Document LJ4y9Mk6xDy8wQvDRjBYxmaG5

FILE NAME Quebec Asbestos Mining Association QAMA DATE 1976 DOC QAMA167 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION QAMA Report - Asbestos chrysotile asbestos They use these fibres to manufacture a range of some 3,000 products These include - asbestos construction materials such as sheets and shingles water and sewage piping conduits floor tiling automotive brake linings and other friction materials asbestos papers used in electrical insulation and roofing materials fireproof textiles paints reinforced plastic products asphalt overlays for highways thermal and acoustical insulation materials and a range of gasketing putties caulks sealants and surface coatings You'll find Quebec's asbestos in Scandinavian homes New Zealand high schools Israeli irrigation projects in the brakes and linings of British racing cars in a German welder's protective clothing in the insulation of a Japanese generator in a Canadian paper machine It's in Brazilian housing projects U.S. jumbo jets and gas stations Indian pipelines and Central African locomotives Percentage Asbestos cement pipes sheets siding shingles North America 21 % Fnction materials ; 6.3 Asbestos paper Floor tiles 3.9 12 % 377 % Plastics % 20 Joint ciments . % 1.5 Paints roof coating caulks sealant adhesives undercoat Packing cory 74 Asbestos textile sf 5 | eee ee 14 5 : 33 | Miscellaneous Its properties The worldwide acceptance of Quebec's chrysotile asbestos and its immense range of applications stem from five inherent characteristics of the mineral is combustible inert and resistant to heat generated by friction It insulates against heat cold and noise GC Being a fibre that possesses greater tensile strength than steel it acts as a reinforcement for many materials especially cement and plastics resists corrosion and attack by alkalis and most acids It has good dielectric properties What's more chrysotile asbestos provides these characteristics at remarkably low cost Because of this unique combination of properties not to be found in any other natural or made sub- stance - chrysotile asbestos finds its way into hundreds of applications in which human safety is at stake It is indispensable in brake linings because it withstands the high temperatures attained in braking Consequently road rail and to some extent aircraft safery depend on it It's the only mineral that can be spun and woven into cloth for such uses as firefighters clothing and fireproof theatre curtains Used as a thermal insulation material on the structural steelwork of large buildings chrysotile asbestos helps prevent them from collapsing in the event of major fire And it's also the basis of resistant partitions in ships offices schools hospitals stores and other locations where large numbers of people congregate In these and many other essential saving uses there is simply no known substitute for asbestos Yet for all its varied uses Quebec's chrysotile asbestos is usually invisible in virtually all its applications Like the yeast in bread asbestos is just a small part of most finished products yet it's indispensable The Mineral Like iron copper nickel or zinc asbestos is a mineral The chemical formula for chrysotile asbestos is 3MgO 2SiO 2H2O It is a hydrous magnesium silicate closely allied to soapstone the rock Eskimos use for their carvings But unlike gold copper lead or zinc asbestos is not an element and it occurs in several different varieties In addition to chrysotile there are types called amosite anthophyllite and crocidolite As well as being mined in Canada the mineral is also produced in the USSR southern Africa Cyprus Italy the U.S.A. Australia China Japan and several other countries Commercially chrysotile is the most useful - and valuable form of the mineral In Canada it comes from Quebec British Columbia Yukon Territory Newfoundland and Ontario It is the only variety to be mined in Canada Over 80 percent of Canadian chrysotile production or approximately 30 percent of the world's supply of all forms of asbestos- asbestos- comes from a mile strip of Quebec's Eastern Townships between the St. Francis and Chaudi^reRivers hs Production Production Production The rolling hills of Quebec's Eastern Townships have yielded chrysotile asbestos since 1876 In the towns of Asbestos Black Lake East Broughton and Thetford Mines five mining companies created by Canadian U.S. and British interests produce more than 1,500,000 tons of chrysotile fibre a year By doing so they inject each year more than 250,000,000 into the Quebec and Canadian economies Mined in much the same way as other minerals asbestos ore goes into a mill not a smelter There it is crushed and screened the fibre is then separated cleaned graded and bagged ready for shipment to fab- ricating plants around the world Air is the muscle of this milling process To separate a ton of fibre from the 20 tons of crushed mother in which it is embedded requires roughly 10 tons of air in the form of suction Vacuum is also the key to the complex and costly ventilating and dust control systems that protect the workers health and the environment of the mining communities A basic fact of life for Quebec's chrysotile producers is that all chrysotile fibre is not the same Some fibres are better suited than others for a specific manufacturing process Because of the immense range of products that con- tain asbestos Quebec's asbestos mines produce up to 150 different grades of fibre Since the 1930's grading procedures are uniform throughout the industry thanks to the Quebec Standard classification system for