Quebec has been highly criticized in the past several years because of its continuing stake in the asbestos industry. Now, new plans to expand the province’s asbestos mining operations have caused further outrage among local and international activists, as well as from prestigious doctors and medical communities.
Asbestos causes a variety of serious diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a terminal cancer of the soft tissue which protects the body’s organs. While the effects of the substance have been well known for nearly a century, it’s only the last several decades that popular support and general awareness has begun to put formidable pressure on the asbestos industry.
Mesothelioma, which is linked exclusively to asbestos exposure, claims the lives of some ninety thousand people worldwide every year. The number of annual diagnoses is on the rise, despite the world’s new found negative opinion of the industrial substance and efforts to control its use and sales. The increase in diagnoses is partially due to the disease’s long latency period, or the amount of time it takes to develop from initial contact with asbestos. Mesothelioma can take anywhere from ten to fifty years to present after the patient first breathes or ingests asbestos fibers.
Quebec is the world’s fourth largest asbestos exporter. Their primary mine is in the process of seeking a government loan of nearly $60 million to dramatically increase its production and subsequent export. The complaints against Quebec don’t end with its asbestos production, either. The province’s asbestos mining advocates and lobby groups have spent more than $100 million on public relations in the past twenty-some years in Canada, India and Brazil to create a friendlier face for the deadly industry.
A recent report concerning the asbestos industry in which the BBC was involved illuminated the degree to which lobbyists strive to founder activists and medical experts.
Jim Morris, a lead journalist for the investigation, reported:
“One of the real surprises was how closely the pro-asbestos lobby groups work with one another. Groups in India, Russia, and Mexico work very closely with the Chrysotile Institute… sharing information, coordinating their public relations strategies. And they’ve been pretty successful. In countries like India, they’ve overwhelmed the activists and the health organizations.”
While Quebec’s government has stood behind a stone-silent defense for years, that may be slated for a slow change.
“It has become impossible to export a product like [asbestos],” commented Quebec’s Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff last month, “because we can’t have guarantees that it will not be harmful in India or in other countries.”
