VICTIM IDENTIFIED BCTV KOOTENAYS NEWS
Mar 11 - -Officials have identified a worker who died at Teck Cominco's lead-zinc smelter in Trail while doing maintenance work on a boiler. Dead is 41-year-old Neil Fraser, a Regina-based employee of Eveready Industrial Services.
A boiler project where the contract worker died on Tuesday remains shut down.
The company is still awaiting autopsy results...(BN)
==================
Fatality at Teck Cominco Trail Operations
TMTV/BCTV Kootenays Tuesday Mar 8.
TRAIL, BC, March 8 /CNW/ - Teck Cominco, Trail Operations regrets to announce that a worker employed by a contractor collapsed on site, was rushed to the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital, and was pronounced dead at 6:34 am. The identity of the worker has not been released pending notification of next of kin. The cause of the fatality is not known at this time. Teck Cominco immediately notified the WCB, RCMP and the coroner and is cooperating fully in the investigation of the matter. The company stopped maintenance work immediately as a precautionary measure.
Arrangements have been made for the services of counselors for the work crews and the Emergency Response Team. On behalf of Teck Cominco, Mike Agg, General Manager of Trail Operations, expresses deepest sympathies to the worker's family and loved ones.
Fatality at Teck Cominco Trail Operation CNW Telbec
TRAIL, BC, March 8 /CNW/ - Teck Cominco, Trail Operations regrets to announce that a worker employed by a contractor collapsed on site, was rushed to the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital, and was pronounced dead at 6:34 am. The identity of the worker has not been released pending notification of next of kin.
The cause of the fatality is not known at this time. Teck Cominco immediately notified the WCB, RCMP and the coroner and is cooperating fully in the investigation of the matter. The company stopped maintenance work immediately as a precautionary measure. Arrangements have been made for the services of counselors for the work crews and the Emergency Response Team. On behalf of Teck Cominco, Mike Agg, General Manager of Trail Operations, expresses deepest sympathies to the worker's family and loved ones.
For further information: Reference: Teck Cominco Metals Ltd., Trail
Operations, Mark Edwards, Manager Environment Health & Safety, (250) 364-4078 or (250) 364-4113
Smelter maintenance worker dies CBC British Columbia
TRAIL, B.C. – A worker has collapsed and died while doing cleanup work in a boiler at Teck Cominco's lead-zinc smelter in Trail.
The huge smelter is shut down all month for routine maintenance to the boiler system.
Teck Cominco spokesperson Mark Edwards says it's not clear yet why the man collapsed. But he says all maintenance work has been stopped as a precautionary measure.
"We also immediately notified the key regulatory and other authorities such as the WCB, RCMP and the coroner, who are all now on site conducting their investigation," he says.
Edwards says the company hasn't had an industrial death at the smelter in more than 15 years.
* FROM APRIL 19, 2002 : WCB fines Teck Cominco
However, there was a problem with maintenance crews working on the same boiler system four years ago. They were exposed to thallium, a toxic heavy metal.
No one died, but the company was fined $270,000 by the Workers' Compensation Board.
The worker's name has not been released.
Thalium at Cominco- archived articles:
LOCAL NEWS
Doctor knew little about poisoning
Fruitvale carpenter loses WCB benefits over opinion of Alta. physician who had to study up on thallium
Adrienne Tanner The Province
http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=dbaa69a7-988b-4afb-a69d-e0bacf64393b
Sunday, February 16, 2003
CAREY BAGG 'only doctor available'
Carey Bagg lost his WCB benefits over the opinion of one Alberta doctor who confessed he knew little about thallium poisoning.
Bagg, testifying at his WCB review panel appeal last week, said Dr. Harold Hoffman had 15 pages of information about the toxic heavy metal on his desk when he arrived at the appointment.
Hoffman had highlighted certain passages, Bagg said.
"He apologized and said he had just got the information."
Since then, three other doctors have written dissenting opinions, all concluding Bagg still suffers the effects of thallium poisoning. They urged the Workers Compensation Board to reinstate payments to the Fruitvale carpenter who was exposed to high levels of thallium in 2001.
Of the 65 workers exposed to thallium at a Teck Cominco jobsite in Trail that summer, Bagg's levels were the highest.
Once a popular rat poison, thallium in high doses can cause nerve damage, hair loss and chronic pain. The company publicly apologized last spring and was fined $270,000 for failing to supply workers with a complete list of toxic substances at the worksite.
Noreen Hall, a WCB advocate for the Carpenters Union who appeared with Bagg at the appeal hearing, asked him why the board sent him all the way to Alberta to be examined by a doctor who is employed by the Alberta WCB.
