Canada calls for chrysotile rethink

The Canadian asbestos industry is trying to persuade the European Union to reverse its ban on chrysotile (white) asbestos claiming the mineral is safer for human use than some alternative materials.
The Asbestos Institute, funded by the Canadian government as well as the country's industry and unions, has released evidence on the safety of chrysotile asbestos mined from QuŽbec.
A year-long study sponsored by the institute has compiled medical data supporting claims that chrysotile fibres from white asbestos are far less hazardous than amphibole fibres of brown or blue asbestos because they remain in the body for days, not years, as amphibole fibres do.
The report said: "Chrysotile fibres are eliminated very rapidly from the lungs: 92% of fibres of all dimensions disappeared within one month of exposure."
Three laboratories in Switzerland, Germany and the US performed tests on the various forms of asbestos and replacement fibres and found that the half-time clearance - the number of days necessary to eliminate half of the fibres remaining in the lungs after end of exposure - of chrysotile asbestos is 15 days. The half-time clearance for asbestos replacements was significantly longer.
According to the study, half-time clearance for ceramic fibre is 60 days, aramid fibre approximately 90 days and cellulose 1,000 days.
The study cites an International Agency for Research on Cancer finding in 2001 that if a fibre rapidly dissolves and disappears from the lungs, it does not have a carcinogenic effect.
Asbestos Institute spokesman Denis Hamel said the industry wants to end discrimination against chrysotile asbestos compared with replacement fibres that are less heavily regulated.
"We would like the EU to accept this as proof that its decision to ban chrysotile is not scientifically well-founded and that it should have the courage to admit it. An outright ban resolves nothing."
However, Tony Hutchinson, director general of the UK's Asbestos Information Centre, believes it will take a lot of thorough and independent research to convince EU member countries that white asbestos is safe and that the ban should be lifted.
"It has been recognised for some time that chrysotile asbestos fibres are considerably less dangerous than other asbestos fibres. But the dangers associated with white asbestos are not straightforward. Most sources of white asbestos are not pure, but contaminated with other more dangerous asbestos fibres," said Hutchinson.