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Clinic Aims to Help Toronto Construction Workers

December 2004 IBEW Journal

In Ontario, workers have a long and dedicated history of fighting hard on health and safety issues. But last year was a tough one in Ontario. Thirty workers were killed in construction-related accidents, an increase of over 50 percent from the previous year. Yet even these tragic statistics pale in comparison to the number of suspected deaths from occupational disease each year that go undiagnosed, unreported or uncompensated.

That is why the Central Ontario Building Trades conducted an intake clinic to help increase awareness about asbestos and other toxins responsible for the development of occupational diseases in the construction industry. The June clinic also informed the participants on the rights of workers and their families to just compensation as well as the need for increased focus and preventive action.

"We have members still falling to their deaths, but many more are slowly and silently dying at home of diseases caused by workplace exposures," said Jay Peterson, business manager for the Central Ontario Building Trades Council. "A death is a death is a death. As our members die unnoticed, so do opportunities to put measures in place to prevent more tragedies."

Every building trade affiliate was supportive and participated in the intake clinic, but none more so than IBEW Local 353. The intake clinic gave workers the opportunity to document their work history, check for illness and provide each worker with a "health benchmark" for future medical review and to assist with potential compensation claims. Nearly 40 members of Local 353 participated.

Ontarios Workplace Safety Insurance Board reports that from 1991 to 2000 more than half of the fatal occupational disease claims for the construction sector were for mesothelioma, a cancer that is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure.  Peterson suggested anecdotal evidence shows that 80 percent of the workers reporting to the clinic were documented as having been exposed to asbestos.

More than screening members for illness, the clinic will use the data to highlight trades-specific factors and patterns of illness. It revealed electricians had a large number of left wrist injuries. Many also suffer from hearing loss. As a result of the preliminary medical findings for electricians, the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers and Local 353 are in the process of coordinating a separate intake clinic for Local 353 members. The province is investigating why electricians have a large number of reproductive and lower tract diseases as well as a disproportionate number of upper extremity and muskuloskeletal injuries. The next intake clinic is being organized for the new year.

John Smith, business representative for the Building Trades and a member of IBEW Local 353, cites the fact that every trade has a higher incidence of cancer than the general population. "Our members work everywhere from chemical plants and refineries to nuclear facilities and are continually exposed to all types of hazards. In many cases we are not even aware of the danger. It is vitally important for us to continue to educate all our workers and employers about safe practices and safe alternative materials."

Local 353 Business Manager Joe Fashion said an effective hazard control program is difficult in a sector characterized by ever-changing work sites, short-term assignments and tight, money-driven work schedules. Nonetheless, he says, "Each intake clinic not only helps workers and their unions identify deadly exposures, but strengthens a growing grass roots movement resolved to prevent exposures in the first place."

A direct result of union clinics in Ontario has been reduced exposure levels for a host of substances. The newly elected provincial government has also, because of worker concerns and rising compensation cost, recently passed legislation to hire 200 more health and safety officers across the province.

Groups involved with planning the clinic included Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW), Building Trades Worker Services, Ontario Federation of Labour, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, Workers Health and Safety Centre and Construction Safety Association of Ontario.