"They said he was the only available doctor," Bagg said.
Hoffman's report suggested Bagg's chronic fatigue, muscle aches and stomach disorders were due to deconditioning. He advised Bagg to take a three-week fitness course. Bagg attended, but the workouts only made him more exhausted.
Although his symptoms are slowly fading, Bagg said he still experiences muscle spasms, fatigue, headaches and sleep loss. He believes there is no way he could complete a heavy day's work.
Bagg's wife, Nancy, told the adjudicator her husband was a vigorous, robust person until the accident.
"He's never been unemployed and if there was work, he had it. If I thought there was any way he could go back to work, I'd make his life hell to get him back."
With a tinge of sadness in her voice, Nancy Bagg told the adjudicator her husband once had a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "That's totally gone from him."
Appeal adjudicator Lesley Christensen will deliver her decision in about two months.
atanner@png.canwest.com
© Copyright 2003 The Province
Trail BC - More smelter workers poisoned CBC news Aug 16
Trail thallium victims still suffering CBC news July 29
Cara Wiest reports for CBC TV
Vancouver - Dozens of workers who were poisoned with toxic thallium while working at the Teck Cominco smelter in Trail, B.C. last summer are still waiting to hear why a co-worker died in May.
'I think it's going to raise a lot more questions and not give any answers'
– Dean Moon
A coroner's statement is expected this Friday on the death of 41 year-old Craig Koivisto. A second worker, Rick Popoff, died at the end of June.
The two were among a group of 64 men exposed to the toxic metal thallium while doing maintenance work.
Teck Cominco smelter in Trail, B.C.Castlegar carpenter Dean Moon is one of two workers still so sick he can't go back to work. "The doctors don't know what's causing my tremors and headaches," he says.
He says he know what the report won't say. "There is no way I believe the coroner's going to be able to sit there and say one way or the other, that thallium played a role in these guys dying," he says."I think it's going to raise a whole lot more questions and not give any answers.
Moon is currently involved in a 10-week rehabilitation program at the Workers' Compensation Board in Richmond, 600 kilometres away from his wife and four children.
His wife wishes he wasn't so far away. "We live every day to the fullest because we don't know what tomorrow's going to bring," says Sherry Moon..
The coroner's report on Koivisto's death is expected by the end of the week.
WCB fines Teck Cominco $270,000
Friday, April 19, 2002
Ric Ernst/The Province
The WCB has fined Teck Cominco for failing to protect workers from exposure to the toxic metal thallium.
VANCOUVER - Cominco has been fined $270,000 for exposing more than 100 workers to hazardous substances at its southeastern B.C. smelter last summer.
The exposures to thallium and lead took place at Teck Cominco's Trail smelter and refineries during scheduled repair and maintenance to the boiler and furnace areas.
In a report released Friday, the Workers Compensation Board said Teck Cominco Ltd. and the contractors it hired for the maintenance work- West Kootenay Mechanical Ltd., GETSCO Technical Services Ltd. and Chinook Scaffolding Systems Ltd.- failed to comply with health and safety regulations.
"Had Teck Cominco, the prime contractor and other contractors met their general duty to ensure the health and safety of workers by being duly diligent in implementing a comprehensive and effective health and safety system, this incident could have been prevented,'' said Roberta Ellis, vice-president of the prevention division.
A public health report on the exposure released earlier criticized the company's safety procedures.
Dr. Frank Timmermans, acting regional public health director, said there were many breaches of safety regulations and that the systemic failure of the company's health and safety regime allowed the breaches to occur.
The report said none of the workers were likely to suffer any long-term effects from the exposure.
Tom Sigurdson of the B.C. Building Trades Council said he agrees with the report for the most part but there are still a number of questions about the board's role in the matter.
Sigurdson said workers complained of illness long before the stop-work order was issued, yet it took the compensation board a week to shut down the operation.
© Copyright 2002 Canadian Press
Report slams health, safety at Teck's Trail operations
By Ray Masleck, Trail Daily Times, Jan 16
A public health report on the exposure of workers to thallium last summer at Teck Cominco's Trail operations paints a damning picture of the company's plants and safety procedures.
Although there were "many breaches of safety regulations" by the contract maintenance workers, the report by Dr. Frank Timmermans, acting regional public-health director, blames the "systemic" failure of the company's health and safety regime for allowing the breaches to occur.
More than 100 workers, mostly welders and carpenters, were exposed to high levels of thallium last summer while making repairs to the Kivcet lead smelter. The report indicates that none of the workers are likely to suffer any long-term effects as result, reiterating what he and other medical officials said at the time.
