Notes from CANADA
Canada playing a dirty game: exporting asbestos
Somewhere between a national shame and a national scandal lies Canada's export of asbestos to developing countries. The reason the federal government will not stop defending asbestos is politics – Quebec politics, in fact. The asbestos produced in Canada comes from Quebec, from the Jeffrey and LAB Chrysotile mines that employ about 700 people. A large town in Quebec is even called Asbestos. More...
"Can you believe it?"
Hi folks I was just up in Canada for a couple of days and happened to read a newspaper account about Canada and asbestos. Incredibly, Canada was pressuring Chile to try to get Chile to repeal a law outlawing the use of asbestos. About 80 nations in the world have outlawed the use of asbestos (INCLUDING CANADA!). But because Canada still has operating asbestos mines, it was trying to get a poor third world country to overturn a law it had passed to protect its citizens from asbestos. All so that the Canadian mines could still operate and have a market for their product! I have loved Canada for decades, it has always been one of my favorite places. Now I'm not too sure.
Al Todak
"A Deadly Export " - Toronto, Canada
The Toronto Star, March 23, 1999
Selling asbestos is illegal in Canada. So is selling products that release its carcinogenic fibres into the air. Strict health and safety rules limit workers' exposure to the mineral.
Yet the asbestos industry, with the enthusiastic help of the Canadian government, is marketing its product in developing countries where no effective safeguards exist.
As Star reporter Bill Schiller revealed in a weekend series, Canada is knowingly exporting a product that kills.
Industry officials admit that asbestos is deadly. It causes cancer of the lungs, lung lining and abdomen. But they insist that, handled properly, it can be used without undue risk.
Medical experts debate this. But even if the sales pitch were true, it would be largely irrelevant because most workers who handle Canadian asbestos in the Third World take no precautions.
Industry executives are quite aware of this. They know that the guidelines they send with their asbestos shipments are not followed and the ventilation equipment they provide is not used.
The industry's willingness to put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk in impoverished countries is troubling enough. But what is even more disturbing is Ottawa's participation in boosting a demonstrably dangerous product.
Canadian diplomats in foreign posts abroad approach journalists with offers of all-expenses-paid trips to Canada to learn about asbestos. Federal bureaucrats in Ottawa and Montreal organize and lead these tours.
When the journalists return home, their articles are monitored by the Canadian embassy. Favourable publicity is forwarded to the Asbestos Institute.
The institute, launched in 1984, is industry-supported now. But during its early days, Ottawa pumped more than $15 million of Canadian taxpayers' money into it.
Today, the Canadian government runs a $750,000 program to promote the responsible use of asbestos. It has approached 65 countries. Only three have signed safety agreements.
On the trade front, Industry Minister Sergio Marchi has taken France to the World Trade Organization for banning asbestos, saying the decision violates international trade rules.
All this might seem like proper government activity to the 1,600 Quebec miners who depend on asbestos for their livelihood. And it may seem like good politics to Quebec's elected representatives.
But saving jobs in not worth jeopardizing lives. It is not worth compromising Canada's well-regarded foreign service. And it is not worth squandering Canada's reputation as a friend of the developing world.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy should order Canadian diplomats to stop shilling for the asbestos industry immediately.
Marchi should cut off all subsidies and export assistance to the absestos industry. The Quebec government should set up an adjustment and retraining programs for asbestos miners. Asbestos sales are plummeting worldwide. Most of Europe has banned the product.
This is a dying industry. It should be allowed to die.
Still Fighting - Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
January 20, 1999
Being diagnosed with mesothelioma in March of this year I found some good and informative information and tell it like it is articles. It still sucks knowing that you are going to die, but, I am grateful for the fact that I never took any treatment like chemo or radiation as the side effects are just too drastic for my liking with the same conclusion. I just couldn't do that to my son who is 9. Doctors loved the thought of a healthy 39 year old giving their witch doctor treatment a shot, but, not me. I loved the part about JUST FIGHT. Sorry to babble, just reading some of your articles were interesting
I found out about my condition by fluke, I originally broke my right rib and two weeks later I went for a follow-up x-ray and the doctor noticed something on the left side. I went to a lung specialist in the afternoon and had more x-rays and was then told I needed a CT scan. Three days after the CT scan I had a thoroscopy done and it was then determined I had mesothelioma. I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba and then went to see a radiation person and then a chemo person. It is not every day you find out you have a disease which is terminal. How one reacts to this news is someone's own business. I went for a lung test in July as sometimes you want to know how much longer you have. Big mistake. I was told my lungs are working at 50 % at that time. I know it is alot less now. The only medication I take is morphine in the pill form and sleeping pills. I am offended by some doctors with their "my s___ doesn't stink attitude". This is and always will be my life and the options I was given did not take my feelings into consideration what so ever.
My whole attitude about mesothelioma is stuff happens. Thanks for taking the time to respond, Bob Debreczeni The past couple of days I feel great so I enjoy what I have left with the people who are close to me. Thanks again.
