Document aDBBXRGanQ469ammRLpGq090a

FILE NAME Quebec Asbestos Mining Association QAMA DATE 1977 June DOC QAMA150 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION QAMA Bulletin Vol 1 No. 3 Asbestos representative attends summit meeting The Chairman of the Quebec As- bestos Mining Association Mr. M.J. Messel attended at the invitation of Premier L^'vesque the first economic summit meeting ever held in Qu^'bec with representatives of the State private enterprise labour unions and cooperative movements Search of progress On the occasion of this historic gathering where private industry representation was limited to fortyfive invitees Mr. Messel spoke on behalf of the asbestos mining industry to advocate permanent dialogue between all economic bodies If the political and economic wills are not mutually reinforced said the Chairman who addressed the 150 participants if we do not find a way establishing a climate of mutual trust favourable to continu- ous discussion between all socio- economic parties progress will not be possible Evoking economic interdependance of all economic bodies which today assumes proportions such that no single government no single trade union movement no single financial or industrial group can be the executive carrier of the interests of a nation or a stressed the people need to Mr. Messel modify our economic behaviour and select from among particular interests which sometimes are divergent collective objectives centered on promoting Qu^'bececonomic interests Behavioural change According to Mr. Messel behavioural change should especially evolve in relations between the State and the private sector whose higher interests would be better served if they operated in the open We should be able to establish relations which are neither those of accessories nor those of adversaries To achieve this there must exist on both sides greater understanding and also abandonment of a rather unhealthy practice too often found among politicians businessmen and civil servants secretiveness The Association Chairman who is President of Lake Asbestos also dealt with the necessity to counter adverse publicity plaguing the asbestos industry and with the question of developing manufacturing thing that inconsiderately discredits asbestos reflects on Qu^'bec's im- age Therefore he asked Govern- ment Departments and bodifighteing tso cooperate with industry in fighting this adverse publicity and to pro- mote Qu^'becasbestos unique qualities are reflected in the thousands of uses to which it is applied in the interests of mankind's safety and welfare Conversion On the subject of conversion the asbestos delegate to the economic summit recalled that his industry has commissioned an overall feasi- bility study the results of which should enable an enlightened deci- sion to be made in this field How ever he insisted on the need to de- velop a healthy domestic market which necessarily calls for greater use of asbestos containing products such as asbestos products asbestos paper textiles joints roofing products and asbestos Adverse publicity On the subject of negative publici- _ ty Mr. Messel mentioned that to the extent that asbestos is a Qu^'bec trademark all over the world every- Finally Mr. Messel discussed the need for investments required to develop in a viable economic way the asbestos mining and manufacturing industry in order to create new jobs eS Bulletin Monitoring instruments selected Following six months of trials and testing conducted by technicians of the five member companies of the Qu^'becAsbestos Mining Assoclation two continuous monitoring and internal checking time weight measurement instruments proved to be highly superior and have been selected by the QAMA's design sub- committee : Continuous monitoring The APM manufactured by CGA's Technological Division Is considered as being the best continuous monitoring instrument The Ambient Pollution Monitor APM was designed to automatically measure the concentration of dust in a specific environment Its high sensitivity prolonged autonomous operation and especially as emphasized by the QAMA's research consultant Marc Trudeau in his report its attenuating radiation " operating principle allow it to perform more favourably than other instrumentation designed for industrial usage Among the major features leading to selection of this instrument are its easy installation its distinct modular units and its adaptability to underground mining Internal checking Among internal checking instruments the QAMA's design sub- committee chose the RDM 101-4 manufactured by CGA's Technologi- cal Division which will become the standard internal checking instrument The Tyndallometer is also recommended for certain applica- tions in mills The RDM 101-4 operates accord- ing to a dust accumulation principle by impact on a polyester disc on which vaseline has been evenly spread It is compact light and shock resistant The Tyndallometer is an instru- ment which measures respirable dust Its greatest advantage is that it can quickly produce results in such a way that is possible to obtain particularly interesting Infor- mation about the variations in dust levels notwithstanding the absolute value Selection criteria The evaluation and verification tests were carried out on all instruments recommended by the Commit- lee for the Study of the Health Conditions in the Asbestos Industry except two which were not avail- able in North America The selection criteria were the following strength facility in operating maintaining and calibrating accuracy precision sensitivity portability flexibility print out of results and overall performance a Chinese delegationdelegation in the Asbestos region A chinese delegation in Canada on an official mission visited