Document MJ8rGYYmZEDkn80d2dOpLY30y

FILE NAME Quebec Asbestos Mining Association QAMA DATE 1979 Mar DOC QAMA157 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION QAMA Bulletin Vol 3 No. 2 Health and safety at work During the current session the National Assembly will apparently be presented with a Bill concerning health and safety at work in Qu^'bec Before any Bill has even been made public ' the press has been discussing various drafts whose authenticity can only be guessed and which are even less certain to be definitive but which none- theless give reason to believe that the Bill could on certain basic issues diverge from the general orientation set out in the White Paper which the Minister of State for Social Development offered for the consideration of all in- terested parties if accepted hinder rather than help in the achievement of the basic objective which is the health and the safety of workers In particular this would be the case if the safety parity committees instead of being voluntary and advisory subject if need be to establishing incentives for their setting up and efficient operation were imposed by outside authority Indeed such committees if they do not express the wish of the workers and the employers to join to- gether to find the solution to the problems of health and safety are likely very rapidly to become hotbeds of confrontation and conflict making the very The AMAQ position object of the committees impossible to achieve The Association des mines d'amiante du Qu^'becexpressed support for the objectives set out in the Paper issued by Minister Marois subject to the resulting law and regulations being viable and realistic defining fairly the responsibilities and obligations of all parties and also their rights not giving rise to an excessive degree of bureaucratic intervention and taking into account the particularities of the mining industry The Association has no hesitation in acknowledging the need for an outline law in the area of health and safety at work and the relevance of reform mea- sures removing the current multiplicity of laws and regulations and the fragmentation of administrative responsibi- lities and setting up a more coherent system and a unified set of norms Industrial medecine In the same way the principle that the working environment should itself take in hand the problems of health and | i safety at work which is fundamental to the White Paper's approach would be ! singularly compromised if the recom{ mendation that industrial doctors part | of or very closely associated with an enterprise or an industry should give way to a network of medical bureaucrats ' responsible to some outside authority | and having no attachment environment were to be put to the work into effect The offering of health services to workers is part of the responsibility of the company management It is best plac ed to decide its own needs as regards medical examinations and files the fre- Reservations This is not to say that the Associa- tion endorses all the proposals and recommendations to be found in the White Paper some of which are singularly lacking in realism and might possibly quency of these examinations and the nature of the services required to en- sure the best possible performance in prevention and solution of problems of health and safety Certain structures already existing in a number of industries can be defin- ed whereby doctors nurses health experts toxicologists and epidemiologists work in close collaboration with the pa- rity committees and with the workers representatives The independence and integrity of the professional medical workers can be guaranteed by means of service contracts approved by the professional corporations or even by the Commission for health and safety at work proposed in the White Paper The inspectorate Elsewhere the White Paper's proposal aimed at unifying all the health and safety inspection services is formulated in such a way that it raises more pro- blems than it solves due among other things among ments to the confusion of authority the Community Health Departthe Commission for health and safety the plant committees and the ins- pection services In any event inspection in the mining sector is of a particular nature in view of the special characteristics of mining operations There is not a shadow of doubt that the monitoring of the health and safety conditions of mining workers can be most efficiently carried out by specialists from a department which is in direct contact with the mining industry The Mine Inspection Department has until now fulfilled this function very adequately while seeing to the application of the Mining Act and is the obvious choice to take on inspection responsibilities in mining installations under the proposed new system These are some of the changes that the Association des mines d'amiante du Qu^'becwould like to find in a Bill concerning health and safety at work com- plying with the objectives and general orientation of the White Paper | Bullatin Cigarette smoking incidence of lung cancer among this category of workers and occupational diseases As noted in the Manville report it was only recently during the 1960s that researchers were able to establish an epidemiological If it were not for cigarette smok- link