"While the knee-jerk reaction would be to blame the workers involved, that would clearly miss the point," says the nine-page report issued late last year. "A system that allows these kinds of hazardous failings to occur is clearly not working."
The report drew criticism from Teck Cominco, some support from a Steelworker safety official, and the suggestion from the Kootenay-Boundary Health Services Society, in whose name it was issued, that it is a work in progress and should not have been released in the first place.
"We were quite surprised by the tone and nature of the report," said Doug Magoon, head of the Trail operations.
"One of the concerns we have is that he visited here early on in this event for about three hours. He had an hour and a half briefing on the thallium incidents and an hour a half touring through the Kivcet site. We have a tough time with some of the conclusions that he has come to on the basis of that brief an exposure to that part of the operation."
Timmermans' "overall impression" of the Trail operations is "one of a dated industrial enterprise" with "poorly maintained roads" and "some old and rather run-down" buildings.
"The Kivcet itself is a building complex that is obviously not designed for worker comfort. Lighting is poor. Catwalks and access points are awkward and largely unsigned. There was a thick layer of dust over and between everything."
He concludes that the "opportunities for exposure of workers and others, on and off the site, to heavy metals dust are everywhere and are almost guaranteed by the procedures in place."
"There were clear and systemic failures in procedures as evidenced by the presence of cigarette butts around and on the work site. The butts may only be signs of a larger problem of eating and drinking on the site.
"The work site and procedures were set up in a way that would make it very, very difficult to avoid exposure to heavy metal dust."
Workers were not supposed to eat or drink while on the work site because this is prime pathway for heavy metal exposure, as is smoking, which is banned completely at the Trail operations. There were also strict decontamination procedures for workers entering and leaving the work areas, but these apparently were also not always followed.
"While the Teck Cominco workplace meets regulations related to occupational health and safety, an ecological approach to safety at a senior level in the company is clearly not present," says Timmermans.
"As an example, if you do not want workers to eat or drink at the work site because of the hazard of ingesting toxins, then don't provide a dusty drink station on site."
Timmermans concluded that "at the very best of times, this is a potentially dangerous workplace not only for workers, but also for the community around the smelter."
Magoon cited the $1 billion spent rebuilding and replacing plants over the past 25 years and the results of an independent health audit commissioned by the company as evidence that the reality of the Trail operations differs markedly from Timmermans' characterization.
"(We) hired international experts to come in and review our health system in detail," Magoon said of their interim report, the final edition of which is expected to be released to the public later this winter.
"Generally, what they found is that we have a world-class system here, a very good system. There are some opportunities to improve it further but there weren't any major gaps that would constitute a material risk to the workers or to the business. That is very much at out odds with some of the concussions that Dr. Timmermans has come to."
Tom Wynn, safety coordinator for Steelworkers Local 480, said the report makes "some good points", although it is off base in the way it describes the Trail operations.
"It was his first time at Cominco and he visited in the middle of a shutdown and everything was torn apart. Everything was dirty, dusty ? a mess. We're talking about the world's largest lead smelter and he is a doctor who is probably more familiar with operating rooms than an industrial site."
But the report contains some good recommendations about the need to review the company's health and safety plan, prepare and practice a disaster plan for such occurances, and be more "proactive rather than reactive," Wynn said.
Timmermans' temporary posting as regional medical health officer was over at the end of November with the return from leave of Dr. Nelson Ames. Contacted at his office Tuesday, Ames declined to either support or renounce the report, saying it was not ready to be released.
"I am not going to get into it before I have a chance to talk to Frank," Ames said.
Timmermans was reached in Afghanistan by CTV News, which broke the story of the report Monday, where he is volunteering his medical services. Timmermans insisted the report was his final view, not a draft.
"I believe the public is entitled to the truth over this disastrous affair," he told CTV.
Ames said the health society's standard procedure is for such reports is for them to be "peer reviewed" internally and circulated to the interested parties for comments before a final version is issued, none of which appears to have been done.
The Worker's Compensation Board has undertaken a much more exhaustive investigation of the incident, but has not issued a report yet.
© Copyright 2002 Trail Daily Times
Jan 15: Thallium report slams working conditions
Trail, B.C. - The preliminary report on last year's thallium poisoning incident at Teck Cominco's Trail smelter is critical of the job site conditions, and how the company handled the situation.
Sixty-five workers doing furnace and boiler maintenance at the huge smelter were exposed to the highly toxic cancer-causing metal last August.
Former West Kootenay medical health officer Dr. Frank Timmerman says there was poor lighting, a thick layer of potentially toxic dust everywhere, and rules about eating and smoking were obviously being ignored.