the JohnsManville Company installations at Asbestos and the Industrial medicine clinic at Thetford Mines at the beginning of June The delegation was made up of an industrial toxicologist two doctors including an expert in occupational medicine and an environmental engineer all members of the Health Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences of Peking The Chinese visitors who were fully knowledgeable with questions about asbestos mining and familiar with health and hygiene problems were particularly interested in technological progress made by the Qu^'becasbestos indus- try try In the photograph above we see front row Dr. Michel Lesage Medical Director of the Qu^'becAsbestos Mining Association Lang Fang doctor in occupational medicine Pi Fang.head of the delegation and industrial toxicologist Wu Chung doctor and delegation interpreter back row Niu Shih deputy chief of the Health Protection Division of the Health Institute and environmental engineer Andr^'Gosselin Canadian JohnsManville Director of Public Relations Liu Li interpreter from Ottawa Geoffrey Knight technical advisor to the Qu^'becAsbestos Mining Associa tion Dr. Michel Grimard head of the biological effects division at the Environmental Hygiene Centre federal Department of Health and Welfare and Marc Trudeau QAMA research consultant The study on asbestos manufacturing A world synthesis of the industry The first phase of the market and feasibility study on manufacturing of Qu^'becasbestos fibre is nearly complete Sor^san economic and scientific research firm of Montr^'al's SNC group entrusted with conducting the study commissioned by the Qu^'bec Asbestos Mining Association will make public its first preliminary report at the beginning of July as anticipated Fifteen products Fifteen asbestos containing products have been the subject of an exhaustive analysis aimed at conversion possibilities in Qu^'bec The size of the current market in terms of volume and value for each of the products was established for the six world regions included in Sor^sglobal evaluation selected products The fifteen asbestos products sur veyed during Phase I on the Sor^s study are as follows yarn lissue gasket paper pipe wrappings floorIng felt roofing fell C pipe C sheet C finished sheet shingle friction woven friction molded floor tile plastic fliter compressed asbestos fibre sheet Sudles and research also was conducted on new products now being developed or just put on the market plementary data all information required for projection related to the evolution of these markets to 1985 was gathered Main objective Thus the work accomplished up to now enables the main objective of the study's first phase to be achieved This consists in selecting from the fifteen products studied the five most promising asbestos containing products for optimum development of Qu^'bec'sasbestos manufacturing Steps of Phase I synthesis of the asbestos industry was realized The results will be used as guidelines for selecting the . products An important element of the com- parative study dealt with the produc tion cost structure Asbestos fibre costs were analyzed thouroughly and In detail in pourcentages of the total costs of production and distribution costs were determined freight handling insurance tariffs for all the products and for the fibre shipped from Qu^'becto various markets included in the study and most par- ticularly American and Canadian centres In Phase , stages dealt primarily with research and analysis of all es- The report sential information and analysis of Sor^sreport on the first phase of all essential information and data the study will deal with the objec- required to carry out the phase's main objective the selection of five products offering the best potential for conversion in Qu^'bec tives and procedures of the survey will include fibre movements throughout the world and will contain a record of Qu^'becasbestos shipments Personal Interviews were conduct- by market zone and usage It will al- ed with Canadian fibre producers so contain a chapter on production of product in the six geographical zones consid ered research centres and associa finished products and will analyze manufacturing processes and the in- ternational structure of the conver- tions users of asbestos products sion industry transportation specialists and organizations and agencies preoccupied This first report will provide results of a detalled study of markets with the environment for asbestos products Including the Sor^sconducted the interviews in Canada while A.D. Little of Cam- supply and demand profile uses substitutes and current and potential bridge Massachusetts carried markets for each producl by region them out in the United States and in It will also deal with new asbestos The regions These regions include Canada sub- divided into two zones Qu^'becand the rest of the country the United States Western Europe the middle East taking into account its econo- mic development and the Far East especially Japan Past trends of the various mar- kels were analyzed and due to sup other parts of the world in the survey World synthesis Thanks to the work conducted by Sor~ sand AD Little of Cambridge Massachusetts which dealt among others with fibre shipments by groups by products by country of destination and use a world products of being developed and wilt analyze production and transportation costs for the six zones studied Finally the report will conclude with the positive and negative faclors which played a determining role In selecting the five products which will be the subject of a more thorough market and feasibility study | Bulletin Asbestos an evolving market Potential and restraints of a market where Qu^'becis competing with the world World economic