WORKPLACE
DANGERS

By VICTOR RABINOVITCH
CLC Health & Safety Officer
What’s all this fuss about asbestos?

Why did sheet metal workers refuse to
continue working on an asbestos-coated air
ventilation system in Toronto?

Why did members of the International
Association of Machinists start wearing
dust masks when working in the baggage
areas of the Winnipeg International
Airport?

Why did asbestos pollution lead to the
temporary closing of several schools in
Ontario and New Brunswick?

And some more questions.

Why did a carpenter employed by the
Toronto School Board die from asbestos-
caused cancer at the age of 37?

Why are the miners in Baie Vert, New-
foundland, still deeply worried despite their
victory two years ago after a 14-week strike?

Why has the government of Ontario just
set up a Royal Commission on the effects of
asbestos? Why? Why?

These are disturbing questions, all point-
ing to a simple fact — asbestos is a highly-
potent cause of serious lung disease and
some types of incurable cancer. Exposure to
any amount of asbestos creates some risk to
health which increases significantly de-
pending on the amount of asbestos exposure
and the length of time.

Asbestos fibres act like tiny fish hooks
when breathed into the lungs. The fibres are
extremely short, thin, and sharp. In a
typical workplace situation where asbestos
is used, a worker will breathe in over two
million such fibres during an 8-hour period.

Many of these fibres will remain perman-
ently imbedded in the lungs, leading over
time to inflammation and scarring. It is
somewhat like the effect of a small wood
splinter on your finger, multiplied many
times over.

What’s the problem?

Until recently, asbestos was widely wel-
comed as a “miracle fibre.” It was especially
appreciated for being strong, heat resistant
and acid resistant. It was used worldwide in
more than 3,000 types of products. Canada
seemed especially blessed with the mineral,
and Canadian mines (all of them foreign-
owned) produced more than one-third of
world supply

Our blessings may turn out to have beena
curse.

In recent years, over 14,000 workers in
Canada have been employed in the primary
asbestos industry, including mining, mill-
ing and the manufacture of asbestos-using
products.

But these workers are not the only ones
facing serious health risks.

Thousands of workers are regularly
exposed in other industries — shipbuilding,
insulation, ventilation, vehicle brake main-
tenance, asbestos-concrete production and
installation, floor and ceiling tile produc-
tion, ete.

In other words, it will be a difficult matter
to eliminate the use of asbestos in many
manufacturing processes. It will be even
more difficult to locate and remove asbestos
which was installed in the past and which is
a source of health danger. It will be equally
difficult to locate and warn those workers
who have been exposed to significant quan-
‘Sm of asbestos dust during their working
ives.

Based on American estimates, we can
realistically expect that more than 7,000
workers are dying of asbestos-related cancer
in Canada every year.

Do something

Despite the problems which confront any
efforts to control asbestos, it is possible to
plan a coherent national program which

will drastically reduce health dangers to
workers and to the public from this dreaded
fibre.

In Britain, Sweden, the United States,
and the European Common Market, string-
ent controls are being imposed on asbestos
use. Canada must do the same. Here are a
few practical points for what might be called
an “Asbestos Emergency Control Pro-
gram.”

1. Scientific evidence indicates that there
is no safe level for asbestos exposure.
Canadian law must insist that asbestos
dust is reduced to the lowest practical level.

2. In no event should asbestos dust be
allowed to exceed a limit of .2 fibres per cubic
centimetre. This maximum limit would be
ten times more stringent than the current
limit which applies in many provinces.

3. There must be a total ban on importing
of “blue asbestos”. This particular kind of
asbestos is only produced in South Africa. It
is known to be even more dangerous than
the more common “white asbestos”.

4. There must be a total ban on spray
application of asbestos for any purpose
whatsoever.

5. Raw asbestos fibre must be strictly
controlled during transportation. It must
only be carried in sealed metal containers,
and never in any open form.

6. A strict legal requirement must be
imposed on any asbestos-using processors
to prove that no substitute is available for
the substance. In fact, many recent engin-
eering developments demonstrate that
alternatives are available, such as glass
fibres, ceramic fibres, carbon fibres, or
metal wiring.

