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FILE NAME Allied Signal Bendix ASB DATE 1980 May 19 DOC ASB023 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Article - Maclean's Magazine - Occupational Death -yr old BENDIX BENDIX rom front Tommy Dunn any local President Stan Weiko looks like After you've other young in | father He sits in the easy chair in early April sip- worked with some of these guys for 30 years His voice trails off The ping beer while Bendix workers across the room were particularly his year incensed when daughter Shan- they read a provin- non sprawls read- cial government ing on the couch document showing It's only when he the company was turns his head that ordered to clean up you notice his hair its operation as has been falling early as 1966 but out in strips hadn't done 90 This in many We cannot ex- ways is the least | plain how this hap- of his worries one pened or excuse of the lesser side it said company effects of the che motherapy treat- spokesman John O'Hare In the ment he has been undergoing since Northern Ontario community of El- he found out sev- eral months ago he has inoperable cancer Meta- liot Lake workers WILER threatened to shut ~.. down the uranium - : #..._ mines to protest static anaplastic sarcoma says the Dunn with family outdoors in background his age makes his case particularly tragic against high radiation levels Despite year welder staggering dis- who until recently ease figures among played hockey the miners OCCUPATIONAL chopped wood and didn't think much about health But putting up fam- than 100 reported lung cancers and 500 cases of silico- the United ily Christmas tree Steelworkers local last December he felt pains in his chest A few weeks later his doctor delivered the devastating news two cancerous tumors in his lung Prognosis bleak But DEATH has been unable to get the federal or provincial government to intervene The steelworkers ran into similar red tape in Baie Verte Newfoundland there was something else the doctor where asbestos fibres literally coated said that sent chills through Dunn's fel- low workers at the Bendix Automotive plant in Windsor Ontario Inside Dunn's lymph nodes pathologists found particles of asbestos the fibrous mineral that has killed thousands of workers in By Linda McQuaig Wages don't mean a thing if you don't live to spend them the town with a flaky white powder producing dust levels hundreds of times above the provincial safety guideline It was only after a bitter week strike in 1978 that the mine partly owned by Manville of Den- recent years and is used in the assembly ver Colorado agreed to the men's de- of brake linings at Bendix mands The union now reports a dra- Dunn's age makes his case particu- industrial health industrial death matic decrease in dust levels larly tragic but he is certainly not as some call there is a more urgent While work's deadly consequences alone Despite a flurry of legislation militancy coming from labor And it is have been acknowledged in most union that has led to improved conditions in being met by an aggressive counter- offices anger over the day dan- many plants workers exposed to dan- attack from industry ger may he even stronger among the gerous substances on the job are still Armed with a growing body of medi- rank and file In Labrador City a local developing diseases at an appalling cal evidence linking disease to the work- union president confesses he constantly rate Statistics are hard to come by but place labor leaders are pushing the is- has trouble keeping workers from Dr. Gordon Atherley president of the sue hard In Windsor the United Auto walking off the job to protest against Canadian Centre for Occupational Workers local at the Bendix plant has excessively high iron dust levels It Health and Safety estimates there are taken its case to the bargaining table takes a lot of persuasion to keep them some 10,000 workers across the country after it did a tally last year and found from picketing all the time says Len suffering from related cancer as- that 19 of its members had developed Leyte Recent rays of the miners bestosis silicosis and a host of other cancer 12 had already died of it lungs show that about 60 of them al- diseases As the debate intensifies over We're pretty emotional about says ready have changed cell patterns a MACLEAN'S MAY 19. 1980 as 105H strong indication of early silicosis After several years of frequent wildcat strikes the union is now counting on a new government plan to clean up the problem gradually So far results have indeed been gradual After more than a year of planning the town is still covered in dust You can tell how many times it's snowed this year comments Leyte because as it melts you can see a layer of dust in between each layer of snow In Windsor concern over industrial disease has prompted workers from several different factories to go outside the regular union channels and set up their own pressure group Calling itself the Windsor Occupational Safety and Health Committee the group is pulling together scientific data on dangerous chemicals and its meetings at members homes over soft drinks after sound more like a conference of chemists than a gathering of machine operators One year who works with a chemical tank for cleaning ma- chine parts passes a list of unpro- nounceable chemicals across the dining