Document DGYRbpnMzK1rpLoYBwx3Qwj14

FILE NAME Quebec Asbestos Mining Association QAMA DATE 1949 DOC QAMA029 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION QAMA Contract Incomplete ra Clause 25 This article discusses the duration of the Agreement It stipulates that the Agreement comes into effect the first day of January of the current year and will remain for a year's period It will be renewed thereafter automatically from year to year at least until one of the parties informs the other between the sixtieth and thirtieth day preceding the expiration date whether they want to amend or terminate the above agreement For this year this article presents some serious difficulties on account of some circumstances of absolute necesnecessity sity or circumstances outside of one's control which have delayed the drawing up and publication of this decision We are discussing at the present time the renewal of a collective contrfa orctt he year 1949. Now it happens that this contract will be renewed less than a month before the expiration of the above year If the contract is renewed and signed by the parties during the course of the month of December it will be automatically in effect for the year 1950 because it would be physically impossible for one days or the other of the parties to denounce it thirty days days before its expira- tion Furthermore it owuld seem futile and frivolous to sign a contract that would last only a few days which would obligate the parties to immediately resume their negotiations for drawing up a contract which would be in effect during the year 1950 The investigation in this case was long slow serious and thorough It seems to us that all the facts were brought to the knowledge of the magistrates tribunal or court There probably will not be a change in economic conditions that prevail at the present time and those which will prevail in the year 1950 The cost of living has a tendency of falling We think then that it will be in the common interests of the contracting parties to stipulate that the work contract which will be signed following this decision will be automaticallyautomatically renewed for the yyeareayerar year 1950 1950 1950 Master Master Master Master Master Master Lesperance dissents on this poipntoint Clause 25 should then read as follows 25 This agreement after having been introduced in accordance with the requirements of the law will be supposed to have been in effect since the first day of January 1949 and it will stay in effect until December 31 of the same year It will then be automatically renewed for the whole year of 1950. During the year 1950 one or the other of the parties will be able to renounce it by informing the other party between the sixtieth and thirtieth day preceding the expiration date A notice of amendment should contain as much as possible possible a list of the suggested modifications for the renewal of the 1951 contract The Union also asked to add to the Agreement two new clauses First the clause 26 which deals with the elimination of dust The Union asks to include in the contract an article by which the Company would promise would undertake to continue the outside and inside of the to work toward the elimination of dust in i mills with the most short delay delay possible in using the best known resources means It hasn't submitted any notes to translate exactly its opinion This a subject for long discussion Eminent question of asbestos doctors were heard dust makes The Union produced as its witness Dr. Alexander Sirois of the Thetford The Company heard Dr. Paul Cartier medical director of the Industrial Industrial Clinic at Thetford The Court then summonedsubpoenaed as its own foreman or head Dr. J.A. Vidal of Montreal specialist in tuberculosis andand head of service at the Hospital of Coeur of Cartierville For deciding the question the Company then summoned Dr. Arthur John Vorwald director of the Laboratory at the Trudeau Foundation of Saranac Lake New York as well as Dr. Industrial Hygiene whose Anhtony J. Lanza of New ! authority is recongized York a specialist in throughout the world In our findings upon the testimony evidence we are going to try to define what is asbestosis what relation there is between this disease and tuberculosis and silicosis We will see what was done by the Company to protect is workers from this disease According to the unanimous testimony of the doctors who were heard asbestosis is a fibrous reaction of the lung caused by inhalation of asbestos dust In order for asbestos fibers to affect the respiratory pathways the fibers must be relatively long from 10 to 60 microns They the doctors thethemsmelvesselves have found fibers of 250 microns in an autopsy but this constitutes an exception According to the evidence to contract asbestosis it is necessary to live in a concentration of dust containing five million particles or fibers of asbestos per cubic foot of air The exposure period varies Dr. Sirois claims maintains it could be for seven years while Dr. Cartier it is is of the opinion that it is necessary to breathe this concentration of dust during fourteen years It is probable that the necessary time to contract this disease depends in large part on the predisposition more or less of each subject The state of receptivity susceptibility according to the opoinion of Dr. Vorwald depends upon factors which are still unknown Asbestos fibers whiwhcich h which which get into the lungs cause an irritation which produces a multiplication of cells like a defense