Canada’s Dark Secret
Canada continues to mine asbestos and export the fibers to this day, in spite of many health concerns. by Eric Stevenson Asbestos was a highly used and valuable mineral; now most countries consider it to be anything but that. It first mined in the great white north in the 1870’s and continued on to help cities thrive off the resource into the next century. Miners started to contract terminal illnesses such as lung cancer, mesothelioma , and asbestosis in the 1900’s after developing an initial shortness of breath on the mining sites. The exposure to asbestos has since been revealed as the main cause for some of these diseases. The asbestos exposure affects a thin lining of the lungs, chest, abdomen, and heart. Perhaps the worst part about this type of exposure is the fact that mesothelioma symptoms lay dormant in a latency period that can sometimes last up to 50 years. Diagnosis often comes late in life, with such a long latency period. The mesothelioma life expectancy is an...