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A group of prominent Canadian public health officials has called on Canada’s minister of health to end government financial support for mining and export of asbestos, a mineral fiber closely linked to fatal respiratory disease.

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported that the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, the Canadian Cancer Society and the Rideau Institute on International Affairs, an Ottawa-based think tank, sent a letter asking Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq to take action on asbestos as a show of commitment to public health. They criticized what they called misleading, inadequate and, at times, false information on the risk of asbestos on Health Canada’s and other government websites. It is the first time a federal health minister has been called on to oppose asbestos.

Pierre Gosselin, a professor on the medical faculty at Laval University and a researcher at the National Public Health Institute of Quebec who signed the letter, told the newspaper that criticism of asbestos has been taboo in Quebec, but that medical evidence of the health hazards of the mineral fiber is so overwhelming that it can’t be ignored.

Quebec has the country’s only asbestos mining at Thetford Mines, and Canada is the fifth largest exporter of asbestos in the world. While more than 40 countries have banned asbestos, Canada’s federal government has spent more than $20 million since the 1980s to promote its continued use. Much of Canada’s exported asbestos goes to developing countries where weak or non-existent workplace safety rules expose workers to breathing asbestos dust.

The World Health Organization estimates that 90,000 people die every year of asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs, and asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs.

In Canada, asbestos is the main cause of workplace-related deaths, according to the Ottawa-based Centre for the Study of Living Standards.

In August, the Canadian Medical Association General Council called upon the federal government to reverse its opposition to the international designation of chrysotile asbestos, the type mined in Quebec, as a hazardous chemical. The group’s resolution favored ending the use and export of asbestos.

The administration of Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper has remained a strong supporter of Canada’s asbestos mining industry and the export of asbestos. Harper reiterated his support during a visit to Thetford Mines in August. Health Minister Aglukkaq’s office said she would respond to the letter in due course.

Read the Globe and Mail article

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