An international panel of health experts is excoriating global governments for a failure to ban asbestos despite "overwhelming agreement that there is no safe level of exposure" to the cancer-causing mineral.A pulmonary CAT scan shows fibrosis, in red, beginning to grow in a man's lungs due to exposure to asbestos. (Ricky Carioti/Washington Post/Associated Press)

The doctors and occupational-health experts, writing in Thursday's edition of the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives, say the continuing world trade in chrysotile asbestos — one of several forms of the substance — is a result of the cushy relationship between the industry and many governments.

More than 50 countries have banned the production and use of asbestos in all its forms, but Canada continues to permit the mining of chrysotile fibres, mainly for export. Health Canada affirms that it poses no risk "if the asbestos fibres are enclosed or tightly bound in a compound."

The health experts dispute that position and call for a global ban on all forms of the material.

"Early suggestions and industry reports that chrysotile might be significantly less dangerous than other forms of asbestos have not been substantiated," they write.

"Numerous epidemiologic studies, case reports, controlled animal experiments and toxicological studies refute the assertion that chrysotile is safe. These studies demonstrate that the so-called controlled use of asbestos is a fallacy."

'Few safeguards'

Several of the article's authors signed on to a letter in mid-June to Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc, himself a physician, condemning the government's apparent readiness to provide a $58-million loan guarantee to kick-start an asbestos mine in the province.

The Canadian Cancer Society, the Quebec Medical Association and the Canadian Medical Association have also joined the fray, calling on the provincial government to walk away from the Jeffrey Mine in the town of Asbestos.

"Despite all that is known about the dangerous and adverse health effects of asbestos ... most of the world's people still live in countries where asbestos use continues, usually with few safeguards," the journal authors write.

They take particular aim at Quebec, which has Canada's only remaining two asbestos mines, though the mineral used to be extracted in other provinces as well, including Newfoundland and Labrador, British Columbia and Ontario.

"The Chrysotile Institute [in Montreal], a registered lobby group for the Quebec asbestos mining industry, takes the position that chrysotile can be handled safely," the authors say.

"The National Public Health Institute of Quebec has published 15 reports, all of them showing a failure to achieve 'controlled use' of asbestos in Quebec itself."

A fibrous, naturally occurring group of minerals composed of silicon, oxygen, hydrogen and various other elements, asbestos was widely used in construction and industrial materials for more than a century due to its insulation and fire-retardant properties.

Countries began to ban it in the early 1980s after the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence tied it to lung cancer, larynx cancer, a form of cancer called mesothelioma and other respiratory illnesses. Global production has dropped by more than 50 per cent since then, but estimates suggest up to 90,000 people die every year from asbestos-related cancers.

Canada is one of the world's five largest producers of asbestos, along with Russia, China, Brazil and Kazakhstan. Its largest customer by far is India, where the mineral is used to make asbestos cement.