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

Resource type
Author/contributor
Title
A Town Called Asbestos: Environmental Contamination, Health, and Resilience in a Resource Community
Abstract
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. -- Publisher's description. Contents: Foreword: the long dying / Graeme Wynn -- Introduction: introducing Asbestos -- Creation stories: Asbestos before 1918 -- Land with a future, not a past, 1918-49 -- Negotiating risk, 1918-49 -- Essential characteristics, 1918-49 -- Bodies collide: the strike of 1949 -- "Une ville qui se deplace," 1949-83 -- Useful tools, 1949-83 -- Altered authority, 1949-83 -- Conclusion: surviving collapse: Asbestos post-1983.
Series
Nature, history, society; Variation: Nature, history, society.
Place
Vancouver, BC
Publisher
UBC Press
Date
2016
# of Pages
xxi, 228 pages
Language
English
ISBN
978-0-7748-2841-3
Short Title
A Town Called Asbestos
Library Catalog
OCLC WorldCat FirstSearch
Extra
OCLC: 919340340
Notes

Contents: Foreword : the long dying / Graeme Wynn -- Introduction : introducing Asbestos -- Creation stories : Asbestos before 1918 -- Land with a future, not a past, 1918-49 -- Negotiating risk, 1918-49 -- Essential characteristics, 1918-49 -- Bodies collide : the strike of 1949 -- "Une ville qui se deplace," 1949-83 -- Useful tools, 1949-83 -- Altered authority, 1949-83 -- Conclusion : surviving collapse : Asbestos post-1983.

LCCN: 2015-509664 Geographic: Asbestos (Québec) -- History. Asbestos (Québec) -- Economic conditions. Asbestos (Québec) -- Histoire. Asbestos (Québec) -- Conditions Économiques. Quebec. Note(s): Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-223) and index. Class Descriptors: LC: HD9585.A66; Dewey: 971.4/573; NLC: FC2949 A82; NLM: 2017 F-027; WA 754

Responsibility: Jessica van Horssen ; foreword by Graeme Wynn.

 

Citation
Van Horssen, J. (2016). A Town Called Asbestos: Environmental Contamination, Health, and Resilience in a Resource Community. UBC Press. https://www.ubcpress.ca/a-town-called-asbestos