phenomenon This multiplication of cells diminishes the alveolar space and impedes obstruct thethe the transfterransfer transfer transfer ttransrtferarnsafenrsfer of osygen osygen osygen by way of the alveolar inner wall to the arterial blood This This fibrous fibrous reaction covers covers the arbestos dust and destroys its noxious character It follows according to the unanimous opinion of the distinguished doctors who have been heard that asbestosis is not a progressive disease because the irritation stops at the moment the asbestos fiber has been completely covered by this fibrosing phenomena The evidence discloses that asbestosis at a very advanced degree diminishes the respiratory capacity until a certain point and the resistance to other illnesses Moreover one cannot deny that asbestosis existsexists as as as disease it has been acknowledged as an industrial disease disease disease disease disease disease by by a law of the province Asbestosis nevertheless is far possessing from possessing the seriousness seriousness seriousness seriousness seriousnes of of tuberculosis and of silicosis It differs totally in its evolution and totally its effeffecets cts effects As we are about to say asbestosis is not progressivperogressive If as early as the first visible signs of asbestosis the worker who is affected with it changes job site and works in a place where the concentration of asbestosi fibers is less strong the disease stops evolving immediately The tissue heals scars and the worker undergoes ( not none diminution of capacity nor any any pathological symptoms The irritation caused by asbestos fiber is mechanical and not chemical Close observation of the state of the lungs of all workers who work in high concentrations of of asbestos dust will will make possible seeing immediately the first injuries of the sickness sickness That is moreover the opinion expressed by Dr. Vorwald It thus seems relatively easy as early as the beginning of the evolution of this phenomena of asbestosis what will keep the worker in good health By By contrast silicosis is not at all of the same nature It is caused by inhaling particles of free silica from one to five microns It produces a specific pathological lesion which is a " nodule My quotation marks The reaction caused by silicosis is not mechanical but chemical Silica established favorable ground for the evolution and development of tuberculosis Silicosis by its own nature is a progressive disease and its evolution generally leads to death It is proved that there isn't any free silica silica silica in the asbestos mines and that silicosis could not occur in the workers employed at mining for asbestos minerals The radiographic picture of asbestosis and of silicosis do not resemble each other at all and a slightly practised eye can ascertain right away this difference There cannot be any on this subject As for tuberculosis this is a known disease that is produced by inhaling tuberculosis bacillis called Koch's bacillis According to the testimony of Dr. Cartier 40 to 75 of silicosis patients subject die of tuberculosis That is moreover the Conclusive studies have been made on this opinion clearlyclearly exexppresed ressed byby the knowledgeabl opinion doctors who have been heard in this case For some time the index of mortalities by tuberculosis was very high at Thetford due to the fact that there was a sanatorium for tuberculosis This was patients at this town and all the mortalities mortalities that would occur at the hospital were atrributed to the town of Thetford adding to the rate of mortalities in a considerable way This faulty procedure was corrected and the mortalities that occur in that hospital are now attributed to the place of residence of of the patients with the result that the rate of mortalities by tuberculosis at Thetford is no more high that in the small towns of the same importance One confirms that in certain centers of the province of Quebec where there isn't any mineral industry and consequently no high concentrations of dust the rate of tuberculosis deaths is high even higher than that in the One confirms that more than in this town tubercular deaths were higher in women than in men although women do not work in asbestos mines The rate is also higher in young people who work in offices than in those of the same age who work in asbestos mines The workers who are harmed by asbestos are not more suceptible to contracting tuberculosis than those those who do not work in asbestos mines Moreover these statements were confirmed by laboratory tests which were were relatedrelated in in detail for us by Dr. Vorwald The proof made in this case is conclusive It indicates clearly and absolutely that there isn't any relationship between asbestosis and tuberculosis The cases of asbestosis in the asbestos industry in the province of Quebec are not numerous One could say there are about 5,000 workers who mine asbestos in the Quebec Province From 1939 to 1949 1949 , only only only only 93 93 complaints claims were made for cases of asbestosis Of this number 61. were refused 6 were still in outstanding and 26 were awarded which makes an average of 2.6 per year out of a total number of about 5,000 employees For the Asbestos Corporation Limited from 1942 1942 to 1949 36 claims were made 24 were rejected 10 were awarded and 2 are still in abeyance The question asked us is if we know asbestosiassbestosis could could could could could give give give give give rise rise rise rise rise to to , complicate or aggravate