asbestos fibre On the basis of fibre length the Quebec Stan- dard divides chrysotile asbestos into eight basic groups which are further divided into grades and sub- grades determined by color absorbtivity density strength and other characteristics These eight basic groups which together with their grades and grades make up the Quebec Standard classification system are recognized the world over as a stamp of mineral integrity CORRECTIONS IONS Page Page Page Production - 1,316,000 tons 1,316,000 Production Production Production - for value value of fibre fibre - Annual salaries: 130,000,000 Prosperity Prosperity Prosperity Increase of tndustry's output of 50% over Increase of Industry's Industry's The total value Asbestos Cheques The value of equipment Cheques etc. purchased the equipment supplies purchased purchased by Asbestos Mines is estimated Qu^'bec have increased 150,000,000 Member Mining companies of Association the Qu^'bec Asbestos East Broughton, Que. Canada InCca.nada Broughton Broughton Que. Manville du Qu^'bec Asbestos Asbestos Lac d'amiante Lt^'eThetford Les Mines d'amiante Mines Que Lt^'eMines; Que. Address of Qu^'bec Office unchanged of Montreal Office New address Suite 410 1130 Montr^'al Que Sherbrooke 2M8 2M8 West Each year the Quebec asbestos mining industry pays its employees over 100,000,000 in wages and salaries as well as approximately 30 million in direct taxation to the Federal Provincial and Municipal Governments Federal Government statistics reveal that the citizens of Asbestos and Thetford Mines are among the highest net income earners in the Province Their incomes plus those of hundreds of employees in the array of established secondary industries which supply much of the equipment supplies and services needed to keep the mines in operation are the economic mainstay of the communities with a combined total population of approximately 55,000 in which they live Thanks to the overall prosperity which asbestos creates the mining centres in the Eastern Townships of Quebec contain cultural educational and recreational amenities all of them citizen which are second to none in Canada As a AEE oe co "Les we a Approximately 6,500 men and women are employed in the mining and milling operations maintenance shops and offices of Quebec's asbestos mines Over the past 15 years the industry's output has risen by over 50 per cent This has resulted in a gradual increase in employment despite the closure of four mines in that period The growing world demand for asbestos - rising by an average rate of four to five percent each year - has led to the constant introduction of new more efficient mining and processing equipment and control systems The result has been a shift in traditional employment patterns Until some 15 years ago well over half of a typical asbestos mine's force consisted of production workers - men engaged in the mining of ore and the milling of asbestos fibre Today that same proportion of workers is responsible for maintaining in peak condition the production equipment and process control installations that everincreasingly are the muscle of the modern asbes- tos mine As well as providing steady employment for skilled production maintenance and clerical workers the specialized needs and goals of Quebec's asbestos industry offer careers for engineers accountants research and industrial hygiene technicians marketing specialists traffic experts security personnel skilled craftsmen of all types ventilation technicians computer programmers electronic repairmen and a host of other vocations More than 95 percent of all asbestos industry employees were born raised and educated in the mining communities themselves A measure of the stability of the employment offered by the industry is that at one mining company at least over 50 per cent of the employees have 25 years or more service Asbestos Cheques Asbestos mining is a primary industry As such the mining companies must purchase from secondary manufacturers or suppliers the millions of dollars of equipment supplies and services needed to keep mines and mills in operation There are consequently some 65,000 Canadians the vast majority of them in Quebec who benefit directly and indirectly from asbestos mining These are just some of the secondary industries whose employees are paid at least in part by asbestos cheques transportation companies machinery and equipment manufacturers structural steel fabricators automotive companies and builders electrical power distributors oil refineries explosives makers paper and plastic container manufacturers rubber companies construction firms consulting engineers diamond drilling contractors and lumbermen The rooms of a typical asbestos mining company stock over 14,000 separate items from giant crusher components to carbon paper Virtually all these items are manufactured in Canada Whenever feasible they are purchased from suppliers in the asbes- tos communities themselves Dozens of secondary industries in Quebec's asbestos towns depend on the mines for their business -found- -foundries armature rewinders bag suppliers trucking companies industrial caterers tire repair firms steel fabricators hardware suppliers building contractors The total value of the equipment supplies and services purchased by Quebec's asbestos mines is estimated to have increased from 3,000,000 in 1937 to over 100,000,000 in 1976 The World is our Market Place capita consumption of asbestos in Canada is roughly comparable to that in the U.S. As a result this country supports a small but vigorous asbestos products manufacturing industry based