WorkSafeBC launches new website to raise awareness of hazards
Tracy Ford’s dad was a health and safety guy.
“He was very, very safety conscious,” she said. “He always wore eye protection, proper gloves. He was all about safety.”
Dave Ford was an electrician at a pulp and paper mill in British Columbia for more than 30 years. Less than a decade after retiring, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a terminal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.
It’s a fatal disease that can take years to rear its ugly head. Ford said her dad didn’t have any telling symptoms until one day he was too weak to walk up a ramp while leaving the family cottage. He was rushed to the hospital where they drained fluid from his lungs. After that he felt fine.
But the hospital had the fluid tested and they discovered the deadly cancer. The grandfather of three died about a year and a half later at the age of 70.
Those who ingest asbestos fibres never know because the tiny particles are invisible to the eye. There is no known safe exposure limit. Some can work around it for years and not get sick, others suffer from disease including mesothelioma and asbestosis, a respiratory disease that permanently scars the lungs.
Asbestos was banned for use in Canada in the 1990s but, because diseases related to the fibre have a long latency period, many who were exposed 20 to 30 years ago are dying now.
There were about 340 asbestos-related deaths in 2005, which accounted for about 61 per cent of deaths from occupational diseases and 31 per cent of total workplace fatalities in that year, according to the Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
When all types of workplace injuries and diseases in B.C. are considered, more workers have died of asbestos-related diseases, since the early 2000s, than any other single type of workplace injury or disease. Asbestos is the leading cause of workplace fatalities in B.C. and this trend is expected to continue for some years because of the long latency periods between exposure and disease development, according to WorkSafeBC.
Raising awareness
WorkSafeBC recently launched the website www.hiddenkiller.ca to raise awareness asbestos is still out there, even though it’s banned for use in Canada.
The organization is still running up against instances where people are not doing the necessary testing before starting a project where asbestos might be present, said Don Schouten, manager of construction at WorkSafeBC.
WorkSafeBC shutdown more than 30 worksites in the Vancouver area by March 2011 where asbestos was not being tested for and removed properly.
It is also currently seeking jail time for a demolition contractor that repeatedly exposed his workers to the asbestos.
“There are a lot of people out there that are doing the right thing. We just want to make sure people are doing the right thing,” he said.
The use of asbestos was so widespread in construction until the ban took place that construction workers have to be particularly careful.
“We have some concerns about the fact that people having been dying from asbestos-related diseases and certainly most of the deaths, if not all of them, have been from past exposures.”
Moving forward, asbestos is not a problem that will just go away because as houses that were built when asbestos was used are renovated or demolished, asbestos particles can be released, he said.
“It is still in areas where it can be harmful to workers if they disturb it.”
If contractors are renovating or demolishing houses that predate the 1990s, they may need to do testing prior to doing any work. The area should be tested it make sure it doesn’t contain asbestos and if it does it needs to be removed by someone who is trained to handle it safely before work can begin, said Schouten.
Canada and asbestos internationally
Despite knowledge it can cause harm with even minimal exposure, Canada still mines asbestos in Quebec for export to countries that have not banned it.
Canada recently came under fire for blocking the addition of asbestos to the hazardous substances section of the Rotterdam Convention, an international treaty which Canada, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam blocked asbestos from being added to.
Proponents of continuing the practice of mining asbestos in Canada say the type that is mined here — chrysotile — is safe if handled properly.
“There is no scientific or medical reason to justify the classification of chrysotile fibre with pesticides and the most dangerous chemicals,” says a statement on the Chrysotile Institute’s website. “Contrary to other products covered by the Convention, the use of chrysotile does not pose an environmental problem.”
But countries receiving Canada’s exports of asbestos, like India and the Philippines, have abysmal health and safety records. Many videos have been taken and used in documentaries about asbestos which show workers throwing it around without proper safety gear.
It’s a problem the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has been trying to raise awareness about for years, said Anthony Pizzino, national director of research, job evaluation and health and safety with the union.
“We have been actively seeking to protect members from exposures to asbestos since the 1970s really,” he said. “We have also had a position to also, first of all, eliminate asbestos where ever it is found and also to seek a ban on the mining and export of asbestos.”
After fighting against the substance so long, Pizzino said it’s incredible the union still has to put resources into it.
“I can’t believe we’re still doing this,” he said. “The science is so certain of the dangers of this material that it’s inconceivable that our government continues to promote it.”
Claims that the countries where Canada exports asbestos to work to protect there workers are false, he said. Workers exposed to asbestos in those countries are exposed to the substance every day. The fibres get on the clothes they wear home, exposing their families to harm, said Pizzino.
“It’s absolutely bogus,” he said. “There is no protection.”
Back at home, those who may have been exposed to asbestos without knowing are concerned about what the future holds. Ford and her brothers also worked at the plant her dad worked at during the summers while they were in school.
She worries about whether she will suffer from the same devastating illness as her father.
