Evidence of meeting #36 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was women.
A recording is available from Parliament.
November 17th, 2016 / 4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I apologize in advance if I cut you off. I'm very limited in my time. If you could keep your answers as brief as possible too, that would be great.
Mr. Miller, when you talked about asbestos being the number one cause of work-related death today, correct me if I'm wrong, but what you mean is that people who were exposed to it decades ago are still dying today. It would be the number one result of somebody being.... Am I getting that right?
Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society
That's correct.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Okay. It's not the number one cause of what's happening today; it was caused decades ago.
Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society
Yes, your interpretation is right.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Okay.
You said 150,000 people are still being exposed today. Can you talk about who those people are, and how many of the 150,000 are not being exposed in a protected manner?
Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society
I can talk to you for sure about who makes up the group, and Sara may have a bit to add about that. Professions where there's a high level of exposure are construction, auto mechanics, some manufacturing—
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
An auto mechanic would be exposed because it's in brake pads, but asbestos is fused into the brake pads, so it's not really dangerous. Would you agree that there's probably more asbestos being released into the air at an intersection because people are hitting the brakes, as opposed to what people are experiencing in a car mechanic's shop? They're just taking the brake pads out of the box and installing them.
Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society
No, the greater risk for auto mechanics is removing old brakes that contain asbestos.
Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society
When they come off, they release quite a bit of asbestos dust. I don't have a definitive answer for you of what percentage of those people are—
Liberal
Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society
Yes, but I can tell you that the work we've done with the Occupational Cancer Research Centre makes it very clear that we're relying more on people taking safety measures in the workplace than we really should be. Each of those requirements is one more barrier to safety and is another opportunity for something to get missed, and the risk to the worker could be increased.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Do you think that part of the solution is ensuring that we have proper procedures in place to make sure the people who are dealing with these substances are properly educated, so that when mechanics are removing the brake pad, they know the proper procedure to ensure that they're not exposed?
Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society
I'll let Sara add to this, but again—this is from the work of the research centre—obviously when there's a trade-off between a risk and a benefit, then it's important to do whatever you can to encourage, support, and educate workers to mitigate that risk.
Where we've arrived on asbestos is that the benefit is just not worth it. We don't need asbestos. It's silly, in our view, to rely on education and safety requirements when you could simply have it removed from the workplace.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Ms. Trotta, did you want to add something very quickly?
Senior Coordinator, Public Issues, Canadian Cancer Society
No, that's okay. Thanks.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
You talked about existing uses. What uses are there, other than brake pads, and I think some firefighting equipment? What other uses are you aware of?
Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society
The other most significant kind, apart from brake pads, unless Sara corrects me, is piping used in largely commercial construction. Asbestos can be used as an insulation on piping.
Liberal
Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society
Yes. It's incorporated into a wrapping around the piping.
Liberal
Vice-President, Public Issues, Policy and Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society
In Canada, those pipes are still being manufactured and installed.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Are there any other uses you can think of? You're talking about banning new uses.
Senior Coordinator, Public Issues, Canadian Cancer Society
That's right.
Just to pick up a bit on the piping, the asbestos cement pipes that are used in Canada are made of a mix of cement that contains asbestos within it. We know they have up to 12% asbestos, which is quite a high content. That's one of the main uses that we see.
We also know that construction workers installing these drainage pipes are supposed to use a snap-cutting technology that wouldn't create dust. However, in the small, tight spaces where they're being installed, the snap-cutting device doesn't fit, so they're using saws to cut it. That causes the dust to be released, and of course they're therefore being exposed.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Can you comment on regulations compared to other jurisdictions in terms of the use of asbestos? Why do you think it hasn't been banned yet? I realize you're advocating for it, but why hasn't it happened?