MONTREAL – A decades-old pro-asbestos lobby group, funded by the Quebec government, will be shutting its doors after notifying the federal government of its plan to dissolve.
The Montreal-based Chrysotile Institute issued the notice in the Canada Gazette – the government’s official publication for announcing laws and other information.
The institute, first formed in 1984, promotes the safe use of chrysotile asbestos on behalf of Canada’s asbestos mining industry.
NDP MP Pat Martin – a critic of the asbestos industry and former miner himself – said the institute’s closing signals the “death knell” of asbestos mining in Canada.
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He said he first learned of the institute’s intention to dissolve Saturday, International Workers’ Memorial Day – a day of commemoration for workers injured and killed around the globe.
“I’ve lost an awful lot of friends and colleagues to asbestos in my time as an asbestos miner and a carpenter in the building trades,” Martin said. “It was very poignant for me to learn that (the institute was closing) on the very day of mourning for injured and fallen workers with the flags at half mast…”
Asbestos is a fibrous costruction material used as insulation that has been linked to a number of lung diseases, including certain cancers.
The majority of asbestos mined in Canada is exported to developing countries where regulations are less stringent. More than 50 countries have banned asbestos use.
The Chrysotile Institute has long said that if asbestos is handled in a controlled way, it poses little risk to workers.
Emails to the Chrysotile Institute were not immediately returned Sunday and the phone number on the institute website was no longer in service.
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