“It didn’t matter where you went in the mill, it was all around,” she said.
“He was very, very safety conscious,” she said. “He always wore eye protection, proper gloves. He was all about safety.”
Dave Ford was an electrician at a pulp and paper mill in British Columbia for more than 30 years. Less than a decade after retiring, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a terminal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.
It’s a fatal disease that can take years to rear its ugly head. Ford said her dad didn’t have any telling symptoms until one day he was too weak to walk up a ramp while leaving the family cottage. He was rushed to the hospital where they drained fluid from his lungs. After that he felt fine.
But the hospital had the fluid tested and they discovered the deadly cancer. The grandfather of three died about a year and a half later at the age of 70.
Those who ingest asbestos fibres never know because the tiny particles are invisible to the eye. There is no known safe exposure limit. Some can work around it for years and not get sick, others suffer from disease including mesothelioma and asbestosis, a respiratory disease that permanently scars the lungs.
Asbestos was banned for use in Canada in the 1990s but, because diseases related to the fibre have a long latency period, many who were exposed 20 to 30 years ago are dying now.
There were about 340 asbestos-related deaths in 2005, which accounted for about 61 per cent of deaths from occupational diseases and 31 per cent of total workplace fatalities in that year, according to the Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
When all types of workplace injuries and diseases in B.C. are considered, more workers have died of asbestos-related diseases, since the early 2000s, than any other single type of workplace injury or disease. Asbestos is the leading cause of workplace fatalities in B.C. and this trend is expected to continue for some years because of the long latency periods between exposure and disease development, according to WorkSafeBC.
Raising awareness
WorkSafeBC recently launched the website www.hiddenkiller.ca to raise awareness asbestos is still out there, even though it’s banned for use in Canada.
The organization is still running up against instances where people are not doing the necessary testing before starting a project where asbestos might be present, said Don Schouten, manager of construction at WorkSafeBC.
WorkSafeBC shutdown more than 30 worksites in the Vancouver area by March 2011 where asbestos was not being tested for and removed properly.
It is also currently seeking jail time for a demolition contractor that repeatedly exposed his workers to the asbestos.
“There are a lot of people out there that are doing the right thing. We just want to make sure people are doing the right thing,” he said.
The use of asbestos was so widespread in construction until the ban took place that construction workers have to be particularly careful.
“We have some concerns about the fact that people having been dying from asbestos-related diseases and certainly most of the deaths, if not all of them, have been from past exposures.”
Moving forward, asbestos is not a problem that will just go away because as houses that were built when asbestos was used are renovated or demolished, asbestos particles can be released, he said.
“It is still in areas where it can be harmful to workers if they disturb it.”
If contractors are renovating or demolishing houses that predate the 1990s, they may need to do testing prior to doing any work. The area should be tested it make sure it doesn’t contain asbestos and if it does it needs to be removed by someone who is trained to handle it safely before work can begin, said Schouten.
Canada and asbestos internationally
Despite knowledge it can cause harm with even minimal exposure, Canada still mines asbestos in Quebec for export to countries that have not banned it.
Canada recently came under fire for blocking the addition of asbestos to the hazardous substances section of the Rotterdam Convention, an international treaty which Canada, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam blocked asbestos from being added to.
Proponents of continuing the practice of mining asbestos in Canada say the type that is mined here — chrysotile — is safe if handled properly.
“There is no scientific or medical reason to justify the classification of chrysotile fibre with pesticides and the most dangerous chemicals,” says a statement on the Chrysotile Institute’s website. “Contrary to other products covered by the Convention, the use of chrysotile does not pose an environmental problem.”
But countries receiving Canada’s exports of asbestos, like India and the Philippines, have abysmal health and safety records. Many videos have been taken and used in documentaries about asbestos which show workers throwing it around without proper safety gear.
It’s a problem the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has been trying to raise awareness about for years, said Anthony Pizzino, national director of research, job evaluation and health and safety with the union.
“We have been actively seeking to protect members from exposures to asbestos since the 1970s really,” he said. “We have also had a position to also, first of all, eliminate asbestos where ever it is found and also to seek a ban on the mining and export of asbestos.”
After fighting against the substance so long, Pizzino said it’s incredible the union still has to put resources into it.
“I can’t believe we’re still doing this,” he said. “The science is so certain of the dangers of this material that it’s inconceivable that our government continues to promote it.”
Claims that the countries where Canada exports asbestos to work to protect there workers are false, he said. Workers exposed to asbestos in those countries are exposed to the substance every day. The fibres get on the clothes they wear home, exposing their families to harm, said Pizzino.
“It’s absolutely bogus,” he said. “There is no protection.”
Back at home, those who may have been exposed to asbestos without knowing are concerned about what the future holds. Ford and her brothers also worked at the plant her dad worked at during the summers while they were in school.
She worries about whether she will suffer from the same devastating illness as her father.
“It didn’t matter where you went in the mill, it was all around,” she said.
