What's In A Name: Quebec Town Wants To Change Name From Asbestos

Asbestos, Quebec, which once laid claim to producing more of the insulation material than any other town, is planning to spend $100,000 to change its name come January and has invited residents to contribute ideas for a new moniker.

"There is really a negative perception around asbestos," Mayor Hugues Grimard told CBC News, referring to the mineral mined there for more than 100 years. "We have lost businesses that don't want to establish themselves here because of the name."

Grimard said officials have been considering the name change for a while because of the association between asbestos – amiante in French -- and the lung cancer mesothelioma caused by breathing in its fibers. Asbestos, both mining and use, is widely banned.

“Unfortunately, the word ‘asbestos’ does not have a good connotation, especially in English-speaking environments, it is a brake in the city's will to develop economic relations outside,” the village said in a Facebook post. “It is therefore by keeping in mind the will of the municipality to be dynamic both on a citizen and economic level that the decision to change its name has been taken.”

Grimard recalled an incident during which people tried to distance themselves from municipal officials in an elevator.

“They thought we were contagious,” Grimard said.

Asbestos, a town of about 7,000 a little more than 100 miles from Montreal, lost its Jeffrey Mine, once the world’s largest source of asbestos, in 2012. That was six years after consideration of a name change first began.

Among the suggestions posted in response the government post are: Phénix, The Town Formerly Known As Asbestos, Ville de LaSource and Abestofville.

But not everybody is in favor of the name change.

"No need for Anglos to invest. Since I've lived here, the town has evolved without your English, sir," Lyne Mayer commented in French on Facebook. Several others called the idea of a name change absurd and an insult to history.

For Max Richer, the town will always be Asbestos: “A name change will not bring back the dead and heal the sick. … Without asbestos, Asbestos would be a small village like those around. For what it’s worth, I’m against it.”