A look at Canada’s 140-year history with asbestos, to be banned in 2018
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.