between cigarette smoking and ing lung cancer would not be a sig- this asbestos disease nificant occupational disease prob- lem among asbestos workers This statement is contained in a Scientific demonstration section devoted entirely to the issue It was in fact only in the middle of of asbestos and health in the Annual the last decade that scientists were Report of the Manville Corporation of Denver Colorado and brings out the importance of the part played by cigarette smoking in the_ able to demonstrate an increased incidence of lung cancer among cig- arette smokers who were occupationally exposed to asbestos And even today there is still no common agreement among scientists as 10 whether asbestos is a direct cause or whether it is merely a modifier in smoking lung cancer There is one point however on which they all agree but for cigarette smoking lung cancer would not have been a significant health factor among people occupationally exposed to asbestos This is a simple but crucial fact about which the medical community has created a great deal of confusion and which in the opinion of Manville continues to be ignored by the media and the government authorities Asbestos Cement Pipe Producers Meeting the United States Canada Mexico or in Europe these and all the other major issues that the asbescement pipe industry is faced with and which are likely to influ- ence its growth were dealt with at the Vancouver meeting cement pipe to about 40 of this manufacture Mr. Messel noted that fibre producers obviously wished to maintain their present share of this market while building up new markets in the developing countries At its 7th Annual Meeting and Conference the Asbestos Cement Pipe Producers Association direct- ed its attentions to the three principal themes which are central to the preoccupations of this important Industrial asbestos sector namely health demand and market This year Vancouver British Co- lumbia was the venue of the annual meeting which lasted from April 29 to May 2. The Association comprising the world's leading manufacturers of asbestos pipe had invited representatives of the industry of the scientific and medical community and of public ser- vices to discuss various aspects of the chosen themes Topical issues Corrosive water asbestos in drinking water current norms and anticipated regulations regarding manufacture and use market pro- files in the construction industry in Canadian point of view Research and development The guest of honour at the opening luncheon of the Conference was Michael Messet President of Lac d'amiante du Qu^'becLimit^'ewhose speech described the situation of asbestos in Canada and particularly from the point of view of the mining companies Asbestos pipes constitute an extremely valuable market for Canadian asbestos producers Mr. Messel pointed out They are keeping a close watch on developments in this sector of the Industry and as suppliers are concerned about the proposed regulations that may come into force in the United States and in Western Europe and at the negative impact they could have on the sales of asbestos pipes on these markets Stressing that 70 of Canadian Fibre production goes toward the manufacture of asbestos products around the world and that The producers the President of Lac d'amiante continued are making a serious effort to develop fibre grades more suitable for ascement pipe and other asbestos products For their part the manufacturers must and are making progress search of improving existing asbestos products and developing new ones This effort must go on vigourously if we are to pre- vent any decline in the use of as- bestos products and to attract in- vestment capital Referring to the major topics dis- cussed at the Association's annual meeting Mr. Messel made it clear that the problems facing the asbescement pipe producers are common to the whole asbestos industry and that finding solutions demands a joint and concerted effort at both the national and international level by all those concerned with the future of the asbestos industry 2 April Bulletin , L'AsociatioLn 'Association L'Asociation desMines d'Amantde 'AmMaarcnhte du Qu^1'9b7e9c The French asbestos industry is holding up European asbestos manufacturers campaign sustained faced with a aimed at discouraging the use of the fibre and at dramatizing the dangers of asbestos are having to expend enormous amounts of energy and effort to combat the threat that such campaigns together with the stiffening of the laws and regulations concerning asbestos use and the vigourous competition of substitute products represent for the manufacturing industry The repercussions of the anti bestos campaigns and the regulations concerning the manufacture and use of asbestos products vary according to the size of the companies involved and to the nature of the production there are also considerable differences fram one country to the next Asbestos is holding up conversions made necessary by the aplicaton of the norm of two libres more than one to two per cent of the overall business volume of each per cubic centimetre borne dur- ing processing French asbestos manufacturing firms are maintaining their performance at a satisfactory level Slack sector Asbestos in the case of asbestos production is divided between