room table and asks a rock miner if he knows anything about them The miner looks through his voluminous files Across the table a woman who works with chemicals at a tool manu- facturing plant talks about the high rate of vomiting blackouts and dizzi- ness among her fellow workers Some of the most bitter worker dustry confrontations take place over compensation claims with grisly debates about whether'a dying man's can- cer is or is not the result of his work The outcome of these debates can have significant effect on corporate balance sheets since it is industry that pays for compensation granted by provincial boards In British Columbia some em- ployers recently have been trying to wriggle out of paying the high costs by suggesting that public funds cover the compensation board's debt reported to be well over 250 million In Ontario industry's premiums to the board jumped from 263 million in 1974 to 539 million in 1978 James Findlay ex- A widow's crusade for claim No. D10064293 U on the 21st floor of a Toronto office tower Odette Dodds faces three strangers who represent her last chance at fulfill- ing a heartbreaking promise More than 18 months after the death of her husband former employee at the Manville asbestos plant in Metropolitan TorontoDodds is trying once again to win a pension from the Ontario Workmen's Compensation Board The board has turned her down in the past and the man woman panel of board commissioners she now faces is her last appeal She must convince them before they make their final decision in June that her husband John Dodds claim No D10064293 as he's known to the board as a result of a workrelated disease And like thousands who encounter the bureaucratic maze of provincial boards each year in pursuit of compensation only legal recourse open to them has learned the board doesn't hand out money easily Even though her husband suffered from severe asbestosis for which he was receiving the equivalent of full compensation when he died the board has steadfastly refused to grant Dodds a widow's pension The monthly pension she seeks would certainly bolster the meagre 135 a month from the Canada Pension Plan that she now scrapes by on But she sees her fight with the board as more than a battle over money For her it has become a crusade to prove that it was her husband's work bad luck killed him In November 1974 after 22 years at Manville Dodds was told by a company doctor that he had asbestosis painful incurable lung disease associated with the inhalation of asbestos fibres Dodds took his wife aside that night while she was making dinner and broke the news John and I looked at one another and cried for a long time recalls the 51year widow and mother of two grown children Within a week Dodds stopped working His condition deteriorated rapidly and by December 1975 his personal physician Dr. Colin Syme described him as completely disabled He was so short of breath he could hardly get around walking up stairs he had to rest Yet Dodds was unable to collect any compensation for more than six months after leaving his job His only income consisted of small weekly contributions pulled together by union President Charlie Neilson from the funds of the Canadian Chemical Workers In May 1975 the board allowed Dodds a percent retroactive disability award and sev- eral months later Manville followed with a month pension but cut off his coverage under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan Dodds's disability award increased to 40 per cent the next spring and along with a temporary supplement paid out by the board he was eventually re- Dodds at top right in an old photograph with workers half of them now dead his widow Odette inset her last appeal ceiving the equivalent of full disability pay-pay- or 75 per cent of his salary But asbestosis wasn't Dodds's only problem In 1976 he developed thyroid cancer condition that the board doesn't consider to be asbestos Surgery is the most effective means of dealing with the type of thyroid cancer he was diagnosed as having but internal med- icine specialist Or Firouz Khamsi decided that Dodds's severe asbestosis made the necessary operation too risky After treatment with thyroid pills failed he and another specialist opted for the next best method radiotherapy which in Dodds's case had unusually disastrous side effects damaging his spinal cord and leaving most of his body paralyzed By June 1978 Dodds could hardly move his head and his wife had to spend most of her time feeding him bathing him and pumping his chest Confined to a special wheelchair stretcher and barely able to breathe Dodds _ utive president of the businesssponsored Industrial Accident Preven- tion Association of Ontario IAPA calls the costs obscene In an effort to re- duce them industry recently has been fighting compensation claims even more vigorously than it did in the past Paul Falkowski health and safety coordinator for the United Steelworkers points out that industry has begun to appeal disability awards even after they've gone through the regular appeal stage We never had any of these appeals before and now we've had five in the past six months Industry spokesman Findlay doesn't deny the charge Sure companies have made ap- peals he says Companies are getting sharper That decreases costs Labor is watching nervously for signs of a further industry offensive