History

Asbestos has been known since ancient times. In early times it was used to make certain textiles, including burial cloths and oil lamp wicks. It wasn't until the 19^th century that the extraction and commercialisation of asbestos started in Russia, in Italy and in Canada. The important chrysotile ore bodies in Quebec were discovered during that period.

Asbestos was used in over 3 000 products at its apogee during the 1970's. This number has reduced substantially over the last 20 years. The reduction is due to the fact that when inhaled in large quantity over many years, the dust of certain kinds of asbestos was discovered to be bad for human health (amphiboles: amosite and crocidolite). This discovery lead to often unjustified fears in certain European Countries of all types of asbestos (including chrysotile), and this, in all uses, even the most safe.

The present controversy on the subject of asbestos is mostly related to low density friable products (like sprayed - on coatings and insulation) consisting most often of amphiboles (mainly amosite). The spraying of asbestos was discontinued in the seventies.

Today, we use chrysotile as an essential component in matrices which prevent the fibres from escaping. Very safe products like fibro-cements, friction materials, gaskets, asphalts and certain other specialized products and contain variable proportions of chrysotile.