November 9, 2009

Health and safety

All trades can be exposed to asbestos, expert warns

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

The full impact of asbestos-related exposure in Canada has not been fully felt yet and its eventual reach will not discriminate among construction industry victims, says an expert.

“Unfortunately, asbestos respects no trade,” says Anne Kearse, attorney, Motley Rice LLC. “Whether it is an insulating, electrician or brick layer trade, all can be exposed to asbestos.”

Motley Rice is a leading legal firm in the area of asbestos-related litigation and is a key member of the International Mesothelioma Program based in the U.S.

The Canadian Medical Association recently reported that in addition to miners, construction workers continue to be exposed to asbestos. Among the types of asbestos-related products construction trades still come in contact with are pipe and block insulation, adhesives, fireproofing/acoustical spray, protective clothing, floor tile and cement asbestos pipe.

The Center for Study of Living Standards reports that in 2005, of the 557 Canadian deaths related to occupational disease, 340 deaths (61 per cent) were caused by exposure to asbestos compared to less than 60 a decade earlier.

Mesothelioma is one of two asbestos-related diseases and is almost always cancerous and fatal within one-to-two years of detection. Its high fatality rate is due to the long latency period (15-50 years) of the disease, by the time a case is diagnosed it cannot be treated. Canada’s mesothelioma case peak is not anticipated until 2020.

“Construction workers, however, have the potential for continued exposure during the maintenance, renovation and demolition of buildings that contain asbestos,” says Cancer Care Ontario.

The number of Ontario mesothelioma cases in 2006 rose to 177 from just 30 in 1980. During that time the number of mesothelioma incidence rates increased from 0.7 per 100,000 to two per cent per 100,000.

Research indicates that the dangers of asbestos were red-flagged as early as 100 AD. Ancient scribes Strabo and Pliny the Elder mentioned that a sickness seemed to follow those who worked with asbestos. Lung ailments were a common problem then for anyone who quarried asbestos or wove it into cloth. By the early 1900s both Canadian and American labour departments were talking about asbestos-related diseases.

About only one-third of Ontario patients with mesothelioma receive worker’s compensation. Thirty-eight per cent of all Ontario mesothelioma victims file a claim with WSIB and 87 per cent of those are accepted, notes Kearse.

“It’s a Schedule Four disease (with WSIB), there is a presumption there that it is a work-related disease and that is a hurdle overcome immediately when someone is diagnosed with mesothelioma,” says Kearse. “It is very under-reported and those who are eligible for workers compensation never file because they don’t realize when they are retired they can file for benefits if they develop asbestos-related disease. If they are deceased, their family is eligible to get compensation.”

The WSIB, Cancer Care Ontario, United Steel Workers and Canadian Cancer Society recently launched Occupational Cancer Research Ontario to help educate both workers and physicians about asbestos-related diseases and to make exposure histories are being documented.

Kearse advises construction stakeholders to preserve and share asbestos related job site information and records.

“As memories fade as we try and go back 30 to 50 years it is so much easier to document it now,” Kearse says. “When someone is ill, they have other things to take care of and the last thing they need is to worry and try figure out is what they were exposed to.”

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