Asbestos in Canada: time to change our legacy

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos in Canada: time to change our legacy, by T. Dummer, C. Gotay (CMAJ, 2015).

The study

• Authors: T. Dummer, C. Gotay
• Journal: CMAJ
• Published: 2015;187(10):E315-E316
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This article was a commentary, not a research study. The authors gave their views on asbestos policy in Canada ahead of the May 2015 Rotterdam Convention meeting, which was to consider adding chrysotile asbestos to the convention's list of hazardous substances. They noted that in 2011 Canada was the only member of the convention to oppose listing chrysotile. They also noted that Canada's last asbestos mine closed in 2012 and that, although Canada had ended domestic extraction and export of asbestos, it had not banned asbestos use. Using import figures from an online appendix, the authors reported that asbestos imports had fallen from $80 million per year a decade earlier to almost $6 million in 2014. Of the 2014 imports, $4.6 million was asbestos-containing friction materials, largely brake pads, which the authors said represented 14% of the total dollar value of those imported products. Construction materials containing asbestos were also imported. The authors urged Canadian policy-makers to bring in a time-specific ban on all asbestos use in Canada and to support a global ban. The commentary did not report a new study of any group of people.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: commentary (opinion article); no original study
• Who was studied: No study population; the commentary concerns asbestos policy, imports and disease burden in Canada
• Exposure: Chrysotile asbestos and asbestos-containing products imported into Canada, including friction materials (largely brake pads) and construction materials
• Main results:
  • The authors stated that in 2011 Canada was the only member of the Rotterdam Convention to oppose placing chrysotile on the treaty's list of hazardous substances
  • The authors stated that Canada had ended domestic extraction and export of asbestos but had not banned asbestos use
  • Canada's last asbestos mine closed in 2012
  • Asbestos imports into Canada were $80 million per year a decade earlier
  • Asbestos imports into Canada were worth almost $6 million in 2014
  • Imports of asbestos-containing friction materials (largely brake pads) were worth $4.6 million in 2014, which the authors said represented 14% of the total dollar value of these imported products
  • Asbestos-containing construction materials were also imported
• The authors' conclusion: The authors urged Canadian policy-makers to institute a time-specific ban on all asbestos use in Canada and to support a global ban on asbestos use

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Chrysotile, Lung cancer, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Health advocates assail Canada's asbestos stance — R. Collier (2008)
• Canada's asbestos legacy at home and abroad — J.T. Brophy, M.M. Keith, et al. (2007)
• Experience of Japan in Achieving a Total Ban on Asbestos — S. Furuya, K. Takahashi (2017)
• A ban on asbestos: is now the time? — (2001)
• Australia's Ongoing Legacy of Asbestos: Significant Challenges Remain Even after the Complete Banning of Asbestos Almost Fifteen Years Ago — M. Soeberg, D.A. Vallance, et al. (2018)
• Asbestos poisons World Trade Organization atmosphere — L. Kazan-Allen (2001)

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