Health Canada report ties asbestos to lung cancer – releases more than a year report

OTTAWA — Health Canada sat for more than a year on a report by a panel of international experts that concludes there is a “strong relationship” between lung cancer and chrysotile asbestos mined in Canada.

Health Canada received the report in March 2008, resisting calls from the panel chairman to release the findings despite his plea last fall that the delay was “an annoying piece of needless government secrecy.”

Canwest News Service obtained the report under Access to Information legislation, but the request took more than 10 months to process.

While the panel found the relationship between chrysotile asbestos and the rare of form of cancer mesothelioma “much less certain,” there is a “strong relationship of exposure with lung cancer,” panel chairman Trevor Ogden wrote in the newly released introductory letter to the report.

Ogden, editor-in-chief of The Annals of Occupational Hygiene and based in Britain, also noted the panel was comprised of members “who in the past have expressed strongly opposed views on this subject.” They included industry consultant David Bernstein, previously retained by asbestos producer Union Carbide Corp. and Canadian and California asbestos mining companies.

All panellists signed the consensus statement, but two experts attached reservations highlighting a few concerns, including the “likelihood that risk may not be detectable at modern Canadian exposure levels.”

In an interview, panellist Leslie Stayner, director of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, said while the panel agreed the link between exposure to amphibole asbestos — another form of the mineral — and mesothelioma was stronger than chrysotile asbestos, the experts couldn’t agree about the actual degree of that difference.

“The most important thing is what it doesn’t say, which is some people have alleged it would say. What it doesn’t say is that exposure to chrysotile asbestos is safe,” said Stayner.

“I think the bottom line here is that all forms of asbestos cause both mesothelioma and lung cancer. We will probably for many years still be debating this question of relative hazard of chrysotile. The fundamental question of whether it’s hazardous or not is clear. I think the answer to that is, yes, chrysotile is a hazardous substance.”

The release of the report has reignited the debate about the future of the asbestos industry in Canada, a particularly divisive issue in Quebec, where the industry is concentrated.

Pat Martin, the New Democrat MP who has long championed a ban of asbestos exports, said the conclusions of the expert panel should propel government to take action.

“It makes our case. The reality is we’re at a tipping point. The jig is up for the asbestos industry,” said Martin, who worked in a Yukon asbestos mine as a young man without being warned of the health risks.

Thetford Mines, a community of about 26,000 residents located about 100 kilometres south of Quebec City, has long been the centre of Canada’s asbestos mining industry. At its peak, the region in Quebec was home to most of the 13 mines in Canada. Today, the reduced industry creates about 550 jobs in Quebec.

Most uses of asbestos have been banned in Canada, and all uses of all types of asbestos have been banned in Europe and Australia, but Canada remains one of the world’s largest exporters of chrysotile asbestos; last year, more than $100 million worth of chrysotile asbestos was exported to developing countries, mainly India, Indonesia and Thailand.

Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have held firm on a “safe use” policy. Health advocates have long chastised this position as politically expedient to accommodate a Quebec constituency rather than a decision based on sound science.

The panel was not asked to make a finding on the “safe use” principle. Panellist Leslie Stayner gave a personal assessment of the science, saying the concept is a misleading one.

“My opinion, really, is safe use is a canard. We can’t really believe that shipping these asbestos fibres to countries like India, that they’re going to somehow magically use chrysotile in a way that is safer than we have in the West.”

“If you look at our history here in Canada, the United States or Europe, we’re currently still experiencing an epidemic of asbestos-related diseases that mostly happened 20 or 30 years ago. It does not really seem logical to argue that somehow these countries are going to have the kind of engineering that will allow them to avoid the hazards that we’ve experienced,” said Stayner.

Christian Paradis, the regional minister for Quebec who represents the federal riding that includes Thetford Mines, referred questions about the report to Health Canada. Last year, just a few weeks after the report was tabled with Health Canada, he made clear that he has “always stood up for the chrysotile asbestos industry and its workers.”

Health Canada announced late Wednesday that members of the public can contact the department to receive a copy of the report, but that there is no roll out planned. A spokesman chalked up the delay to Health Canada taking the “time necessary to carefully review the findings of the report, and to consult other federal and provincial partners.”

According to newly released correspondence between access to information officials at Health Canada and the Privy Council, the government was particularly concerned about Quebec.

In signing off on the release of the report in January, the Privy Council official wrote, “We understand consultations are being carried out with the Province of Quebec to ensure due diligence from a federal-provincial relations perspective.” – Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service, canada.com