazoned on them, which appeared bound for the United States.
The gesture was made to thank the president and former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt for supporting the continued use of the substance in America.
The company, which is the largest producer of asbestos and in the world, posted the photo to its Facebook account about two weeks ago. The Environmental Working Group, a U.S.-based environmental activist group, discovered the post on Wednesday, sending out alerts to reporters and its supporters.
The stamp on the pallets reads in Russian, “Approved by Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States,” according to the company’s post. It explains the gesture as “an unusual way” for the workers at the asbestos factory to thank Trump and Pruitt.
“He supported the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt, who stated that his office would no longer deal with the negative effects potentially derived from products containing asbestos,” the company’s post added. “Donald Trump supported a specialist and called asbestos ‘100 percent safe after application,'” it added.
The Environmental Working Group described Uralasbest as “a Russian company with ties to Vladimir Putin.” It said the company’s “applause for Trump” comes as Russia is set to become the largest exporter of asbestos to the United States.
The group pointed out that asbestos causes “diseases that kill an estimated 15,000 Americans a year.” It cited a study led by Jukka Takala, president of the International Commission on Occupational Health, which found the death toll may be as high as nearly 40,000 Americans a year and more than 255,000 a year worldwide.
EPA’s website says there are three major health effects associated with asbestos exposure, including lung cancer, mesothelioma, a rare cancer found in the thin lining of the lung, chest, and heart, and asbestosis, a serious, long-term, noncancer disease of the lungs.
