Asbestos study flawed

Dr. David Egilman, a professor at Brown University, says McGill University’s study on asbestos safety is flawed.

According to the Canadian Press, Egilman, a health activist and long time industry critic, said the study lacked transparency and contains manipulated data.

The study followed the health of 11,000 miners and mill workers between 1966 and the late 1990s in Quebec.

Egilman has been conducting research on asbestos for over twenty years says the industry decided to do its own research in the 1960s when the dangers of asbestos became more known.

For that purpose, they hired Dr. John Corbett McDonald at McGill University's School of Occupational Health.

The McGill researchers suggested in a 1997 study that cases of mesothelioma, cancer of the lining of the lung, occurred in "most, if not all," miners who had a greater exposure to tremolite.

McDonald believed that chrysotile, found alongside tremolite and white asbestos in the mines, was essentially innocuous.

But Egilman argues that chrysotile is responsible for mesothelioma and asked for the release of the McGill study’s data.

Other experts also doubt the data and want to see it.

Asbestos was formerly used for its insulating properties and heat resistance, but it is now banned in over 40 countries.

Last April, prime minister Stephen Harper said that this government will not put Canadian industry in a position where it is discriminated against in a market where it is permitted.

Asbestos is still commonly used in developing countries like India and Vietnam.