died the next month at 58 With her husband dead the board im- mediately cut off the disability award leaving Odette Dodds with nothing Ironically the pension would have been automatic had the board granted full disability stawhich Dodds was entitled to his doc- tors argued his lifetime Instead by paying only cent disability and making up the difference with a temporary award board officials left Odette Dodds with no choice but to start all over again in convincing them that asbestosis killed her husband An autopsy confirmed that his asbestosis had been severe and extensive but subsequent medical evidence gathered by the board indicated it was his thyroid cancer and the effects of the radiotherapy that actually killed him But Dodds may not have been far from death anyway His doctor Syme described him as a man dying a slow death from asbestosis when other problems intervened In fact without asbestosis Dodds might well be alive today Khamsi argued at the appeal hearing that it was only his lung condition that prevented doctors from operating on the cancerous thyroid " believe this man could have been cured with surgery he said The board has a stated policy of giving the worker the benefit of the doubt Sitting in a black dress across the table from the commissioners Odette Dodds lis- tens silently while doctors drag out more depressing details of her husband's final years But she takes it stoically she's heard it all before In fact she's thought of little else these past six years A determined energetic woman who speaks lovingly of her dead husband she has com- piled an extensive scrapbook of their married and a detailed chronicle of his death Outside the hearing room she readily reels off particulars of doctors re- ports correspondence from the company rejections from the board " made a prom- ise to John before he died she explains that whatever happened I would keep fighting against asbestos L.McQ oo WOSH \y - against compensation Unions were quick to react last fall when it was reported that an occupational health consultant had advised a group of em- ployers meeting in Hamilton about how to frustrate compensation claims they we 7] Manville worker below Windsor pressure members from left Bob McArthur Jim Brophy John West Marg McArthur turnintgo help tactics S can't really exercise he gets too tired Provincial boards supposedly are in- MACLEAN dependent arbiters between labor and industry but labor has long charged WILLEH WILEH that the relationship between the boards and industry is a little too cosy BHIAN The Ontario Workmen's Compensation Board even operates out of the same Toronto office building as the powerful IAPA which represents more than 53,000 companies And relations between industry and the board worsened in British Columbia under the NDP government when the board started imposing more fines on companies violating provincial standards This caused some resentment among companies punished says Terence Ison a law professor who served as chairman of the B.C. board at the time But once the Social Credit regained power Ison _ a felt were invalid Leave out the social insurance number then it won't go into the computers Jack Richman told the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering Richman who acts as a consul- tant to several major corporations came under heavy fire from unions for his remarks He now says he was only trying to improve communications between industry and the board since leaving out information on the form makes it more likely board officials will phone the employer This gives the com- pany an opportuniitny addition to the space allotted on the form raise its objections to the claim Once compensation is started it's too late to stop it Richman told the conference The most ar- dently usualy contested cases usually in- volve disease Acci- dents which make up the bulk of compensation claims tend to be more clear either a machine cut off an arm or it didn't But the cause of an illness can be more difficult to pinpoint Unless a worker's disease falls within the crite- ria set by the board he can have a diffi- cult time establishing his claim says Craig Paterson a Vancouver lawyer who represents workers at compensation hearings Those seeking compensation often find their lifestyles under attack They'll accuse a guy of not exercising enough says Charlie Neilson of the Canadian Chemical Workers in Toronto But if he's got asbestosis he filled cement plant dally danger LEBOURDAIS JULIEN Routine worker scan for disease appalling departed board took steps toward easing restrictions on industry by proposing looser regulations and enforce- ment on certain toxic substances Now the board is doing the employers work for them they have no reason to complain says Cathy Walker staff representa- tive for health and safety at the Cana- dian Association of OFFICE Industrial OFFICE chanical and lied Workers MeAl- LABOUR But the real evi- dence of the INTERNATIONAL boards INTERNATIONAL cording bias ac- is INTERNATIONAL cording to labor is INTERNATIONAL the decisions they hand down Cer- INTERNATIONAL tainly in rejecting claims on behalf of 10 Bendix workers treated the men for these symptoms eration workers producing Isordil a last February Dunn's case is still pending Ontario board seemed to agree with the company's ad- vice In a confidential submission to the board Bendix