| { » a Lil "BOY, YOU HAD ME WORRIED FOR A MOMENT THERE—I THOUGHT YOU SAID FIVE YEARS! =a —From Northwest Passage Figures reveal results In a recent article, a unionist who Worked for many years in the Trail Smelter told of the lead pollution in that area which began many years 90. In this succeeding story he gives figures of lead poisoning illnesses ver the years and how today the Worker may be actually helping to Pay for sickness which had its origins in his employment. (Editor). By LEAD DUST LOUIE In the last article a_ brief SeNeral outline of conditions in the ‘Trail Smelter area was €lven, and it was noted that orses, ranchers and company Officials had made an appear- ance on television. during an ‘Mterview dealing with the question of lead poisoning of Orses. But what about the men? S_ previously mentioned, When the present Workmen’s ~Ompensation Act was enacted n 1917, provision was made for Compensation for lead poisoning Under the Industrial Disease Section. Let us see what has ‘ppened since then. Between 1918 and 1950, 2,237 Cases were accepted by the orkmen’s Compensation ee The Board reports from 1 to 1958 inclusive do not Carry a breakdown of type of injury or industrial disease. This Tpectise was not resumed until 9, so that the figures for those €ars are not available at UBC - ne Public libraries, and could wy be found in the statistical partment of the WCB. Owever, it is interesting to ote that during the years 1954 to .” Inclusive the figures were men for all industrial disease ns in the province which Bie accepted by the Board. Ween 1954 and 1958 there num- ered 3,313, bene 1930 a careful check has 5 1 kept on the workmen for ae of lead poisoning and 1938 * System of checking by what intr Nown as “‘stippling’’ was R Oduced. “‘Stippling’’ refers to wa Cells with dots or flecks Reece because of lead absorp- and are stainable by basic dyes mi SO can be seen under the Croscope. =, lead absorption is shown the anothe. Immediately moved to Doig €r area where the risk of h ne is less: Doctors agree tha the allowable maximum ill Bir. man can breathe without Soluahic is 0.15 milligrams of air ns lead per cubic meter of respir IS a company rule that tim. ctrs must be worn at all *s in the lead area. This ably accounts for the * reduced incidence for the years since 1940. It is interesting to note the comment by a company official testifying before Chief Justice Gordon Sloan. (Page 140, 1942 Sloan Report.) ‘‘We haven’t had a lead case for years. We just don’t get them any more.” He was almost right, but the Chief Justice in his 1952 report mentions this item particularly, and notes that the statement meant that men allergic to lead are moved out of the area to other jobs as a precaution and that the men were not entitled to compensation when going to a lower paid job, although he later reversed this decision in his 1952 report. In 1942 the Chief Justice was not too impressed by the incidence of lead poisoning. The report distinguishes between true lead poisoning and allergic infections from lead, saying of the workmen complaining of these. conditions, ‘‘They are suffering from neither an accidental injury nor an occupational disease, but simply are constitutionally unfitted for the work in that particular job of the plant.” No doubt this also applies to horses — they should go live someplace else, being constitu- tionally unfitted for that type of fodder! Besides the lead poisoning there is the damage to teeth from the acid in the mists rising from the tanks in the Zinc Tank Room. It was not at all uncommon some years ago to see men working in that area with their teeth worn down to the gums. The other aspect of the situation is that if’a workman is off work through illness and supplies the necessary reports from -his doctor he can draw benefits from the Consolidated Employees Benefit Assoc. This is paid partly by the employee and partly by the company. In 1969, in the Trail area alone, the Association paid out $473,000 in sick benefits. On January 1, 1970, the areas of Kimberley, Riondel, and Benson Lake were brought into the plan and during the first three months of this year $199,000 was paid out in sick benefits. The issue at stake here-is that a workman may suffer every symptom of lead poisoning — stomach cramps, stiffness of the joints, etc., and yet no definite showing of lead — so he goes under the benefit plan and draws _ 75% of his base rate while off of Trail lead pollution sick, which works out better than compensation. Thus we have the workman paying for half the tab for illnesses which many times area result of his employment and should be compensable. Just what proportion of the sick benefit payments are due only to illness which has no relation to the employment is something which we will never know. All in all, it is not surprising that a short while ago horses were found on the army payrolls. It seems they are far more valuable than workmen — at least the horses got on television. Fluorides in industry Writing in the Spring edition of Spectre, the organ of the Society for Pollution and Environ- mental Control, Charles R. Williams, of the Harvard School of Public Health, states: ‘‘The effects of fluorides on vege- tation, animals and humans have been under investigation for many years . . . That sufficient concentrations of fluorides may damage living matter and that in some industrial processes large quantities fluoride may be discharged into the atmosphere has led to the inevitable fact that there is an air pollution problem from fluorides in industry.” He says, further; ‘‘Rock phosphate