How Canada's Asbestos Industry Was Defeated in Quebec

Our plain-English summary of How Canada's Asbestos Industry Was Defeated in Quebec, by K. Ruff (New Solutions, 2017).

The study

• Author: K. Ruff
• Journal: New Solutions
• Published: 2017;26(4):543-556
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Less than a decade ago, the Quebec asbestos industry enjoyed support from all the political parties in the Canadian House of Commons and the Quebec National Assembly, as well as from business and union organizations. Two lobby organizations (Chrysotile Institute and International Chrysotile Association) had significant global impact in promoting asbestos use and defeating asbestos ban efforts in developing countries. Quebec's two asbestos mines planned to expand operations and make Quebec the second biggest global asbestos exporter. With the aid of lobbyists, public relations consultants, and government financing, the asbestos industry came close to succeeding. The article examines how a campaign of international solidarity, involving scientific experts, asbestos victims, and health activists in Quebec, Canada, and overseas, succeeded in closing the two mines and defeating the political and social power that the Quebec asbestos industry had wielded for a century. This victory ended Canada's destructive role as global propagandist for the asbestos industry.

In plain English

This article is not a research study. It is a feature article on how asbestos mining ended in Quebec, the only place in Canada where asbestos was still mined. The author described how the Canadian and Quebec governments, the Quebec asbestos industry and the Quebec trade union movement created the Asbestos Institute, later the Chrysotile Institute, in 1986 to open markets for chrysotile asbestos in the global South. The author then described actions from 2009 to 2012, including a public statement by fifteen Quebec health professionals, a letter from over a hundred scientists worldwide, and a letter from all of Quebec's regional Directors of Public Health. In June 2012 the Quebec government gave a $58 million loan to complete the Jeffrey underground mine. After the September 2012 election, the new government cancelled the loan and both mines closed. The author concluded that solidarity between health professionals, human rights activists and asbestos victims was key. It presents no original health research but cites a 2007 article stating that sampling in Thetford Mines houses suggested a real public health threat.

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: Feature article giving a narrative historical and policy account; not a research study and with no original data
• Who was studied: The Quebec asbestos industry, its lobby organizations, and the politicians, health professionals, unions, scientists and activists who supported or opposed it, in Quebec and Canada, from about 2007 to 2016
• Exposure: Mining and export of chrysotile asbestos from Quebec's last two asbestos mines, in the towns of Asbestos (the Jeffrey mine) and Thetford Mines (the Lac d'Amiante mine), mostly for export to Asia and the global South
• Main results:
  • The Chrysotile Institute was created in 1986 by the Canadian and Quebec governments, the Quebec asbestos industry and the Quebec trade union movement. The author states its primary mission was to open new markets for chrysotile asbestos in the global South.
  • The author cites a 2007 article by others. Micheline Marier and William Charney sampled houses in Thetford Mines for asbestos contamination, and their article stated that the results suggested a real public health threat in the Quebec mining areas. This was not this article's own research.
  • In June 2012 the Quebec government of Jean Charest gave the Jeffrey mine company a $58 million loan to complete its underground mine. The author states this mine would have allowed export of 225,000 tons of asbestos a year, all to Asia.
  • On 28 January 2010, over a hundred scientists from around the world wrote to Premier Charest, joining Quebec scientists in calling for an end to asbestos mining and export.
  • In a May 2010 submission to a Quebec Parliamentary Commission, Quebec public health professionals stated that Quebec itself was experiencing an epidemic of asbestos-related diseases. The author reports this as their statement, and the article gives no figures for it.
  • In January 2011, all of Quebec's regional Directors of Public Health, for the eighteen regions including the asbestos mining region, wrote to the Minister of Economic Development about the harm to health from chrysotile asbestos.
  • In March 2012 the Canadian government ended its funding of the Chrysotile Institute, and the Institute closed.
  • After the September 2012 election, the new Parti Québécois government cancelled the $58 million loan. Both mines closed and asbestos mining in Canada ended.
  • On 28 September 2016, the office of Canada's Minister of Health stated a commitment to move forward with a ban on asbestos in Canada.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the industry was defeated by a campaign based on scientific evidence and international solidarity. In the author's view, the key was solidarity between health professionals, human rights activists and asbestos victims, including people in Asia.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Quebec and Canadian governments end their historic support of the asbestos industry — K. Ruff (2012)
• Asbestos in Canada: the end is in sight — T.L. Guidotti (2012)
• Mortality in the chrysotile asbestos mines and mills of Quebec — J.C. McDonald, A.D. McDonald, et al. (1971)
• The health of chrysotile asbestos mine and mill workers of Quebec — J.C. McDonald, M.R. Becklake, et al. (1974)
• The 1891-1920 birth cohort of Quebec chrysotile miners and millers: development from 1904 and mortality to 1992 — F.D. Liddell, A.D. McDonald, et al. (1997)
• The 1891-1920 birth cohort of Quebec chrysotile miners and millers: mortality 1976-88 — J.C. McDonald, F.D. Liddell, et al. (1993)

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