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Canada's Asbestos Legacy
- 1. Canada’s Asbestos Legacy Geography of Canada Monday, Feb. 6, 2012 Dr. Cathy Conrad
- 2. Where to begin? • Rick Mercer is as good a place as any…
- 3. Why me? Why asbestos? • I would have asked the same question a little over a year ago…
- 5. But surely Canada is no longer involved in the asbestos industry? • Wrong • Not only are we still involved, we export it to 60 countries, and are the 4th leading exporter of asbestos
- 6. • Stephen Harper defends the asbestos industry…
- 7. 12 days later, my dad died from mesothelioma, on Mother’s Day, 2011…
- 8. What now?... • I got really really pissed off… • And then decided that this had to end.
- 9. The Canary in the Mine
- 23. So…a little bit of history… • Asbestos wasn't always a dirty word.
- 24. The 'magic mineral' • Asbestos was first mined in Quebec in the 1870s. In the mineral's heyday, Canada boasted the world's biggest open pit mine, the Jeffrey Mine located in the province's Eastern Townships. The industry thrived and a town was even named after it, Asbestos, Que., which used to wear the moniker with pride.
- 28. • But by the late 1960s, the bloom was starting to fade. More and more miners had shortness of breath, extreme fatigue and were coughing up blood. Studies linking asbestos to voracious diseases such as lung cancer, scarred lungs (asbestosis), and mesothelioma (cancer of the stomach and chest, which is only caused by exposure to asbestos) began to rack up. • One of the very things that made asbestos so popular — its indestructibility — was what also made it so vicious. Once a person inhaled the deadly dust, it was impossible for the body to break the fibres down and it eventually led to severe scarring and death.
- 29. • In the fall of 1974, Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, the world's foremost authority on asbestos-related diseases, and a team of doctors examined the miners at Thetford Mines in Quebec. He condemned the working conditions as the worst on the continent, further cementing asbestos' notorious legacy. The sentiment spread to Baie Verte, Nfld., in 1978. Miners walked off the job and demanded protections to reduce their exposure to the deadly asbestos dust. The 15-week strike was the longest health-related strike in Canadian history, and caught the nation's attention.
- 30. • Canada has spent the last 20-plus years trying to rid our homes, schools and offices — including Parliament Hill — of the dangerous dust that was often loosely sprayed as insulation.
- 32. • Our hospitals, however, are still dealing with the aftereffects. In 2007, at an occupational health clinic in Sarnia, Ont., nurses continue to register almost one new patient a day with asbestos- related cancer, such as mesothelioma, or asbestosis, says the clinic's executive director, Jim Brophy.
- 35. • In spite of health concerns, asbestos continues to be mined in Canada. Our country is the second-largest exporter of the mineral after Russia, shipping it mainly to developing countries such as India and China. • What's more, unlike countries in the European Union, as well as Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia, Canada has not banned asbestos. Rather, the federal government actively promotes its use globally. An October 2008 editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal criticizing asbestos exporting called Canada "an avid asbestos cheerleader."
- 38. Rotterdam Convention… • June 2011 • Harper’s Conservative Government blocks the labeling of asbestos as a “hazardous material”, and then brags about it in Asbestos, Quebec…
- 39. And now?.... • The Chadha Family would like to re-open the Jeffrey Mine and initiate the expansion of the Canadian asbestos industry.
- 40. Junk Science The Chrysotile Institute and weaving doubt… From CBC The National Feb 2, 2012: “Fatal Deception” and the Canadian “Voices of Asbestos Victims” are making a difference…