two large companies Eternit 62 of production and a subsidiary of Saint- Mousson Everitube The article in La vie fran^aise notes however that the sector which has suffered most is that of resistant materials for the con- struction industry due to the high post of removal equipment which renders them prohibitive for many installers The article continues Furthermore the trade unions in a large number of public services have been systematically opposed to the application and installation of this product in whatever form This fall in business to the 38 This production accounts for 70 of fibre imports the rest be- ing distributed among Ferodo % and various small companies The tonnage of imported fibres has fallen by approximately 15 since 1974 The manufacturers according to the article attribute this decline es- sentially to the decrease in -- --struction activity over the last few years and to the fact that the water distribution system traditionally a big consumer of asbestos now needs little more than main- An analysis of the of as- bestos producers published recent- ly in La vie fran^aiseand entitl- ed L'amiante r^'siste Asbestos is holding up tends to show that in France asbestos is being more successful in withstanding the aggressions to which it is being subjected than in many other European coun- tries In fact with the exception of two companies which folded after being unable to afford the technological instaling 15 has been partly compensated by in- creased sales on the general mar- ket Though it is not possible to determine precisely what effect this fall in sales of resistant ma- terials has on the whole of the French companies the author points out that in the case of the three as- bestos majors in France Eternit Everitube and Ferodo this particular branch of activity amounts to no tenance Despite this fall and the drive for substitutes the commentator of La vie fran^aise considers that the future of the asbestos industry in France is secure as regards the medium term Quality and price At the present stage of research he explains there is no natural or synthetic fibre which can offer all the qualities and characteristics of asbestos Thus even steel fibre does not always offer the same mechani- cal resistance as asbestos And though certain substitute fibres manage to correspond in certain limited specific uses they never combine all the desired attributes In addition for the present the cost of the raw material for asbes- tos is between sixth and one- tenth that of glass for example which qualitatively comes closest to chrysotile fibre further- more labour costs for this substitute are between 5 and 10 times Storage of asbestos sheels in France YBLullatin| Open pit operation particularities It may seem at first sight that the operation of an open pit mine is a relatively straightforward matter It is however an extremely complex ac- constan tivity requiring highly detailed planning with constant updating special equipment usually designed for or adapted to specific operational needs and great flexibility in making adjustments to meet the varying demands of production to overcome the rigours of the climate and to comply with safety standards The particularities of open pit mining operations were discussed in a paper by G B. Coulombe Produc- tion Superintendent at the Jeffrey mine owned by Manville Canada presented to the participants at the 81st Annual General Congress of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy held in Montr^'al at the end of April 63 haulage trucks 12 scoops 6 rotary drills There are 425 employees working in the mine itself and some 200 others working in the mobile equipment garages and workshops Planning There are three types of production planning long term 10 years medium term 5 years and short term yearly In the first two instances the plans are drawn up almost exclusively by the engineer- ing department using the geological data and the market forecasts as guides This department is also responsible for preparing the yearly mine plan but it does so in consul- tation and in collaboration with the open pit team the geological depart- ment and the ml and marketing teams The yearly plan is used to draw up a mining schedule for the year which has to be approved by the mine manager at least four months before the beginning of each year A map of the mine is prepared showing the expansion sequences in the various zones of the deposit and indicating the pit configuration at the beginning and at the end of the year The map gives an overall picture of operation- al progress and is essential for the planning ahead of the location of pumps water lines and power lines haulage balancing etc Characteristics Mr. Coulombe's paper entitled Open Pit Operation Particulari- ties was not intended to cover in detail each stage of the functioning and operation of a mine but rather to bring out by way of example certain typical characteristics of the safe and efficient operation of an open pit asbestos mine such as the Jeffrey mine which is the largest in the western world Located at Asbestos Qu^'bec in the Eastern Townships region the Jeffrey mine is as much as 350 metres deep over a length of 2 200 me- tres and a width of 2 000 metres The town of Asbestos runs alongside the pit over a distance