WORKERS' COMPENSATION It can take time to build strong evidence that correlates workplace exposures to an illness. For many work-related illnesses, symptoms can take a long time to appear. This long latency period can result in a lack of data connecting those illnesses to exposures during the person's working life. Employers are disappointingly not proactive. As a result, it is left to Unions, injured workers, their families and advocates, grassroots organizations, and medical experts to piece together evidence gathered over time so that workers can finally have justice. The McIntyre Powder case is a recent decision where workers finally began to get some justice after years of suffering. Over forty plus years, tens of thousands of miners around the world received daily doses of aluminum dust to prevent a lung disease associated with mining. But that powder had its own devastating effects in the form of neurological conditions like Parkinson's Disease, ALS, and COPD. In 2015, a miner's daughter, Janice Martell, started the McIntyre Powder Project to take on the challenge of linking the exposure to the illnesses that Ontario miners experienced. In 2022, the WSIB finally recognized Parkinson's as a disease related to exposure to McIntyre Powder. Go to the Workers' Compensation Spotlight Newsletters @ ufcw175.com/downloads to learn more. While negligence or poor training can certainly cause many incidents, too often – as with latent illnesses – no one realizes what's happening before it's too late. The better our Health & Safety awareness and precautions are, the safer workers will be today and in the long run. Every day, new products and new chemicals are introduced to workplaces – and to workers – around the world. When you are asked to use a product, whether it is new to the workplace or just new to you, request to read the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for it. Ask questions or speak to your Health & Safety Rep, Steward, or your Union Rep if you have concerns. Workers' Exposure Incident Forms are a crucial method in collecting data and evidence of work-related illnesses that may not be apparent right away. But you have to know you were exposed to something, and more specifically to something recognized as or thought to be potentially toxic/dangerous. Much like the miners who were told McIntyre Powder was helping them, it can take years to connect the substance to workers' illnesses and deaths.
The Workers Health & Safety Centre (WHSC) estimates that the number of work-related deaths in Ontario is about 10 times higher than what the WSIB reports. That would put the estimated number of work-related deaths for 2022 closer to 2,500, instead of the 242 reported by the WSIB.
How is this possible? The WHSC cites research from the Institute of Work and Health, the University of Washington, and a study at the University of Ottawa, which "all suggest workplace injuries and occupational disease are significantly underreported" to workers' compensation boards.
Read more about Exposure reporting in the Checkout Spring 2023 issue. Page 22
Checkout Fall 2023
Source: Mercer, S. (2023, May 1). Worker deaths in 2022 “10 times higher” than what WSIB reported. Canadian Occupational Safety. https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/leadership-and-culture/worker-deaths-in-2022-10-times-higher-than-what-wsib-reported/444359