Young, Educated, Wonderful Father and Husband. Loses the Battle - Ottawa, Canada
September 10, 1998
Hi
I wanted to thank you once again for your very important, helpful website. My husband passed away aug 14. 98 from mesothelioma. He was 37 years old.
Gabriel Warshaw, B.Sc., M.Eng, Ph.D. in systems and robotics, wonderful husband of Wendy and father of Haley 5 and Daniel 2. He never smoked, drank or did drugs, or even drank coffee and was the healthiest eater I know {he always bought salad at McDonalds}, and he was never over-weight. He was very healthy until 1 ½ to 2 years ago.
We do know and would like others who connect to your website to know that the Naturopathic treatments and acupuncture treatments Gabriel received contributed to him feeling better on a daily basis and thus to his quality of life. {The acupuncturist also told us that he could help chemo get to the right place. Unfortunately Gabriel did not start acupuncture until May, after chemo had stopped working.} Gemcitabine, a type of chemo extended Gabriel's life by several months without some of the horrible side effects of cysplatine. In that time the Kids got bigger and we had many wonderful times together including an extended family camping trip 3 weeks before Gabriel died.
Liquid multi-vitamins and ensure-plus {more calories than ensure} are wonderful for people having trouble eating, especially eating solids as Gabriel did. So please tell others to find the best acupuncturist in there region, go to a naturopath and consider chemo {and surgery if its not too late.} For Gabriel they were worth the expense.
Thanks again,
Wendy Klein, Ottawa, Canada
Family Seeks Support in Fight against WCB - Ontario, Canada
March 16, 1998
Like many other families affected by the illness and death caused by asbestos exposure, we feel victimized again by the Compensation board set up to protect construction workers like my father. He was 58 years old when he died April 25, 1995.
To date, the Workers Compensation Board has denied my father's claim twice. We are now headed to the Tribunal stage. The first denial was on the basis of "lack of exposure" proof. This seemed logical since no employer could be identified as the source of his asbestosis. My father was an itinerant construction electrician in Sarnia, Ontario.
The Petrochemical industry here includes, Shell, Imperial Oil, Dow Chemical, Polysar/Polymer Rubber, Cabot Carbon, Sunoco, et al. My father joined the Union in 1956 and was on site doing "shut-downs" soon after. The main purpose of these shut-downs was to retrofit the plants. Construction workers were brought in to do this. It included stress relieving on pipes which were wrapped in asbestos insulation. The airborne fibers were so pronounced that it looked like snow. This was a highly concentrated exposure for several weeks to months for these men. They would eat their lunch on batts of this stuff. They would cut through conduit filled with it. The legislative ban on the substance did not remove it from where it was all over the "Chemical Valley" of Sarnia.
Workers in their 20's and 30's are still being exposed to it when they do "shut-down's" today. But construction workers who are employed by a contractor, and attend at a large plant, have difficulty proving their whereabouts years later. The contracting firm is often long gone, the plants have no records and the victim is dead. Convenient for the WCB.
My dad had a lung biopsy done at Toronto General Hospital. The pathologist confirmed the presence of asbestos fibers. Four months later, he died. His death was horrible to watch and heartbreaking to remember. My sisters, brother, mother and I are forever changed from this experience. I am an Insurance Adjuster in the General Insurance field and have been Advocating for my mother on the Survivors Benefit claim. Most women, married to men of my father generation, were secondary wage earners. Most men of my father's profession did not have generous pension plans for their widows. The widows left behind by this tragedy are often financially wiped out. The meager death benefit or monthly stipend is not enough for a 56 year old women raising children, paying a mortgage, and surviving.. The health benefits enjoyed by the Union worker are gone....the support of the "Brotherhood" disappears, largely out of fear. If they speak of it, will it happen to them?
I encourage all victims of Asbestosis claims, fighting for WCB acceptance, to E-Mail me at this address ...glegault@ebtech.net
Let's network, let's share and support each other. I have great support from Jim Brophy of the Workers Injured Treatment Centre in Windsor. WCB expects you to give up, but they picked the wrong family to fight this time. I am still building my Appeal for submission and sometime before the millennium, we will win justice for my father, Stan, who died too young, too tragically, to not have some accountability. Thank you .
Kathleen Stinson
glegault@ebtech.net
Canadian Courts Turn Blind Eye On MM Victims - Toronto, Canada
January 28, 1998
Dear Mr. Worthington,
You may remember that in the autumn I wrote to you about my stepmother, who had been diagnosed with mesothelioma after exposure to insulation in the Toronto building where she worked for Air Canada.
She died two weeks ago, a horrible suffocating death.
Today my father and I learned that one of her colleagues, another Air Canada employee, was diagnosed a week ago with mesothelioma.
Although the two cases are being dealt with by the Canadian Auto Workers' union, we have learned this much: in Canada (or certainly Ontario), it is not legally permitted to bring suit against the company. It must go through what used to be called Workers' Compensation; but in addition to changing the name of that body, the present Harris government has enacted legislation to remove the rights of workers to any compensation for diseases contracted before 1993.
In a recent case of aluminum toxicity, the board's ruling against an electrician was overturned by a court. The province promptly enacted another legislation to the effect that it is not obliged to respond to such court rulings in future.
