Marine Atlantic workers await word about asbestos
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Marine Atlantic workers are expected to get an update this week on the company’s progress in dealing with an asbestos issue on the vessel Atlantic Freighter.Workers learned last fall that areas of the 30-year-old vessel, which offers a drop-trailer service between North Sydney and Port aux Basques, N.L., contained asbestos. Affected areas on the ship included the engine room, some of the piping and the passageways.
Marine Atlantic spokeswoman Tara Laing said Wednesday the company’s operations staff are expected to meet Friday with employees and provide the update. Ms. Laing said earlier this week that 52 employees who were exposed to the asbestos were sent in December for various tests.
"Those are all current employees and they would have been the employees who had the longest time on the vessel," she said. The information from the test will go to the employees.
Ms. Laing said letters have been sent to more than 800 current and former employees, advising them of the asbestos issue and suggesting they contact a physician.
If fibres are inhaled over a period of time, significant health problems could result, such as asbestosis, which makes breathing difficult; mesothelioma (a rare cancer of the lining of the chest or abdominal cavity); and lung cancer.
The freighter is out of service, which is normal for the winter months. There were reports the ship will be taken to St. John’s, where the asbestos issue will be dealt with, but Ms. Laing said it has not been determined where the vessel will go for work.
Marine Atlantic has also been in touch with other groups such as private contractors, truckers and dock workers, who may have been in contact with the vessel.
Peter Nelson, executive director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association, some of whose member companies had drivers travelling on the ship regularly, said Wednesday members have been notified of the issue.
Sue Irvine, president of the Canadian Auto Workers, Local 4285, which represents Marine Atlantic workers, said earlier in the week the union has talked with crew members who were on board the vessel in the 1990s, when the asbestos issue first arose.
"We have documentation to prove there was an abatement plan in place and a removal and encapsulation plan but had never been followed through on," she said.
Ms. Irvine said crew members were "even measured for personal protective equipment that never arrived."
"Those crew never questioned it because they had gone on to other vessels and just assumed that since they weren’t given their protective equipment that the asbestos had to have been removed."
None of the equipment was ever issued, she said.
Ms. Laing said an abatement program was carried out in the 1990s but she was not familiar with the protective equipment issue.
Ms. Irvine said there was evidence some of the asbestos had been encapsulated "but a lot of this encapsulation through wear and tear and rough seas, had become exposed again."
"My concern was not necessarily the quality of air after the encapsulation; it is before that, when we weren’t aware that there was still asbestos on board. That’s the concern to everyone because asbestos doesn’t really show up for at least 15 years and it is only hazardous if airborne."
The union spokeswoman said many of the crew "mentally may never be (the) same."
"It is playing on their minds and they are concerned they may have brought home and transferred to a family member. That is a realistic possibility. People have developed mesothelioma later in life and never had personally come into contact with asbestos."
Posted in Toxic Exposure • Asbestos • Mesothelioma