The asbestos mine in Asbestos, Quebec, Canada.
Custom agents recoil with horror when they see Asbestos stamped on packages of meat.
Asbestos, a fibrous, silicate-based natural mineral has been mined around the world since ancient times.
It is tough and cheap.
Asbestos was first discovered in Quebec in the 1870s.
A couple of years later, the Jeffrey mine opened less than 50 miles south of Thetford hills.
The town that developed around Jeffrey mine named itself after the miracle fiber.
Soon Jeffrey mine became the largest asbestos mine in the world providing half of the worlds supply of asbestos.
Walking on the porch would leave footprints.
Traces of asbestos was found in the victims lungs.
The first Asbestos Industry Regulations came into effect in 1932, and a string of regulation followed.
But it took another half a century before the use of asbestos was phased out.
Asbestos Jeffrey mine continued production until the late 2011.
Some debated whether they should change the name of the town, but the residents voted against it.
The water was tested to be pure.
Since the closure of the mine, other businesses have found home in the former mining town.
A gourmet food products company opened a duck meat processing center providing jobs for over a hundred workers.
A ski resort a few minutes north of the town absorbed another couple of hundred employees.
The town is slowly stumbling back to life.
Related:The Asbestos Ghost Town of Wittenoom
