Military to seal up Zonolite insulation in base homes

WINNIPEG — Military officials will start sealing up an asbestos-type of insulation called Zonolite in hundreds of homes on the Canadian Forces bases in Shilo and elsewhere before the end of March. The work is part of a $2.8-million budget this year authorized to protect military personnel and their families from exposure to the insulation. At Shilo, 431 homes have been identified by the Department of National Defence containing the hazardous material. There are another 1,850 homes on bases in Kingston, Cold Lake, Alberta and St. Hubert in the Montreal area on the list for remedial repairs. “We are doing this to ensure the safety of our occupants,” said Maj. Bob Daunais, with the Ottawa-based Canadian Forces Housing Agency. One Winnipeg contractor who bid on the Shilo project said the cost to remove the stuff is 10 times the cost to seal it up. “It’s a huge difference,” said Dave McNichol, whose company, Paragon Industries, is among the contractors bidding on the work across the country. “In the average house, this is really hard to remove. To remove it from the attic spaces is many thousands of dollars. Air sealing is measured in hundreds of dollars,” McNichol said. Sealing the homes means air-sealing off the attics with plastic sheeting and partitions where the insulation was used. That means caulking all cracks, gaps and holes that are potential sites of exposure, including holes around light fixtures, exhaust vents and heating ducts. The insulation is not a health risk unless it is disturbed, so sealing it off is a standard construction practice everywhere in North America, the military major said. Disturbing the insulation can scatter dust which can be inhaled, causing fibres to scar the lining of the lungs. It is linked to lung diseases such as asbestosis and various forms of cancer, the rarest being is the deadly asbestos-related lung cancer called mesothelioma. A common insulation material, 20, 30 and 40 years ago, Zonolite was used in 200,000 to 300,000 homes in Canada, including First Nations homes. A social campaign by Manitoba First Nations woman Raven Thundersky in Winnipeg first shone the national spotlight on the insulation’s hidden menace. “It’s good they (the military) are spending money, Thundersky said yesterday. “That tells me they’re acknowledging there is a problem.” But it’s only the first step, she said. “My question is what about the rest of Canada?” Thundersky asked. Nine members of Thundersky’s immediate family have either died or fallen ill with mesothelioma or other lung diseases. Thundersky herself suffers from asbestosis. Her childhood home on a northern reserve was insulated with Zonolite. “This is one cancer that is entirely preventable,” Thundersky said. To date, National Defence is the only government department spending money to repair homes. Across Canada, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation once subsided installation costs using Zonolite in thousands of homes, said Manitoba’s NDP MP Pat Martin. But CMHC is not advising homeowners to remove it and it’s not offering to pay the costs, either.