Asbestos: A continuing failure of ethics by McGill University

摘要

Many people are shocked when they learn that the asbestos trade is thriving today. It's true of course, that we in the privileged world no longer use asbestos. In the global South however, particularly in Asia, asbestos use is increasing.1 For the past 20 years, two million tons of asbestos a year2 is being put in homes and schools to cause a public health catastrophe for decades to come.Many people would perhaps be shocked to know that Canada, and in particular, McGill University, deserve a good part of the credit for the continued survival of the asbestos industry in spite of the overwhelming scientific evidence of its deadly nature. Quebec was the centre of asbestos mining in Canada and one of the biggest asbestos exporters in the world.1 In September 2012, the newly elected Parti Quebecois government cancelled a government loan to the Jeffrey mine, which had mined and exported asbestos for over a century, and the industry is now shut down.In every country where asbestos has been used, it has left behind epidemics of asbestos-related deaths. Asbestos continues in Canada to be the biggest cause of death from occupational disease. In Quebec, over 70% of such deaths are due to asbestos.