OTTAWA — Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis and the NDP’s Pat Martin verbally duked it out Thursday over asbestos.
Martin — a longtime critic of Canada’s asbestos industry, which he called a “corporate serial killer” — took Paradis to task Thursday at the natural resources committee meeting for continuing to support the industry.
According to the World Health Organization, 90,000 people a year die from asbestos-related diseases such as lung cancer, mesothelioma — a cancer of the lining of the chest and abdomen — and asbestosis, a chronic breathing problem caused by scarring of the lungs by asbestos’s needle-like fibres.
In 2008, Canada mined about 150,000 tons of asbestos, almost all of which was exported.
“We are exporting human misery to other countries on a monumental scale, and the rest of the world is begging Canada to stop it,” Martin, who worked in a Yukon asbestos mine in his youth, charged.
He added it was “morally” and “ethically” corrupt to ban asbestos in Canada — and spend millions to remove it from the Parliament Buildings — but promote its use in developing nations.
But Paradis, who represents the eastern Quebec riding where all of Canada’s remaining asbestos mines are located, said science has found the white asbestos — or chrysotile — mined in Quebec is safer than the amphibole asbestos used commonly in the past.
Paradis added current uses of asbestos — mostly to reinforce construction concrete — were safe compared to the “misuses” of the past, when it was often sprayed loosely as insulation.
While Paradis cautioned even Chrysotile can “absolutely” be dangerous if not used properly, he said it’s “unfortunate” Martin and others don’t distinguish between the types of asbestos and the different uses.
Paradis said the government removed asbestos from the Parliament Buildings because the more dangerous amphibole was loosely sprayed as insulation — the most dangerous use of the fibrous mineral, which poses risks if the dust and fibres are inhaled.
“That’s why we took it all out, because it wasn’t safe,” Paradis said.
bryn.weese@sunmedia.ca
