31/07/2007
The families of 10 former Alcan employees who contracted lung cancer while working in the company's aluminum smelters are eligible for compensation, a Quebec workplace accident commission has ruled. The commission found that the workers were regularly exposed to dangerous carcinogens, which were ultimately more harmful than their smoking habits. All 10 workers have since died of lung cancer.

The employees worked at Alcan aluminum smelters in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City, before protection was obligatory. The workers were all hired between 1943 and 1970, when health regulations at work were generally more relaxed. "They worked in an environment that was hot and dusty," the ruling reads. "Up until the end of the 1960s, the workers... worked without individual protection."

Alcan representatives were still mulling over the decision on Friday and refused to comment on the possibility of an appeal. "We will take our time to go over the commission's ruling, to review its content and the impact it will have," said Alcan spokesperson Claudine Gagnon. The ruling means the workers' families will be able to apply for compensation under Quebec's workplace safety laws.

It is still unclear whether the judgment actually forces Alcan to settle with the families. Reports suggest the families are seeking $2 million in compensation. Gagnon stressed that the work conditions described in the ruling have long since become a thing of the past. "There have been several epidemiological studies conducted since the 1970s and the work conditions are now completely different," she said in a telephone interview from Lac-St-Jean.
"Now the health of workers is comparable to the rest of the Quebec population."

In handing down its decision, the accident board overturned an earlier ruling by Quebec's workplace safety commission, which concluded the lung cancer had not been caused by the work environment.

Alcan called on expert testimony during the hearings in an attempt to show that smoking had been the predominant factor in the lung cancer cases. But the accident board cited studies suggesting the particular type of smelter they were working at - known as a Söderberg smelter - doubles the risk of contracting cancer.

Though the Söderberg smelters in Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean have since closed, several others are still operational in Quebec.

Source: CBC news