A Town Called Asbestos: Environmental Contamination, Health, and Resilience in a Resource Community

For decades, manufacturers from around the world relied on asbestos from the town of Asbestos, Quebec, to produce fire-retardant products. Then, over time, people learned about the mineral’s devastating effects on human health. Dependent on this deadly industry for their community’s survival, the residents of Asbestos developed a unique, place-based understanding of their local environment; the risks they faced living next to the giant opencast mine; and their place within the global resource trade. This book unearths the local-global tensions that defined Asbestos’s proud and painful history to reveal the challenges similar resource communities have faced - and continue to face today.