7. Wherever asbestos has been used in the
past in such a way as to cause continuing
present-day exposure, it must be fully
removed or completely sealed off from the
working environment. This type of mainten-
ance work is a priority and must be carried
out by specially-trained and equipped
workers. Wherever such improvements are
underway, the work areas must be sealed off
from outside contact.

8. A massive education program must be
undertaken to inform present and former
workers, as well as medical personnel, of the
dangers involved with asbestos. Workers’
Compensation Boards must modify their
policies to ensure that proper recognition is
given to disease claims made by workers
exposed to asbestos now or in the past.

These are some aspects of a practical
“Emergency Program’’. One point stands
out. The adoption of this kind of program on
a national level, or in any province, will
result from pressure by an active labour
movement.

Canadian unions require a coherent,
detailed and coordinated strategy to deal
with asbestos and with other cancer-
causing materials. Union members in many
workplaces are asking for assistance to
identify these kinds of serious health
hazards and to take action to reduce these
hazards. We know in the labour movement
that we cannot stand back and expect others
to do our job for us.

WORKERS SEEK
WCB PROTECTION

Tired of cajoling the provincial govern-
ment, the Newfoundland Fishermen, Food
and Allied Workers have launched a
province-wide campaign to win justice for
fishermen who are currently not covered by
the Workers’ Compensation Act.

The union has been trying since 1971 to
have the Workers’ Compensation legisla-
tion amended to include the province’s
fishermen.

Although the provincial government, in

its recent throne speech, referred to the
fishery as the “backbone” of Newfound-
land, the government is still reluctant to
give the fishermen the WC coverage they
need.

Currently the fishermen are eligible for
compensation but the type of compensation
is not as extensive as that enjoyed by other
workers.

Some of the existing problems with the
current compensation scheme are:

© It applies only in cases where there are
at least three sharemen fishing with the
skipper leaving out many small boat opera-
tions in Newfoundland.

© The skipper is not covered, requiring a
separate plan. Besides creating undue
hardship for the skipper, other problems
arise. When a crew member acts as skipper
for a day, is he covered by WC or does he
require another scheme?

© The skipper is deemed the employer for
the purposes of Workers’ Compensation
legislation. But there is no policy covering a
family operation where there is no skipper.

The NFFAW says the problem could be
cleared up quickly and simply if the provin-
cial government would amend the Compen-
sation Act in the same way as the federal
government amended the Unemployment
Insurance Act in the late 1950s. In order to
end discrimination against fishermen
under the UI Act, the federal government
declared that the fish buyer would be
designated as the employer for the purposes
of the act.

But in the meantime, the union claims the
compensation system is chaotic whereby
many fishermen are either not covered at all
or if they are covered they are unaware of
the coverage. On top of it many longliner
skippers are facing heavy bills from the
compensation board.

Despite assurances to the union from a
previous minister of labour that assess-
ments would be held back until the con-
fusion regarding the WC had been resolved,
some fishermen have not only been assessed
heavy payments by the board but in some
cases they have been threatened by legal
action.

In one instance a skipper received a letter
from the WCB informing him that he could
be held responsible for the total cost of an
injury suffered by one of his crew including
disability payments.

The union is currently circulating a
petition to all fishermen and plant workers
demanding that fishermen be covered by
the WC Act. Other steps in the union’s
campaign include bumper stickers and a
postcard drive.

JOB LOSS CREATES
HEALTH PROBLEMS

Being fired or laid off is one of the major
causes of serious mental health problems in
North American society today, says a New
Jersey psychologist.

Dr. Hannah Levine said that the study
she made of unemployed men and women
showed there was a high rate of dependence,
sickness, loss of sexual identity and a
feeling of powerlessness among the group.
She was speaking to delegates to the 57th
annual meeting of the Orthopsychiatric
Association of America.

The association includes several disci-
plines, including psychology, psychiatry,
social work and mental therapy. “It was
particularly damaging to young men, who
having worked their way out of adolescence,
found themselves being pushed back to
adolescence.” Dr. Levine said there was a

general feeling of ‘I’m nobody’ among the
group.

Lumber Worker/May, 1980/13