conditions are exerting considerable influence on the evolution of the asbestos market as the difficulties confronting most western countries have completely altered producers forecasts In fact the latest figures on world asbestos production indicate that in this field the world is Qu^'bec's competitor A world with multiple political and economic systems resulting in considerably varied goals for the participants Markets and currencies Therefore producers must accept as a rule that their sales should be oriented toward both geographical and economic diversifaction and must search for markets offering the best term growth potential Of course Qu^'becasbestos pro- ducers want strong foreign currencies a goal not always easy to reach as countries with the greatest need for fiber are frequently those with the least hard currency reserves Supply and demand On the other hand criteria determining the trend of export activities vary a great deal as a result of the economic re- gimes in power For the most part assurance for specific foreign currencies is of the utmost importance while others such as Canada opt for free competition This free competition results in Qu^'bec'sasbestos producers having lo face supply and demand fluctuations Thus as in the case of many other commodities variations which follow a fairly precise cycle occur Since 1970 demand for asbestos has swung from surplus to scarcity and finally became balanced in 1977 Considerable fluctuations Such wide fluctuations over a six- year period tend to leave one perplexed All the more since the growth rate had been estimated at some 5 percent per year and no new deposit has come into production during this period Since the beginning of 1977 Qu^'bec producers have had a surplus of textile and short fibers 46 percent of Qu^'bec'sproduction is composed of short fibers for which the major market is in the United States Asbestos mines are inevitably feeling the effect of the standards and restrictions imposed by the various levels of the American Government Apart from those mentioned sev- eral other factors have contributed to the present evolution - notably the adverse publicity and the introduction of new substitute products on the market Adverse publicity The negative and more often than not fallacious publicity aimed at asbestos over the last few years has resulted in the creation of a collec- tive psychosis which encourages public authorities to adopt more and more rigid legislation and regulations governing the use of asbestos containing products No one will contest the fact that the asbestos industry has had to face health problems arising from its activities But due to technological and scientific progress and to the enormous efforts the industry has made in this field most of these problems have been eliminated and the remainder are in the process of being solved Any impartial observer must recognize the remarkable improvements which have oc- curred Destructive work Unfortunately certain milieus whom obviously competitors do not discourage pretend to ignore the progress made and refuse to admit the obvious which is that the new asbestos products currently on the market are perfectly safe as they are manufactured in such a way as to ensure that dust spreading is pratically existent Giving free rein to alarming rumors these circles give the impression that they are engaged in the systematic destruction of the industry What can one say of countries which like Sweden have banned asbestos in large part or of the standards issued by the United States Department of Transport which plans to classify asbestos as a dangerous material and of the European Community's intention to do the same Qu^'bec's asbestos industry is fighting this hostile propaganda emphatically and is devoting considerable energy in fighting the adoption of proposed laws or regulations it believes unfair while at the same time striving jointly with its clients to inform the public of the advantages of asbestos which may be used in complete safety Substitutes As for substitute products other Industries are currently working at 4 perfecting several products containing no asbestos such as tiles made of glass cement conduit pipes of polyester and glass fiber brake linings with a metal alloy base glass fiber heat insulators Moreover the percentage of asbestos contained in the tiles has been reduc- ed from thirty to five percent Therefore because of the rigidity of certain regulations and the introduction of numerous substitutes it is urgent that producers direct their sales towards products which are less likely to be touched and work at developing new markets Since glass fiber and mineral wool are as rigid as a needle while asbestos fibres are flexible supple and curyed asbestos a natural product seems well designed for purposes to which synthetic products do not lend themselves Future prospects To this end the Quebec asbestos industry is sparing no efforts and is well on the way in reaching its goals The future of the asbestos market can be considered with optimism provided all the interested parties are aware of the need for collective effort the purpose of which is to protect a vitally important industry for Qu^'bec from the dangers and consequences which may result from adverse publicity and the introduction of new substitutes on the market Pilot tests on recuperation of asbestos waste The Canadian Manville Company recently signed an agreement with the Mineral Research Centre of the Qu^'becDepartment of Natural Resources to recuperate iron and nickel from asbestos waste Meanwhile pilot tests are being conducted to determine the feasibility of such a project Nickelized steel At the request of the Research Centre Manville installed a magnetic separator and