Asbestos in drinking water

• Main Authors: P. Toft, M. E. Meek
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1984
• Subjects: British Columbia; Canada; Yukon; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.276.9072

A Canadian View For several years now, public health profo^ssionals have been faced with evaluating the potential hazards associated with the ingestion of asbestos in food and drinking water. In Canada, this is a subject of particular concern, because of the widespread occurrence of chrysotile asbestos in drinking water supplies. The results of available Canadian monitoring and epidemiologic studies of asbestos in drinking water are reviewed and discussed in light of other published work. It is concluded that the risk to health associated with the ingestion of asbestos, at the levels found in municipal drinking water supplies, is so small that it cannot be detected by currently available epidemiologic techniques. Asbestos is a commercially important mineral in Canada, which is second only to the Soviet Union in world production. Although the mineral also occurs in Newfoundland, British Columbia, Ontario, and the Yukon, mining is concentrated