How Canada Changed from Exporting Asbestos to Banning Asbestos: The Challenges That Had to Be Overcome

Our plain-English summary of How Canada Changed from Exporting Asbestos to Banning Asbestos: The Challenges That Had to Be Overcome, by K. Ruff (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2017).

The study

• Author: K. Ruff
• Journal: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Published: 2017;14(10)
• Cited by: 15 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Less than ten years ago, the asbestos industry enjoyed the support of every Quebec and Canadian political party. The Chrysotile Institute and the International Chrysotile Association, both located in Quebec, aggressively marketed asbestos around the world, claiming scientific evidence showed that chrysotile asbestos could be safely used. The industry created a climate of intimidation. Consequently, no groups advocating for victims of asbestos or campaigning for its outright ban existed in Quebec to challenge the industry. A campaign was launched to mobilize the scientific community to speak out. Working with scientists, activists, and asbestos victims around the world, a small group of Quebec scientists exposed the false arguments of the asbestos industry. They publicly and repeatedly challenged the unscientific and unethical asbestos policy of the government. By appealing to Quebec values and holding those in power accountable, the campaign won public support and succeeded against all odds in defeating the asbestos industry.

In plain English

This article is not a scientific study of asbestos and health. It is a narrative account of the campaign that took Canada from mining and exporting chrysotile asbestos to announcing a ban. The author described how the Quebec asbestos industry had the support of governments, political parties and trade unions, and how no Quebec or Canadian asbestos victims organization existed. The article recounted actions from 2008 onward. These included a World Call of Conscience about the UN Rotterdam Convention, signed by well over one hundred scientists, among them twenty-six Quebec health experts. They also included an open statement by fifteen Quebec scientists in La Presse in 2009. A January 2011 poll found 76 percent of Quebecers opposed government financing of the Jeffrey mine. After the Parti Québécois was elected in September 2012 and cancelled a $58 million loan, asbestos mining ceased in Quebec. In December 2016 the federal government announced a ban by 2018. In 2016 the Quebec National Assembly awarded the author a medal honouring the campaign. The author concluded that the advocacy campaign defeated the asbestos industry.

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: Narrative account of a public health advocacy campaign (not a medical or scientific study)
• Who was studied: The political and public campaign against the asbestos industry in Quebec and Canada, roughly 2008 to 2016
• Exposure: Mining and export of chrysotile asbestos from the last two Quebec mines: the Jeffery (Jeffrey) mine in the town of Asbestos and the LAB Chrysotile mine at Thetford Mines
• Main results:
  • No asbestos victims organization existed in Quebec, and there was no Canadian asbestos victims organization
  • The 2008 World Call of Conscience to the Prime Minister was signed by well over one hundred scientists worldwide, including twenty-six health experts from Quebec
  • In September 2009 fifteen Quebec scientists published an Open Statement in La Presse
  • All sixteen of the Quebec government's Directors of Public Health sent a letter opposing the $58 million loan to the Jeffery mine
  • A January 2011 poll commissioned by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment found 76 percent of Quebecers opposed government financing of the Jeffrey mine
  • By early 2012 the Canadian government ended 24 years of financing the Chrysotile Institute, which then closed
  • The Parti Québécois, elected 4 September 2012, cancelled the loan, and asbestos mining ceased in Quebec
  • In June 2016 the Quebec National Assembly awarded its medal to the author, Kathleen Ruff, to honour the campaign
  • In December 2016 the federal government announced it would legislate a ban on asbestos by 2018
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that a determined advocacy campaign involving international solidarity, the scientific community, activists and asbestos victims defeated the asbestos industry and changed public health policy in Quebec and Canada

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Chrysotile Institute, Chrysotile.

Related studies

• Canada, chrysotile and cancer: Health Canada's Asbestos International Expert Panel report — L.T. Stayner (2008)
• A cancer incidence and mortality study of Dow Chemical Canada Inc. manufacturing sites — C. Burns, K. Harrison, et al. (2005)
• Asbestos dispatches — L. Kazan-Allen (2004)
• Canadian asbestos: a global concern — L. Kazan-Allen (2004)
• How Canada's Asbestos Industry Was Defeated in Quebec — K. Ruff (2017)
• Quebec and Canadian governments end their historic support of the asbestos industry — K. Ruff (2012)

Browse more research in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, or return to medical research.