for a period of two months some 70 tons of magnetite concentrated were delivered to the Department of Natural Resources An iron and nickel alloy is obtained from this concentrated magnetite in the form of concentrated iron pellets containing nickel Should the project find an industrial use the nickelized steel contained in mining waste could be recuperated in a proportion of 90 to 100 lbs per ton of waste ~ The alloy is composed of 85 iron and nickel in a proportion varying between 1 and 1,2 percent and could be very useful to steel alloy manufacturers Possibilities to be evaluated Should the project prove to be economically viable the possibility of establishing two nickel concentrate plants in the Eastern Townships could be studied These would produce concentrated pellets and effect consequent metallization It is estimated that investments required to build such plants would reach 40 million and create 50 to 60 jobs Manville has been quite interested in recuperating iron and nickel from mining waste for more than twenty years and has spent to this end nearly 300,000 to date Ls Bulletin The Blaylock medal awarded to Lionel Piuze Lionel Piuze president Operations of Lake Asbestos Com- pany at Black Lake and President of the Committee on the Environment of the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association has been awarded the Selwyn G. Blaylock Medal by the Can- adian Institute of Mines and Metal- lurgy for 1977 during the Association's Annual Meeting in Ottawa Mr W Bartley President of the Institute in awarding the Medal stress- ed that the honour was bestowed- upon Mr Pluze in recognition of his standing achievements in the mining held The Selwyn G Blaylock medal is awarded annually by the Institute to a person in the mining industry in memory of Dr S.G Blaylock for- mer President of Cominco Ltd Mr Piuze a native of Riviere Loup completed his Civil Engineering studies at the University of Montreal and is a graduate in mining en- gineering from Queen's University in Kingston Ontario He first worked in mines in western Qu^'bec then joined Asbestos Corporation Ltd where he successively held the following positions from 1941 to 1957 Mining Engineer Manager of the British Canadian and Normandy Mines In 1957. he joined Lake Asbestos as Manager Promoted General Manager in 1964 Mr. Piuze was named President and General Manager in 1966. Since 1976 he has held the position of President Operations of the Black Lake and National Divisions of the Company Mr. Piuze is a member of the Or- der of Engineers of Qu^'bec the American Institute of Mining Engi- neers Canadian Institute of Mines and Metallurgy past President of the Thetford Mines chapter and also former President of the Industrial Minerals Division a member of the Executive Committee of the Inter- national Information Conference on The president of the Canadian Institute of Mines and Metallurgy Mr W. Bartley presents the Blaylock medal to Mr Pru- ze : Asbestos President of the Commitlee on the Environment of the Qu^'bec Asbestos Mining Association and a member of the National Advisory Committee on the Mining Industry association in Australia Similarly to asbestos mining firms in Qu^'bec six large Austra lian asbestos producers and manufacturers have formed an associatlon to be known as the Asbestos of AssociaAtusitroalnia The members are Bendix Mintex Pty Ltd. Chrysotile Corp. of Australia , Ltd Hardie Fe- rodo Pty Ltd and Jones Hardie & Coy Pty Ltd. Shority after it was founded three other companies join- ed the Association Wunderlick Ltd Richard Klinger Ltd. and T.B.A In- dustry Products Pty Ltd. The President of the new association R.D Palfreyman of Jones Hardie & Coy was recently elected to the Board of directors of the International Conference on Asbestos Information Objectives The goals of the Australian Association are quite similar to those of the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association in fact the Asbestos Asso- ciation of Australia has the follow- ing objectives a to coordinate the efforts of companies to eliminate health risks which may result from the use of asbestos b to provide members with quick and efficient information services deal- ing with hygiene and health questions c to encourage cooperation and exchange of Information related to medical scientific and technical research as well as the development and promotion of effective control methods of asbestos dust d to develop and maintain a spirit of cooperation and constant liaison with the government and labour groups on all asbestos industrial health and environmental matters e to study the use of asbestos in Australia and help members and non- members of the Association with any problem related to industrial medicine dust measurements and control techniques 6 Record income for Asbestos Corporation Asbestos Corporation Limited whose annual shareholders meeting look place in Montreal in May shows in its annual report that the Company's net income for the period ending December 31 1976 hit a new record at 20,422,069 a size- able increase when compared to 1975 net income which was 14,239 332 invested profits Asbestos Corporation invested 17,585,067 of its profits and its assets now total 220,093,010 Regarding salaries the Company paid opening of the King Beaver mine Asbestos Corporation Ltd has opened its King Beaver openpit mine The decision was made following progressive exhaustion of the ore at the Normandie mine where operations will cease before the end of the year As the King Beaver process plant which burnl in 1974 will not be rebuilt the ore concentrate from the open mine will be transported by truck to the Normandie mill at Colerai- ne The underground unconcentrated raw ore is processed at the British Canadian plant