The End of a Once Mighty, Still Deadly Industry: the Canada Letter
Canada’s positions on issues like same-sex marriage, immigration and, most recently, recreational marijuana have given it a reputation for progressiveness. But the government’s announcement this week that it was banning asbestos, a potent cause of cancer, came decades after many other nations took the step.
For more than a century, asbestos was a ubiquitous miracle fiber. Sprayed on the steel structure of buildings and inside ships, it suppressed fires. It was found in a type of home insulation and in roofing tiles, and was used to seal heating ducts. Asbestos was mixed with concrete to make pipes, woven into flameproof fabrics, and made into gaskets, building supplies and a variety of industrial goods. But inhaling even small quantities of its fibers could be deadly.
Canada’s ban comes 31 years after the World Health Organization first declared that asbestos causes cancer. Its harmful effects on workers’ lungs were identified as early as the 1920s, and many countries began limiting its use in the 1970s.
But Canada was once a major source of the world’s asbestos, and actively fought efforts to limit its use. Despite widespread scientific evidence to the contrary, it continued to claim that the form found in Quebec, chrysotile asbestos, was not harmful. As recently as 2000, the Canadian government challenged a ban by France on the imports of chrysotile asbestos at the World Trade Organization. Four years later, Canada blocked efforts to formally declare asbestos a hazardous material under an international agreement.
More on Canada
- A Sexual Assault Case: Accusations against five former junior hockey players in Canada have touched a nerve with hockey fans, leading many to question the way the nation’s governing body for the sport has responded to them.
- Medically Assisted Death: Canada postponed a plan to offer people suffering from mental illnesses the option of a medically assisted death after a parliamentary committee concluded that there are not enough doctors to meet the needs of patients across the country.
- Emergency Law Use: A Canadian court found that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of the country’s Emergencies Act to end a truck convoy protest that had paralyzed Ottawa in 2022 was an unjustified infringement of civil rights.
- Crucial Forests Devoured: A study finds that logging in Ontario and Quebec, two of the country’s main commercial logging regions, has inflicted severe damage to the vast boreal forests that are crucial to fighting climate change.
Over the years, asbestos became the leading cause of workplace deaths in Canada.
Asbestos kills in several ways. It can cause lung cancer, it can lead to mesothelioma, a fast-acting cancer that attacks major organs, and asbestosis, a cancer that hardens the lungs and ultimately suffocates its victims. In addition to miners, construction workers and shipyard workers were also widely affected. Even now it continues to be found in brake pads and brake linings of heavy trucks.
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