“No safe use: the Canadian asbestos epidemic” / Tavia Grant (Globe and Mail, Jun. 14, 2014)
Six-part investigative report on asbestos, the number one source of workplace deaths in Canada, responsible for over 2,200 between 2007-2012 primarily from mesothelioma and asbestosis. This figure is taken from approved workers’ compensation claims but according to estimates of Paul Demers, director at Ontario’s Occupational Cancer Research Centre, only about half of mesothelioma cases are filed with the workers’ compensation boards – with mesothelioma frequently misdiagnosed as lung cancer, death rates are likely under-reported.
Asbestosis, too, tends to be under-diagnosed and under-reported… Article warns that many Canadians are still unknowingly exposed to asbestos every day, while “the federal government has dragged its feet as other nations have acknowledged asbestos’s deadly impact and moved to protect their populations from it…”