heart diseases There is nothing in evidence which will allow us to affirm this Moreover Dr. Cartier himself affirms there isn't any objective evidence that asbestosis in its minimal state or moderate state could cause or aggravate heart diseases Dr. Vorwald was then then questioned about the relationship between questioned asbestosis and cancer of of the lung He answered us that in the current state of science it was impossible to affaffirm irm if there is any relation -6- betweenbetween the two diseases Some studies meanwhile are being carried on to explain the frequency of cancer of the lungs in adults even in those who do not work with asbestos We will see now what has been done at Thetford to protect workers from asbestosis In 1945 the companies who operated at Thetford organized a clinic under the name of the Industrial Clinic of Thetford It opended in May 1946. Capital of 75,000 was furnished by the Asbestos Company Limited and Bell Asbestos Limited It cost 32,000 to 35,000 per year to operate this clinic and this bill was paid by the asbestos companies Dr. Paul Cartier eminent specialist in lung tuberculosis is in chargceharge of this clinic All the new workers submit to a serious serious examination before being hired Their application is accepted on the condition they are in good health Then each year all the employees who work in the asbestos mines or in the asbestos mills are given new examinations Thirdly the check examinations are given as often as necessary to all subjects who might show a pulmonary anomaly Since June 1946 to July 1949 this clinic examined 1,713 new applicants it made 7,035 periodic examinations of emp19yees of the companies and 578 check examinations which makes a total of 10,226 examinations Dr. Cartier tells us that at the moment he ascertains a pulmonary anomalie in certain employees he asks the company involved to give this employee another kind of work which will expose him less to breathing asbestos dust He also assures us that that that that the companies yield with good grace to all these changes This This This This clinic clinic clinic cclinlic inic certainly will have an effect on diminishing the grave cases of asbestosis by discovering the first symptoms when they appear The clinic is not only interested in discovering cases of asbestosis but --7- it also because watches over all the workers from the point of view of tuberculosis it is necessary not to forget that workers in the asbestos mines are susceptible to contracting tuberculosis like any other individual who doesn't work in dust but not more Besides this clinic which serves to protect the Asbestos Corporation put into production a program to workers the company company eliminate dust dust At At King Mine the company spent 211,197.34 at Beaver Mine the elimina- tion of dust cost to date 194,804.20 at the Canadian Mines thethe company spent for the same ends 156,751.00 for a total of 562,752.54 This elimination of dust is a winded job The company began it and asserts it will continue it It now experiments with systems it installed in these three mines It is perfecting them and just invented a mechanism to eliminate the dust at the place where one getgs ets the hindrance of asbestos This mechanism having been satisfactory satisfactory the company intends install it in all the mills It is evident that the situation is not yet perfect and that there yct remains much work to accomplish The and Company seems to have excellent arrangements it affirms that it will continue the work begun It recognizes that the dust is a nuisance and it seems disposed to work towards its elimination as far as is possible Even though the asbestos dust can affect the working conditions of of the workers I think that settlement of this question criticizes the of administratadministrationion of the company more than the work contract It is an important and difficult question to decide which are the best mechanisms to eliminate dust in a given factory The company income permits it to make the nessary capital outlay of these machines it is up to it also whether it ought to this time if its will be able to take the liberty of making decide at these outlays www -8- . good In view of the will shown by the Company until the present in coming to a solution to this problem and in view of the results certain already obtained in the collective application we do not think it would be timely to include a clause work contract legally obliging the company to put in ways of eliminating the dust All that must be to the discretion of the directors of the administration of the the companycompany All the same we are asking that the following declaration be included in the contract Master Lesperance dissenting The company recognizes that asbestos dust is is a nuisance nuisance nuisannuciseanncue isance It declares that it is disposed disposed to continue work already already alreadyalready already already dust to the extent where it is possible and practical started on eliminating in the interioir nterior and exterior of the factories The company received the Union's requests and has reserved making a decision in its discretion of the best way to make this occur what sum the company could spend to this end and the place where the money will be invested The present clause should not be interpreted at obligation of the Company but only as an affirmation with regard to the problem of elimination of asbestos all as of its dust a contractual disposition Montreal December 10 1949 Thomas Tremblay President