A look at Canada's 140-year history with asbestos, to be banned in 2018
The Canadian Press 15 December 2016
OTTAWA – The federal government says it will ban all products containing asbestos by 2018. Here's a timeline of the history of asbestos in Canada.
1876: Large deposits of asbestos are discovered near what is now Thetford Mines, Que. Although smaller deposits were mined off and on in British Columbia, Yukon, Ontario and Newfoundland, the Quebec mines became one of the largest asbestos-producing regions in the world. At times, the mineral — which comes in several varieties, including crocidolite, amosite and chrysotile — was touted as "Canada's white gold."
1880: First Canadian exports of asbestos.
1920s: The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. sets up the Department of Industrial Hygiene at McGill University. Asbestos is believed to be making workers ill and causing a "dust disease" of the lungs.
1924: A British inquest into a textile worker’s death leads to the first medical description of asbestosis.
1938: German pathologist Martin Nordmann calls lung cancer an occupational disease of asbestos workers.
1949: A prolonged and bitter strike at Thetford Mines over wages and dangerous working conditions triggers the political upheaval in Quebec that leads to the Quiet Revolution.
1973: Canadian shipments of asbestos fibre peak at almost 1.7 million tonnes, with a value of $234 million.
1984: An Ontario Royal Commission suggests a ban on crocidolite and amosite asbestos fibre, but notes that chrysotile can be used if there are controls on dust.
1987: The International Agency for Research on Cancer declares asbestos a human carcinogen.
1998: The Rotterdam Convention, a treaty on certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade, is adopted and opened for signatures.
2004: The Rotterdam Convention comes into force.
2005: A European Union-wide ban on chrysotile asbestos takes effect.
2011: Quebec's last two asbestos mines close.
2012: In June, the Quebec government promises $58 million for one of the last remaining asbestos mines, enough to keep the facility alive for 20 more years. In October, this is reversed by the newly elected Parti Quebecois government.
2016: Federal government announces a ban on the manufacture, use and importation of asbestos, to take effect in 2018.
