A study conducted by seven scientific and medical experts from around the world in regards to the cancer risks of asbestos was submitted to Canada’s Health Minister in March but has yet to be released to the general population, despite promises that the information would be made public within weeks of its receipt.
According to a CBC News story, Health Minister Tony Clement’s office said the report will be made public once his officials have reviewed it, but study authors Leslie Stayner, head of the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois, and Trevor Ogden, the chair of the panel of experts, have each written letters to Clement demanding the release of the information.
“It is simply unacceptable for this report to continue to be withheld from the public, while individuals who have seen the report and our comments make erroneous allegations about what it contains to suit their political objectives,” Stayner wrote in his letter.
Parliamentary members from the Canadian province of Quebec, where chrysotile asbestos is still mined, fear the study will prompt a call for a total ban on asbestos. But the study’s authors said they weren’t asked their opinion on whether or not a ban is necessary. Instead, they were charged with “examining the relative potency of exposure to chrysotile versus other forms of asbestos, and how best to estimate the risk of cancer from exposure.â€
“I want to make the record clear that nothing in the report would argue against the sensibility of an asbestos ban in Canada or for that matter anywhere else in the world,” Stayner told CBC.
According to the article, Michel Arsenault, president of the Quebec Federation of Labour, convinced his colleagues at the Canadian Labour Congress earlier this year not to call for a ban on asbestos mining until after the Health Canada study was completed and made public.
Stayner did admit, however, that while they did not give their opinion about a ban in the study results, personally, he believes that chrysotile cannot be used safely.
“From a pragmatic point of view, my answer to this question would be that it [safe use] is simply not possible,” he said in a recent interview.