is an important source of fluoride pollution because high grade ore contains 2 to 3 per cent F. The phospherous is present as fluorapatite and thus there is a fixed ratio of fluoride to phosphorous. This means there are roughly 25 tons of F available per 1,000 tons of rock processed. In those cases where the rock is processed in such a way that the fluorphosphate is broken down, large quantities of fluorides can be released.” Substantial amounts. of fluoride may be trapped in the furnace slag, but part of this may be released to the atmosphere during. cooling in slag pits... .” Williams concludes: ‘‘With the volume of data available abviously no plant producing large amounts of fluoride effluent can afford to neglect the air pollution problem. Vegetation levels should be kept below 30 ppm. in order to prevent damage to cattle. . .” Are fluorides source of Trail health hazard? Lead pollution is an old story in the Trail area, but something else in the way of health hazard is receiving attention. It is fluoride pollution. SPEC, the Society for Pollution and Environmental Control, has been investigating the situation near Trail where horses have died from a “‘mysterious”’ cause. In an article appearing in The Leaflet, organ of the Pulp and Paper Workers Union, SPEC official Len Greenall is quoted as saying, ‘‘When pollution harmful to people starts killing horses, the time has come to override the powerful vested interests of the polluters.”’ “Throughout the entire his- tory of the horse-kill, so much secrecy, farmer intimidation, political maneuvering, conflicts of interests, mis-information and fact withholding has taken place it is impossible for either the farmers, the people of Trail, or SPEC to trust the investi- gation committee or believe their findings have anything to do with the reality of the situation,” stated Greenall. An eminent radioologist and recognized world authority on fluoride poisoning and fluridation, Dr. Frederick Exner, who has consulted with SPEC on the Trail affair, stated, “‘The Trail horse-kill represents a symptom of a much larger a doore dangerous problem to all forms of life. “Cominco is polluting the Trail area in a number of significant ways, the most significant being over 60 years of lead pollution from the Trail smelter and over 30 years of fluorine pollution * from Cominco’s phosphate plant. From a practical point of view, lead pollution is much easier and must less costly to control than fluorine pollution. Yet, if both are not controlled to the maximum possible, a serious threat to life exists. . .”’ Since June, 1968, there has been “‘investigations”’ of one sort of another into the. deaths of horses in the Trail area. A veterinarian who examined a horse belonging to Mrs. D. McLeod made a tentative diagnosis of chronic fluorine poinsoning likely resulting from the nearby Cominco phosphate plant smoke pollution. Then, according to The Leaflet article, a report from the Provincial Veterinarians office on one of Mrs. MacLeod’s horses ruled out fluorine poisoning and established that the horse suffered from chronic lead poisoning. Following this report, a committee was set up by the Department of Agriculture. A report from this committee revealed ,its findings, which is that a heavy concentration of lead had built up in the top 13 inches of soil, and had reached a critical level. It had contaminated the farms and poisoned the animals. It also claimed that although the contamination was a result of Cominco’s smelter, the company could not be held legally responsible because it had retained a smoke-easement. Then _a farmer stated that he had bulldozed away the top 24 inches of the soil on his land, fenced it, planted new grass and kept a colt in this pasture. The colt ate only new grass and imported non-polluted feed. Yet the colt was sick. So what now? After pleas for a probe by the National Research Council went unheeded, SPEC launched an independent study conducted by Dr. C. Clancy Gordon, who is a Montana authority on fluorine poisoning. He was responsible for previously getting a very large damage _ settlement against a Cominco rock-crush- ing operation in Montana. Sample analysis for fluoride content from conifers on farms within a mile of the Cominco phosphate plant revealed fluoride 6 times higher than the maximum allowed _ under Montana standards. (Canada does not appear to - have standards in this area.) The grass from another farm revealed fluoride content more than 9 times higher than Montana law allows for forage, and 82 times higher than Canadian law allows for vegetables! The Leaflet reports that battle lines were drawn at a citizens meeting in Trail on March 29. “Clearly, it is those concerned with the health and welfare of the people on one side and Cominco on the other,” stated a SPEC executive director of the provincial body who attended the meeting. Dr. Robin Harger, vice-presi- dent of SPEC said, ‘‘We believe the government must get off the side of the polluters or off the fence, and make a clear commit- ment to and concerted effort for the people they were elected to represent.” MARXIST FRASER VALLEY LECTURE No. 5 “TRADE UNION POLICIES FOR THE ‘70’s”” JACK PHILLIPS SUNDAY — MAY 10th — 7 P.M. Towers Hotel (Fraser Room) 6th St. New Westminster To Register: Phone 521-5847 or 936-4467 CLASSES MARXIST CLASSROOM LECTURE No. 6 (FINAL) “WHY A MARXIST — LENINIST PARTY” MAURICE RUSH SUNDAY — MAY 10th — 10 A.M. to 12 P.M. 138 East Cordova (Boardroom) Vancouver To Register: Phone 684-1451—9 a.m.-5 p.m. \ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 1, 1970—Page 3”