It is really quite shocking.
I just thought you should know this.
Prof. Nancy Traill
York University, Toronto
An Update to my Stepmother
June 14, 1999
Dear Mr. Worthington,
I wrote to you a year and a half ago about my stepmother, Jennie Alford, who died in January 1998 of mesothelioma.
As I said at the time, in Canada it is impossible to launch a suit against an employer before the family of the deceased, or the sick person, has filed a claim with the Workers' Health and Safety Commission (formerly Workers' Compensation Board). After a year, we finally have the decision, and the expected one at that. Negative.
Their claim is that the median latency period for mesothelioma is 25 years (they make no reference to her specific type of the disease, pleural mesothelioma). The building in which my stepmother worked had just been built and therefore any asbestos would have been enclosed in the walls (they write). The minimum latency period (they claim) is 15 years. The fire at the Air Canada building in which the asbestos was exposed from the walls and ceilings occurred in November 1985. That means that she would have had to be exposed before 1985, as exposure in 1985 would mean a 13 year latency. Therefore - they claim - there can be no relation between her disease and the exposed asbestos.
This is their 'reasoning', and though the logic may be passable, it is utterly and transparently political. They do not claim that Jennie was not exposed to asbestos, only that she was exposed too late for it to have caused her disease, counting by their arbitrary calendar. I think it must be very easy to find medical opinions to support shorter latency periods. And it certainly is a weak argument in the face of the evidence of both the exposure and the disease.
Since Air Canada employees are unionized, under the Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW), my father must rely on them for the next step, which will be an appeal to this august body of bureaucrats. The appeal must be put forward by October. After that, if the decision is again negative (and who would bet otherwise), it will be possible to take this to the courts. But, as a lawyer acquaintance of my father remarked, "you'll never get anywhere with it." Unless something changes in the system, or more people come forward, I think he will prove to be right. But we'll try. If you have any suggestions, please send them. At this point, we need them.
I would like to hear from anyone engaged in a claims case over asbestos and mesothelioma. I can be reached at: ntraill@yorku.ca
On your site is a similar case with a woman at the Tribunal stage of her claim, but her email is defunct, unfortunately. So is that of a woman writing to say her husband died. Pity that no one here wants to network. A third person, in Quebec, has not replied and probably will not.
I read the exchange between Case and Schepers, and found it very interesting indeed. If you look at the web site for the Canadian Asbestos Association you will find out how very harmless chrysotile asbestos is, didn't you know? I do hope the WTO doesn't buy it or if they do, that they all choke on it.
Can you give me the names of a couple of doctors and their contact information, US and/or Canadian? We need to have some expert opinion on the latency period. It would be very helpful. I don't trust the ones here not to hedge on the matter, and I don't at present have time to research all the medical journals - which might not help anyway to judge from Dr. Schepers' experience. Is his contact information available? He must be quite elderly at this point.
Thanks,
Prof. Nancy Traill
York University, Toronto
Canadian Survives 13 Months Without Treatment - Ontario, Canada
November 5, 1997
Dear Mr. Worthington and team,
My husband Walter has passed away. Thirteen months after diagnosis with MM. I am glad we decided to forego any chemo or other treatments. We managed the pain. He died at home.
I checked your site several times a week all during his illness. It was the only place I could get any information. Thank you for the wonderful service you are providing.
(Mrs) Andrée Zeritsch, CGA - Accounting Manager
St. John Ambulance Saint-Jean
National Headquarters / Siège National
312 Laurier Ave. East
Ottawa ON KlN 6P6
Canada
Tel: (613) 236-1283 ext. 264
Fax: (613) 236-2425
Email: azeritsc@nhq.sja.ca
URL: http://www.sja.ca
Canada Buries Head in Sand: Compensation Illusory - Canada
October 12, 1997
I am writing to you in the hopes that you can help my ongoing search. I am searching for information about the medical inflictions brought on by the exposure to asbestos fibres. Since I am in Canada, and the government in my province will not accept the fact that asbestos fibres can cause various diseases and cancers and therefore to recieve compensation from the compensation board is difficult if not impossible.
It is difficult to locate any information with Canadian ties or relevence.i would greatly appreciate any information that you can send me regarding this as well as any guidence you could offer.
thank you for your time.
Chris Howell
Canadian's Aiding Us in the Battle - Montreal, Canada
Dear Mr. Worthington:
To aid you in the fight against mesothelioma, please be advised that on the instructions of my mother, Patricia Chisholm, the Montreal General Hospital has been directed to release the autopsy results of my father, Alexander Chisholm, held at the Montreal General Hospital on Monday, July 14, 1997 to those researching this disease. Tissue samples have been removed and should be available for analysis.
My father was diagnosed as having mesothelioma in August, 1995 and opted to have no treatment. While the tumour appeared to be growing between August and October, 1995, its growth appeared to halt and was stabilized until my father's sudden death of heart failure on July 12, 1997.
While my family is devastated by our loss, we hope that whatever information can be gleaned will be of benefit to others struck by this cruel disease.