of about 100 1000 metres A particularly large stock of equipment is used in this mine 15 shovels 12 bulldozers 5 spreaders The site of operations at the Jeffrey mine The main haulage road in the centre of the to a 300 000 ore reserve On the left of the haulage road leads to a primary crushar adjacent building housing the open pit of- bottom is the main mobile aquipment garage Top left is a new machine and shovel shops The fice the supervisors offices the main store and the electric buildings to the right of the road are the mills and an asbestos products factory There is also a monthly schedule finalized three days before the end of each month to take account of production delays the condition and maintenance of equipment and seasonal weather influences A monthly pit map is also prepared on the basis of this schedule It is used mainly by the surveyors and pit supervisors Communications Communications play a vital role in the operation of a mine Instruction memos are issued each day to the general supervisors and passed on with each change of shift these memos keep them informed of the measures to be undertaken in the various zones of the deposit with re- gard to production as such to the condition of the haulage roads to dumping or to any other aspect of operations Similarly the geological depart- ment puts out a daily report which along with the hourly report from the mill laboratory is a valuable guide for obtaining the best possible mix from the various ore sources thus facilitating the preparation of the blends required for the mills Communications are also a vital element in matters of safety The supervisor of each shift receives a daily check list wich he must fill in as he ascertains the safety of a number of essential points and where he must indicate the steps taken to cor- rect faults Efficiency With experience and the passing of time substantial Improvements have been made in certain specific operational procedures so as to in- crease their efficiency and performance For example Jeffrey has been using the electric sequential method of blasting for the last three years This method in which the majority of the drill holes are initlated and delayed before the first hole detonates has the advantage among others of helping to reduce the number of misfires which were particularly troublesome in winter when the frozen ground surface shifts laterally during the blasting A few years back a new system was set up in order to improve the performance of the haulage trucks It was named the 5 4 System since it consisted in assigning five operators to four haulage trucks By this means the trucks remain in service without interruption during the shift since the operators are able to take turns when taking time off for periods left to their own discretion On the same principle each shovel is operated by two men an operator and a groundman Eight of the 15 shovels available are thereby in constant use This system not on- ly permits preventive maintenance it also brings down to eight the num- ber of active faces in the mine thus facilitating the work of the supervi- sor in charge e _ 4: 1- The dispatchersdispatchers cabin located on the North wall ofof the mine from which visible 2- Dispatching board on which the numbered Tharkers represent moving trucks plates represent the shovels at their respective loading points 3- The made tow truck towing a broken haulage truck 4- The RHINO buill the mine's machine shops cleaning the shovel buckers the whole pit is The rectangular Coordination The haulage dispatching i.e the assignment of trucks to shovels and their routing when loaded is one of the key activities of the mine's oper- ations This dispatching is carried out by radio communications from 5 | B^"llatin_ Open pit operation the dispatcher's cabin The dispatchers are responsible for the coordination of movements according to priorities given to them at each shift For this purpose they use a dispatching board on which eeeereerernaneameee} A laser apparatus for tances one of several instruments used at the Jeffrey mine to monitor the stability of the slopes at the pit each shovel and each truck is designated by a number and which is in fact a simplified model of an analog computer There are two radio communica- tions per trip The first occurs when the loaded truck leaves the shovel At this point the material loaded is identified and the truck directed towards its appropriate destination the primary crusher the are reserve or the waste dumps The source and the destination of the load frey mine to limit the effect of breakdowns and to counter terrain difficulties An example is the homemade low truck designed and built in the mine's machine shop which can tow a broken haulage truck and also by means of hydraulic and air hases enable it to unload Another device named RHINO is used to clear the build of clay and frozen earth Inside shovel buckets Water trucks with a capacity of are recorded on cards which are 72 800 Iltres also made are used in drawing up the daily produc- used for dust abatement on the haul- tion report The second communi- age roads cation occurs when the truck re- turns to the pit the operator then receives a new assignment In addition all graders and small scoops are fitted with points in or- der to