Mesothelioma risk buried by Ottawa government, scientist alleges

Apr 22, 2009

Trevor Ogden is the British scientist who headed the Health Canada panel that studied the risk of mesothelioma and other cancers from Canadian chrysotile asbestos. Dr. Ogden says that the Ottawa government tried to suppress the panel’s report because it was a threat to the Canadian province’s asbestos industry. Canadian asbestos is exported to countries in the developing world, and the Ottawa government has spent almost $20 million in the last 25 years promoting its asbestos exports.

The expert panel was convened in late 2007, and the report was completed in March 2008. But it took more than a year for the report to become available—and even then, only through public information requests made by the media.

Health Canada has still not published the report on its website, as it generally does for scientific studies that are funded by the organization. It says that the delay has been necessary to fully review the report and discuss the findings with “other federal and provincial partners.”

The report confirms that chrysotile asbestos causes cancer—as has been generally accepted by health organizations around the globe. The report also discussed the frequently contamination of chrysotile asbestos with tremolite fibers, the same type of asbestos that contaminated the vermiculite ore in Libby, Montana and caused hundred of deaths there.

For the full story, go to the Toronto Globe and Mail.

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