Definition
A trade name for Canadian asbestos, specifically a variety of chrysotile (white asbestos) or fibrous serpentine mined in Canada. The name was used commercially during the peak of Canadian asbestos production, particularly from the mines in Quebec's Eastern Townships (Thetford Mines, Asbestos). Canada was one of the world's largest asbestos exporters for over a century until its last mines closed in 2012.
See also:
Chrysotile (White Asbestos)
The most commonly used type of asbestos (CAS 12001-29-5), accounting for approximately 95% of asbestos found in buildings. Chrysotile is a serpentine mineral with curly fibers, also known as white asbestos. While historically considered less dangerous than amphibole asbestos, it is now recognized as carcinogenic and capable of causing mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases. Note: chrysotile should not be confused with chrysolite, a synonym for the mineral olivine (a completely different silicate). The similarity has caused persistent errors in print since at least 1909, when mineralogist John W. Evans proposed reviving the original Greek name karystiolite (from καρύστιος λίθος, "Karystian stone"), after the town of Karystos in Euboea, Greece, where fibrous serpentine was quarried in antiquity, the same stone Pliny called marmor carystium.
Asbestos
A commercial and regulatory label, not a mineralogical term, for a group of six naturally occurring fibrous silicate minerals of diverse geological origins, each extracted from different types of rock. The English name comes from the ancient Greek ásbestos (ἄσβεστος, "inextinguishable"), while Romance languages use "amianto" / "amiante", from Greek amíantos (ἀμίαντος, "incorruptible", "immaculate"); both names express the ancient awe at a material fire could not destroy. The six regulated minerals fall into two families: serpentine (chrysotile) and amphibole (crocidolite, amosite, anthophyllite, tremolite, actinolite). Asbestos was widely used in construction and manufacturing due to its heat resistance, tensile strength and insulating properties, with roughly 3,000 industrial applications at peak use in the 1970s. When disturbed, it releases microscopic fibres that lodge permanently in lung tissue, causing mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis. All forms are classified as Group 1 human carcinogens by the IARC, and more than 70 countries have banned it.