carve grooves into the frozen surface of the roads which together with the spreading of a layer of crushed barren rock prevents the Several other systems and devices have been installed at the Jef- haulage roads from becoming slip- pery in winter ' Open Pit Operators Conference instal ations The Third Open Pit Operators Conference organized by the Thetford Mines section of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy will be held from June 11 to June 13 1979 in the asbestos region of Qu^'bec The technical program prepared by the Conference Organizing Committee under the Chairmanship of Cl^'mentBernier President of the Thetford Mines sec- tion of the CIM will consist of four technical sessions and a of number visits to mining installations Mines June 13 will be spent visiting the of Manville at Asbestos The closing dinner will take place at Asbestos on the same evening and the guest of honour and speaker will be E.H Caldwell President of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy At the opening dinner on June 11 at Thetford Mines a talk entitled Asbestos its past its present its future will be given by Lionel Pluze outgoing Chairman of the AMAQ's Committee on the Environment Technical sessions Each of the four technical sessions which will be held on June 11 and 12 during the morning will be pre- sented by one of the four mining which operate open pit mines namely la Soci^'t^A's- bestos les Mines Canadiennes Lac d'amiante du Qu^'becand Manville They will deal with sub- jects ranging from environmental control rejects disposal and the milling process to mine planning geological aspects and so on All the technical sessions will be given both in French and in English The alternoon of June 11 and 12 will be devoted to Members guests and friends of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy are invited to attend this conference However since accommodation is limited at Thetford Mines the number of participants has been restricted to 300. Those who are interested should register as soon as possible For further details concerning the conference the program will be sent on request from the following Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy 1130 Sherbrooke St West Room 400 Montr^'alQu^'becH3A 2M8 Telephone 514 842-3461 visiting the installations of les Mines Canadiennes at East Broughton of Lac d'amiante du Qu^'becat Black Lake and of la Soci^'te Asbestos at Thetford Mr. Cl^'mentBernier PO Box 454 Thetford Mines Qu^'becG6G Telephone 418 423-4221 PSEAeee CeeeneSee a TM 6 Projects and prospects of the Soci^'t^n'ationale de l'amiante So long as definitive regula- tions for the use of asbestos and its substitutes have still to be intraduced particularly in Europe and in the United States developing new asbestos deposits large or mesized is bound to be a gamble on the future Daniel Perlstein interim Presi- dent of the Soci^'t^n'ationale de l'amiante expressed himself in these terms to the participants in the discussion group on industrial minerals at the 81st Annual General Congress of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy would be directed to different markets and different products so that the two projects are therefore compatible and not in competition except from the financial point of view Pointing out that these projects have been in the air for quite some time Mr. Perlstein acknowledged that their success depended largely on an increase in the sales possi- bilities for asbestos fibres on the world markets in the next five to twenty years Uncertain trends Such being the case the President of the SNA feels that it is difficult at the present time to speak with any certainty of a future growth in world demand which would make it possible to introduce hundreds of thousands more tons of asbestos onto the markets from 1985 on- wards Manufacturing activities With regard to the SNA's manufacturing activities in addition to known projects such as the conver- sion of a paper machine for the production of commercial flooring felt Mr. Perlstein announced that negociations were currently being held with Qu^'becEuropean and US firms with a view to setting up pro- jects directly and indirectly related to the manufacture of friction ma- Mining projects Asked to speak about the opera- nationale tion of the Soci^'t^' de l'a- miante and its projects Mr. Perl- stein indicated among other things that the SNA was looking into two possible mining projects one in the Chibougamau region with the property of Mac Adam of Rio Algom and the other the property of Brinco in the Amos region The SNA President explained that these are two very different pro- jects both with regard to scale and to the type of mining which is possible They differ above alf with regard to the types of fibre which In fact at the present time there are opposing views as to fu- ture consumer trends on the world : on the one hand the traditional markets fo asbescement asbestos paper and friction material seem likely to continue expanding for some time but on the other hand the conse- quences to health of certain techni- ques or certain asbestos products which were badly controlled or badly used in the past may well induce a certain number of countries and users to consider the use of subslitutes and to impose tight