specifically argued against compensation for five of the claims One of those it opposed was filed Decter is now trying to get the Mani- toba board to compensate Canada's first case of chronic lead poisoning Industry's counter isn't con- fined to compensation though Perhaps even more significant in the long run is its push for less government control drug used to treat angina were reporting high incidentes of vomiting and severe headache Who knows what kind of an epidemic we're sitting on says Larry Gauthier plant chairman of the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers In the fight over regulation industry on behalf of Nelson Masse a year over dangerous substances in the work- holds a powerful card plant closure Bendix veteran who died after devel- place Industry lobbied Ontario hard for The fear of an employer pulling up oping a larynx cancer that forced doc- tors to remove his voice box He less provincial regulation when the province was drawing up its new health stakes and moving on weighs heavily on the minds of both workers and civil ser- couldn't even talk his last year recalls and safety bill which came into effect vants When the Ontario labor depart- ment is trying to decide whether to make a guideline on a hazardous sub- stance tougher it also assesses the im- ASBESTOS EXPOSURE EXPOSURE pact of any plant shutdowns that may result Certainly the Bendix announce- ment last February that it was closing rday rday one of its two Windsor plants and moving operations south of the border has been a blow to the union's health and safety campaign The move was first mentioned three years ago and Bendix denies that it was sparked by worker militancy But with unemployment running close to 20 per cent in the heavily industrialized city many workers were drawing just one conclusion insisting on safer conditions may jeopardize their jobs Amid the battle over regulation de- pressing evidence is emerging that even the government safe levels aren't all that safe at when it comes to can- his wife Ivy In ruling against a wid- ow's pension the board argued that it was not clear Masse's cancer was caused by his work since he'd spent only six years working near one of the most hazardous parts of the grinding plant although the concept design allowed dust to circulate freely throughout the plant board rules stipulate a minimum of 10 years proven exposure Meanwhile Ontario boards closed down two Toronto schools in March to spare students and teachers several days exposure to asbestos fibres falling from the ceiling At Toron- to's Manville where the death toll now stands at the union is appealing the board's decision to reject the claim of former employee John Dodds see box page 16 And in Winnipeg a fight may be shaping up over the compensation of workers suffering term kidney damage after exposure to high levels of lead on the job Some of these guys are 25 30 years old and while they don't have kidney disorders yet they have such bad stomach cramps diarrhea and constipation they can't even go out in the evening says Dr. Percy Decter a surgeon who has Baie Verte strike more urgent militancy last year In briefs to the government both employers associations and private firms argued against giving government inspectors too much power and replacing provincial guidelines with legally binding standards In fact by and large industry would like a free hand to regulate itself But labor remains highly suspicious charging that industry has a poor track record when it comes to initiating its own cleanups and in fact often has deliberately withheld information about dangers in the workplace Workers say less government regulation would only leave them more vulnerable especially to the thousands of new known chemicals recently introduced into Canadian factories At the Wyeth plant in Windsor for instance workers involved in the manufacture of birth control pills got a taste of possible future shock this year when they reported bizarre sexual side effects Two men said they were growing breasts others experienced a sharp decline in drive As reporters flocked to pick up the details less sensational stories were filtering out of another section of the Wyeth op- cer What no one in authority likes to say is that there's not a shred of evidence to support the called safe levels says Atherley of the federal health and safety centre Owners of a polyvinyl chloride PVC plant in Fort Saskatchewan Alberta seemed to acknowledge this recently when they decided not to hire women capable of bearing children The company Diamond Shamrock Al- berta Gas Ltd. was meeting provincial standards at the plant but medical evi- dence suggests fetuses can be damaged by exposure to PVC even at these levels The union now cynically believes that men at the plant are equally at risk Back at Tommy Dunn's house there's similar cynicism Dunn who's been off work since December on sick and acci- dent benefits is still hoping he'll be granted compensation Early this year his friends and fellow workers threw a party for him that raised close to 5,000 to help him with his mortgage pay- ments A huge poster from the party-party- with hundreds of signatures from wellwishers propped up on the living room table next to a photograph of Dunn and his wife Lucy in happier days And the company Dunn shrugs You don't even get a well card from them &