With a growing concern about asbestos-related diseases among longtime university and college employees, CAUT has launched its National Asbestos-Related Diseases Database Project. The purpose is to identify the extent of asbestos-related diseases among faculty and staff and to aid in prevention and medical treatment.
“Asbestos products were used for many years in university and college buildings,” says Laura Lozanski, CAUT’s occupational health and safety officer. “Over the past few decades, these products have started to wear and break down, releasing asbestos dust and fibres into the air and potentially exposing staff, students and visitors to the dangers of asbestos.”
She said there is particular concern about mesothelioma, a usually fatal cancer that principally affects the external lining of the lungs and lower digestive tract. The only known cause is exposure to asbestos.
The widespread use of asbestos prior to the mid-1970s has led the U.K.’s Health & Safety Executive to predict a global explosion of mesothelioma — a disease that takes decades to develop fully and manifest — in the next five to 10 years. The symptoms and latency period of this disease often lead to misdiagnosis and hinder effective hazard identification and prevention programs in the workplace.
There is no central database in Canada that collects statistics on asbestos-related diseases among staff of universities and colleges nor is there an accurate way to determine how many CAUT members have had regular and unprotected exposure to asbestos.
“It is critical that we begin compiling this database now, while those affected or their living relatives are still able to provide information to the project,” Lozanski said.
She stresses the project’s success is partially dependent on academic staff associations making every effort to bring the database to the attention of their retirees.
CAUT is also recruiting participants and collecting data from other faculty, staff and student unions.
“Participant confidentiality will be maintained and data gathered will only be used for statistical purposes,” Lozanski added.
She said CAUT hopes joint health and safety committees will use these data to develop safer workplace practices. She also said the data could assist with potential workers’ compensation claims for members and their families and be useful in collective bargaining, health and safety grievances, sick leave and work accommodation programs, and efforts to have asbestos removed from the workplace.
A brief data form for download and background information about the database project, including an information letter for family physicians, are available at here on the CAUT website.