restric- tions on manufacturers of asbestos- based products terial Referring to the various problems involved in expanding the production of asbestos in view of either market saturation competition from other products or in the case of the developing countries competition from the large European and American producers who are able to offer turnkey projects Mr. Perlstein considers that the SNA must first prove its mettle in this substantial but established and difficult market The SNA is therefore starting production tests for prototypes of compound asbestos products on a special pilot machine Canada Safety Council Award The Canada Safety Council has created an award to be presented to those persons who have made a particularly distinguished contribution to health and safety at work and to the prevention of industrial acci- dents and diseases ~ This Achievement Award will be bestowed for the first time in Oc- tober 1979 at the Canada Safety Council's Annual Meeting A selection committee has been set up to make a choice among nominees Anyone is eligible whose accomplishments represent or have re- presented a noteworthy contribution to the improvement of health and safety conditions or to the preven- tion of industrial accidents and dis- eases in the Canadian workplace Nominations must reach the Council by June , 1979 The Council will however only ac- cept nominations made by organiz- ations which are directly concerned with health and safety at work either at the national or the provin- cial level that is from agencis govern- mental departments or agencies From workers organizations or from associations whose activities are partly or wholly directed towards this field A CANADA SAFETY COUNCIL George W. Smith 1898-1979 It was with a deep sense of loss that the asbestos world learned of the death on April 17 of George W. Smith and nowhere more so than in the Thetford Mines region where Colonel Smith devoted nearly 50 years of his life to the service of the as- bestos industry The name of Smith has been close- ly associated with the history of asbestos development in Qu^'becsince the 19th century Born in 1898 at Thetford Mines in the heart of the asbestos region George Smith was the son of a pioneer of the industry who was at that time managing the Bell Asbestos mine He himself in joined Bell 1920. He a became Di- rector and Secretary in 1936 and in 1951 became President which he remained until his retirement in 1966. Even after his retirement he continued for several years to act as advisor to the company Officer of the Order of the British Empire by King George VI During his Presidency at Bell George W. Smith spent ten years as President of Relocation Limited a company formed to oversee the relocation of hundreds of residences and other buildings as part of a program aimed at expanding the mining operations of three mining companies Bell Johnson's and Asbestos Corp. Since then a boulevard in Thetford Mines has been named after him Honao nd u merr it He took an active part throughout A patriot George Smith who served overseas in the Canadian Army during World War I and afterwards remained very active in the Canadian Reserves took leave of his activities with Bell Asbestos now Les Mines d'amiante Bell during the Second World War to assume command of the Third Battalion of the Royal Canadian Engineers with the rank of Lieutenant He gained numerous honours during his military career and in 1945 he was made an ooveso erates AE George W. Smith his career in associations devoted to the promotion and the defence of the asbestos industry and of the mining industry in general He was for many years a director of the Association des mines d'amiante du Qu^'bec and served as its President from 1955 until 1957. He was award- ed the Asbestos Gold Ring a distinction created in 1942 which has so far been awarded to no more than twenty eminent members of the asbestos mining and manufacturing industry The Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy of which he was for a long time a leading member award- ed him a medal 1966 in gratitude for his outstanding services Historian and collector emeritus Colonel Smith is the author of a unique history of Bell Asbestos from 1878 to 1967. The photographs used to illustrate the early days of the asbestos industry in the film Rock Cotton were provided from his personal collection He was also one of the principal contributors to the Asbestos Lexicon published by the Association des mines d'amiante du Qu^'becand dealing with the terminology specific to the in- dustry George W. Smith was a humanist and to the end of his days devoted a good deal of his time to community life and to social and humanitarian work in Thetford Mines a town to which he was profoundly attached Bulletimny This BULLETIN is published by l'Association des mines d'amiante du Qu^'bec 1130 Sherbrooke Street West Suite 410 Montr^'al H3A 2M8 The Post Office Department in Ottawa has authorized postage paid in cash and forwarding of the pub lication by third class mail : 1+ 1+ Canada Post Postage paid Postes Canada . Jit pave Bulk nombre third troisi^me class classe 264 Montr^'alP.Q. | MR BARRY I. CASTLEMAN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT P.O. BOX 230A VALLEY ROAD | KNOXVILLE MARYLAND 21748 U.S.A.