Asbestos is something we can do something about

Quebec miners still digging asbestos out of the ground aren’t the only ones who have to worry about workplace exposure — many people who work in office buildings or construction sites may come into contact with the dangerous mineral fibres on the job, a workplace safety expert told a conference in Halifax on Thursday.
Most buildings across Canada contain some form of the material in insulation, floor and ceiling tiles or around pipes and furnaces, Cathy Walker, national health and safety director for the Canadian Auto Workers union, said during a meeting of the Canadian Occupational Health Nurses Association.
"Asbestos is something we can do something about," Ms. Walker said.
Whether mixed with cement or sprayed loose into walls, the asbestos will eventually dry and crumble and its dust is a killer, she said.
Car brake pads were also made out of asbestos until the late 1980s.
Tiny asbestos fibres are easily inhaled or ingested and become permanently lodged deep in the lungs.
Asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs, isn’t often seen these days and usually only in people with prolonged heavy exposure. But lung cancer and mesothelioma, cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen, are more common, found among people with long-term, low-level exposure or brief exposure to large amounts of asbestos.
Ms. Walker said two faculty members from the anthropology department at the University of Manitoba died of mesothelioma after coming in contact with dust over a number of years. A union member whose office was covered in dust from the ceiling after a small fire in a downtown Toronto office building also died of the disease.
"(Mesothelioma) is always associated with asbestos," Ms. Walker said.
But the cancer typically doesn’t appear for 30 to 45 years after exposure to the material, meaning many people never make the connection.
Signs of the disease are now being seen in the children and spouses of construction workers and others who may have been protected by breathing filters but came home in clothes caked in dust to hug their children and wash up, she said.
Ms. Walker suggested a number of ways workers can protect themselves against the hazard.
She said most provinces require employers to provide maps of where asbestos has been used in buildings, but they’re often not accurate, and employees should insist on accurate maps.
Where dust is created by construction or renovations, workers should ask that it be analyzed for asbestos.
The CAW has negotiated contracts that ban asbestos from being brought into a workplace and are now seeking contracts that require the safe removal of existing asbestos, Ms. Walker said.
Safe removal means work must be done in completely enclosed areas with negative pressure to make sure any dust does not escape.
"You’ve really got to wonder, in this industry how many fly-by-nighters there are," she said.
In situations where crumbling asbestos, dust or unsafe removals make workers feel unsafe, they can refuse to work, she said.
Unionized airport workers across the country have done just that.
"They’ve protected not just themselves but the public as well and forced the airport authorities to do this correctly," Ms. Walker said.
The conference continues at the Lord Nelson Hotel today.