White asbestos not safer

KEVIN DOUGHERTY

The Gazette

Monday, November 17, 2003

New studies commissioned by the Quebec government dispute claims that chrysotile, or white asbestos, mined in the province is safer than the blue or brown amphibole asbestos fibres that are already banned because they cause cancer.

The studies, released by the Institut national de santé publique du Québec, also suggest a high percentage of asbestos-related illnesses go unreported in Quebec and calls for mandatory disclosure of all cases of mesothelioma - a rare and painful cancer of the lung lining - and asbestos-caused diseases including lung cancers and asbestosis, a debilitating disease similar to emphysema.

"Mesothelioma is also suspected of being provoked by weak and sporadic exposure to asbestos, which is a major worry because it is almost everywhere in industrial countries," authors Louise De Guire and Pierre Lajoie write.

They recommend Quebec do more research before using asbestos fibres to reinforce asphalt pavement for roads and highways, as proposed by the previous Parti Québécois government.

For the last 25 years, the governments of Quebec and Canada have supported the case advanced by asbestos producers and the unions representing asbestos mine and mill workers in the region south of Quebec City, that chrysotile is less dangerous and, if properly handled, presents minimal risk of disease.

The new studies challenge that belief. "Exposure to asbestos should be reduced to a minimum, given its carcinogenic power," De Guire and Lajoie affirm.

Asbestos is a fibrous, fire-resistant mineral widely used in the 20th century as insulation in public buildings, such as schools, and in shipbuilding. Experts now recommend that if it is stable, asbestos should not be removed because removing it can be more dangerous.

Mesothelioma has claimed thousands of lives, from the plumbers and pipefitters who work with it to the housewives who were exposed when they washed their husbands' clothes.

Asbestos was also used in filters for beer and wine and during the Second World War. Quebec asbestos was used to make gas masks. Asbestos is still used in brakes for trucks and heavy vehicles, including trains.

Production and employment in Quebec's asbestos industry has fallen sharply over the last 25 years, with the closing of mines. In 1999, Canada was the world's second largest producer of chrysotile after Russia, with shipments of 345,000 tonnes or 19 per cent of world output, all but a fraction from Quebec's mines.

About 84 per cent of chrysotile now is used to make asbestos-cement water pipes, which the industry says are safe because the fibres are encapsulated.

The new studies found that construction and maintenance workers - who may not even know they have encountered asbestos - and people working with asbestos products, such as asbestos brakes, suffer from fatal asbestos diseases...

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