al Thetford Mines New road The realization of the project required that a new road connecting the King Beaver mine the British Canadian plant and the Normandie mill be built A foot tunnel was dug to con- nect the 112 E overpass to the new road Work involved cost approximately 3 million An agreement between the Lake Asbestos Company and Asbestos Corporation will permit trucks to cross the premises of Lake Ore transported will reach approximately 7 700 tons per day fter the Normandie mine has been closed out over 41 million to its 2,268 employees Tax payments amounted nearly 20 million Purification program The Company spent 10 million In 1976 on its air purification and hygiene improvement program This program will involve in 1977 and 1978 investments of about 20 mil- lion In this regard the President of Asbestos Corporation Maurice Tas- chereau nated that considerable improvement in dust levels had been brought about throughout the Company We fully accept our own responsibilities towards employees affected by asbestos in former years said Mr. Taschereau and we are working with our employees the la- bour unions and the Government to find a just solution Asbestos Corporation according lo ils President is well in advance of the timetable with regard to dust concentration levels set in 1975 by the Qu^'becGovernment Heavy demand On another subject Mr. Taschereau whose Company produces 85 of asbestos in categories for the asbestos cement sector estimates that fibre demand should remain strong for many years to come as Asbestos Corporation continues its search for new deposits However he stressed new production can be started up only if prices remain at adequate levels well into the In the meantime production at Thetford is reasonably stable and broad exploration programs are underway to discover additional ore reserves in the region At this time we have enough ore for 15 to 20 years at present production levels The new road and tunnel to be used by trucks which will carry the asbes- tos ore from the King Beaver mine in Thetford Mines to the Normandie mill at Coleraine as New member of the Board During the Annual Meeting Roland Dugr^' Directeur G^'n^'ralof the School of Higher Technological Studies of the University of Qu^'becwas elected a member of the Board of Directors of the Company Health hygiene and the environment Exposure threshold considered safe The level of asbestos dust to which the general public is exposed to does not present a danger to health This is the conclusion drawn from remarks made by Dr. I.J. Selikoff Professor of community medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine who was addressing members of the Association of Asbestos Pipe Producers in Mexico City meeting this year A safety threshold Dr. Selikoff known for his alarmist statements on the dangers of asbestos admitted during a debate at the Mexico City Convention that there exists a safe level of exposure to asbestos and that this threshold is found at the level of an asbestos industry worker's home environment This implies that the general public's exposure to levels of asbestos dust does not constitute a danger to health Studying the past Questioned on the other hand on the scientific value of his extrapolations of mortality rates as a result of excessive exposure to asbestos dust Dr. Selikoff explained that his projections were necessarily based on current anomaly rates due to past exposure levels since establishment of a response relationship requires a reference period of at least twenty years He further acknowledged that his studies did not take into account improvements made in air purification techniques and the progressive lowering of dust levels The Association of Asbestos ment Pipe Producers had invited medical doctors and scientists to this convention to deal with industrym related health and environmental problems Acceptable methods On this occasion Dr. Clark Coo- per of Equitable Environmental Health presented the results of a study commissioned by the Associa- tion to determine the dust level to which workers who cut or saw asbes- cement pipe are exposed Dr. Cooper's inquiry shows that in this case the dust level is less than 2 fibres cc and that all methods used for cutting and sawing asbestos pipe are recommendable with one exception As a matter of fact only the portable circular saw method using an abrasive disk instead of a saw was found to be unacceptable be- cause of the level of fibres produced Indeed this method was re- jected by the Association several years ago Cancer and the environment On another subject Dr. Marvin Kuschner Dean of the School of Medicine of New York State Uni- versity suggested that the industrial or urban air has a minor influence on the incidence of cancer According is too much environment to Dr. Kuschner there a tendency to confuse with the air breathed in industrial locations and cities since this is not where the main problem lies In the opinion of the New York specialist the main sources of cancer are cigarettes and the nutritional environment especially poor eating habits Several Qu^'becasbestos industry representatives attented the Mexico City Convention including the Chair- man and the Medical Director of the Qu^'bec Asbestos Mining Association Mr. Messel and Dr. Michel Lesage The Scientific Secretary of the Montr^'al Institute of Occupa- tional and Environmental Health Dr. Premysl Environmental also attended ww Post Canada Postage pard = Port paye Third Troisi^me class classe 683 Montreal P.Q. oe Bulletin This BULLETIN is published by the Qu^'becAsbestos Mining As- sociation box 1643 Station B Montr^'alH3B 3L3 The Post Office Department in Ottawa has authorized postage paid in cash and forwarding of the publication by third class mail