mainly in the densely populated cities And here there's a paradox Even though asbestos fibre is ideally suited for the manufacture of construction materials worldwide some 70 per cent of Canada's asbestos output is used for this purpose there's only a limited Canadian market for these products In a highly developed country like ours asbestos- based construction materials must compete with a wide assortment of asbestos building materials including brick wood steel cement aluminum plastics and even paper The competition is chiefly based on delivered price at the building site Although asbestos is a highquality construction material it contains comparatively little asbestos - average 15 percent The rest consists of cement a dense material which in finished form is uneconomical to transport over long distances Moreover the asbestos ingredients are available at low cost virtually anywhere on earth Because of high transportation costs asbestos construction materials can only be economically manufactured where the manufacturing plant is located close to the market it serves These economic considerations then compel foreign manufacturers to purchase their fibre requirements from Canadian asbestos mines have them shipped to their plants and mixed there with locally obtained cement Export restrictions on milled fibre in an attempt to artificially promote Canadian shipments of manufactured products would simply increase costs especially for asbestos materials and bring about a loss market For the Canadian asbestos industry now exporting 95 percent of its annual output the consequences in terms of production sales and employment would be disastrous Canadian asbestos manufacturers can operate profitably in the export market such as the U.S. only by producing a limited range of items with a high asbestos fibre content Current transportation economics and labour costs and the composition of asbestos materials make it impossible for the Canadian asbestos products industry to export finished asbestos products or other materials with a relatively low asbestos content Asbestos and Health In recent years there has been growing public concern about the risks to health associated with asbestos Quebec's asbestos industry has long shared this concern It sponsored in the 1930's some of the first studies in North America of asbestos disease In the in- tervening years it has expended millions upon millions of dollars on sophisticated equipment systems and techniques aimed at protecting the health of workers and of community residents by eliminating dust emis- sions both inside and from its mines and processing plants Through the Institute of Occupational and Environ- mental Health in Montreal similar industrial health organizations and selected hospitals and universities around the world the industry continues to support intensive epidemiological and other research projects These are designed to identify and eliminate asbestosbased health risks not solely for Quebec's asbestos production workers but also for the worldwide fabricators and users of finished products containing asbestos The known medical facts supported by studies of groups of exposed workers over 40 years are that 1. Asbestos health risks are basically confined to the work environment The risks are well known and are controlled by Government regulations 2. Asbestos diseases develop generally only after the inhalation of abnormal quantities of airborne asbestos dust 3. Concentrations of this order have not been found in the general urban atmosphere and the general public are not at risk on this account 4. At no time did the medical literature report that any member of the public has ever contracted an asbestos disease as a result of the normal use of containing products let alone of the occupation of buildings in which asbestos is incorpo- rated In view of the response relationship that according to scientific evidence to date exists with asbestosrelated disease it now seems reasonable to suppose that by reducing the dose to which workers occupationally exposed to asbestos are subject the current exten- sion and improvement of dust control methods will lead to a reduction in the already low incidence of these diseases In short all evidence indicates that the public is not in danger The persons who may be exposed to risk that is the workers occupationally exposed to asbestos dust now enjoy the protection of effectively controlled conditions in the development of which the Canadian asbestos industry leads the world Note With the aim of informing the public about asbestos and the health risk the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association has published a brochure entitled Asbestos and Your Health For a free copy please write to the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association at the address shown Published by the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association on behalf of its companies - Asbestos Corporation Limited Thetford Mines and Montreal Que Bell Asbestos Mines Ltd Thetford Mines Que Canadian Manville Co. Limited Asbestos Que Canadian Mines Ltd. East Broughtor Station Que Lake Asbestos of Quebec Limited Black Lake Que Accurate and date information about Quebec's asbestos industry is available from these companies or by contacting the office of the Qu^'bec Asbestos Mining Association Room 320 580 Grande All^'eEst Qu^'bec GIR 2K2 Telephone 418 529-8168 or P.O. Box 1643 Station B Montr^'alQu^'H3B 3L3 D^'p^lt^'gal Biblioth^queNationale du Qu^'bec Be trimestre 1976 LITHO CANADA LITHO INCANADA E5M0676 > peew: alae ee