Protect workers from exposure to asbestos, council urges

Too many construction workers are dying from diseases caused by exposure to asbestos and the province needs to take more action, says Jay Peterson, business manager of the Toronto Central Ontario Building and Construction Trades Council.

BY GRANT CAMERON

STAFF WRITER

“Even if the exposures stopped today, we would continue to die for the next 20 to 30 years because of exposures to date and the latency factor between exposure and disease and death,” he said at a massive worker intake clinic in Toronto on June 26.

“Until owners and companies are held accountable, and their fines become no longer tax deductible, until asbestos is removed out of our workplaces, until workers are completely trained and respected and allowed input into their health and safety, until the media understands, we will continue to be unnecessarily and criminally exposed.”

The intake clinic, held at the National Trade Centre on the CNE grounds, handled queries from more than 2,000 workers. Peterson was one of several speakers at the event.

He told those in attendance that recent statistics show that diseases caused by exposure to asbestos have become more of a problem than critical deaths.

Last year, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board allowed 37 claims for asbestosis and mesothelioma, two diseases caused by inhalation of asbestos fibres. That was more than the 30 critical deaths that occurred on Ontario construction sites in 2003 from falls, squashing, being struck by objects and electrocutions.

Asbestosis is a slowly progressive lung disease that shows no symptoms for 10 to 30 years. It eventually interferes with one’s ability to carry out everyday activities and the individual may require extra oxygen. Mesothelioma takes several different forms but affects the lining of the lungs. Pleural mesothelioma is the most common form of the disease, accounting for 80 to 90 per cent of the cases.

The average survival time is about a year but some victims succumb within a few months.

Peterson said he knows the pain families go through when they lose a loved one from a worksite-related illness or accident. His own grandfather died in a worksite accident when he was crushed to death by a boiler in the 1950s.

“I can fully appreciate the pain and terrible impacts worksite deaths have on families and society.”

He said the construction industry has made great gains in health and safety over the years and he is confident Labour Minister Chris Bentley understands the problem.

The minister has struck up sectional action groups to look at best practices and policies to ensure we continue to make gains in these areas, Peterson noted.

However, he said, problems still exist in the construction industry and health issues are often ignored.

“Construction workers are in daily contact with an almost endless number of toxins. Due to the ever-changing workplaces, good systems of control are harder to establish during the hectic and money-driven course of a project.

“Consequently, our members are at a disadvantage compared to industrial workers who can, often at great effort, create a healthy workplace because it is constant and there is time for fine-tuning.

“Our members should be able to enjoy long healthy retirements like others in society. That is, however, not always the case. Along with the physical toll that work brings comes a price at the end of one’s life.”

Peterson said asbestos was banned for use in the early 70’s, but it can be left in buildings as long as it is managed correctly, and that’s where the problems begin.

“Our fair contractors are not always told by owner-clients about the conditions and inventory of hazards until it is discovered accidentally while working. Chances are that, along with the discovery, there was one or many exposures.”

And, said Peterson, if asbestos is found workers seem to have very little recourse to justice.

“Buried in reports, asbestos was missed and consequently there were dozens of in-your-face exposures at a subway project a couple of years ago. I understand not a single charge was laid. Young ironworkers and electricians and others who are now in their early 20s will have to wait 15 or 20 or 25 nervous years to see if they develop disease and die.”

Peterson said when a worker is killed on a jobsite there is an immediate investigation, it makes the news and usually charges are laid because the accident was directly related to the worksite.

However, the effects of exposure to asbestos take time and workers end up dying later at home or in hospitals, he said.

Workers will keep on dying from asbestos “until the Ministry of Labour treats exposures and mismanagement of asbestos and other designated toxic substances with the same vigour as a broken arm or other physical injuries.

“We are not here to blame,” said Peterson. “We are here to change minds and attitudes, to educate, organize and protect ourselves, and to get respect.”

The Toronto Central Ontario Building & Construction Trades Council represents more than 45,000 members in over 30 construction unions from Oakville to Trenton to Parry Sound.