Timmermans also calls Teck Cominco's response to the poisonings slow and badly co-ordinated.
Teck Cominco has problems with the report. The general manager of the Trail smelter says Dr. Timmermans only visited the site briefly, early on in the case.
"The information that he received with respect to our health and safety programs was pretty brief and we are concerned about some of the conclusions that he has developed," says Doug Magoon.
The final version of the health officer's report is expected in February, as is another report being done by the Workers' Compensation Board.
Cominco workers in Trail BC exposed to highly toxic metal thallium:
The chemical found in the Teck Cominco smelter is thallium sulphate, a odourless, tasteless, colourless compound that dissolves in water. It was used as rat poison and insecticide before the practice was banned in the 1970s.
CBC News OnlineThallium backgrounder
Most workers exposed to thallium last month now well below acceptable levels Canadian Press 28 Sept
WCB gives OK for workers to return to Cominco site of thallium poisoning Canadian Press 09/21
Transcript of Media Questions from Teck Cominco News Conference
Smelter admits misreading thallium risk Sept 7cbc.ca
Trail smelter had thallium problems in 1999 Sept 6 cbc.ca
Trail workers may have been exposed to other toxins Sept 4 cbc.ca
Trail residents concerned about thallium exposure Aug 28 cbc.ca
Workers exposed to toxic metal wait for test results Aug 27 cbc.ca
New protective measures in place for workers at Trail lead smelter
http://www.teckcominco.com/news/01-archive/01-21-tc.htm
Cominco Incident Investigation Report 25 Sept 2001. The following is a report on the identification of root causes, contributory causes and recommendations related to the thallium incident. Investigation held Sept. 18, 2001 in Trail.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Ensure appropriate disclosure of contaminant information is provided based on an analysis
of the SPECIFIC substances on the job-site.
• MSDS for Kivcet Boiler Deposits has been provided as part of Appendix III of the Boiler
and Furnace Safe Job Procedures
2. Ensure that all information regarding sampling and assaying of contaminants in the
workplace is shared with Health & Safety officials and discussed at Risk Hazard
Assessments
• A Task Force has been established by Teck Cominco to identify and classify all potential
contaminants encountered at Trail Operations
3. Review and revise WHMIS signs on Boiler and surrounding areas
4. Ensure adequate Personal Protective Equipment is supplied to and worn by all workers
• Requirements for PPE is outlined in Section III (g) in the Safe Job Procedures for the
Kivcet Furnace and the Kivcet Boiler, plus any other specific work procedures
5. Ensure ventilation requirements are provided by a Professional Engineer on both work sites
– Boiler and Furnace
• Ventilation requirements are outlined in Appendix IV of the Boiler and Furnace Safe Job
Procedures
6. Ensure that local exhaust ventilation systems are provided when hand welding is performed
inside the Boiler
• Portable exhaust systems (smokeaters) will be provided and used after due
consideration to Health and Safety requirements
7. Prior to using any mechanical cooling fans a Risk Hazard Assessment must be performed to
ensure minimization of dust/contaminant dispersion
8. Ensure all air sampling is performed with input from Safety Reps and all results are provided
in a timely fashion and communicated in a standard format.
• Section I (b) of the Safe Job Procedures for the Boiler and the Furnace outlines the
requirements for provision of air sampling
9. Ensure all workers understand and comply with all Decontamination Procedures regarding
eating, showering, breaks and smoking
• Appendix V of the Safe Job Procedures for the Boiler and Furnace outline the
requirements for decontamination for the work inside the Boiler and the work on the
Furnace
10. Implement a daily inspection procedure for the lunchroom facilities (cleanliness, lighting, air
conditioning, etc)
11. Implement a site Safety Committee consisting of Reps from all Contractors. Ensure a
representative from Teck Cominco attends all meetings
12. Ensure that lunch buckets are delivered to the lunchroom by workers in clean clothing
Cominco News Release September 21, 2001
New protective measures in place for workers at Trail lead smelter
Trail, B.C. - Contractors' employees are beginning to return to work today at the Teck Cominco Metals Ltd., KIVCET lead smelter in Trail following approval of a new plan for worker protection against potential exposure to thallium developed by Teck Cominco, contract workers and their unions, the United Steelworkers of America and the WCB. Maintenance work on the smelter had been shut down since August 23 when unexpectedly high levels of thallium on the job site were found to have caused elevated levels of thallium in workers, resulting in flu-like symptoms.
This weekend, the boilermakers are expected to resume work on the lead smelter boiler. The bricklayers resumed work today on the electric furnace portion of the smelter.
The lead smelter is expected to resume normal operations on November 1, about a month later than originally planned. Zinc and related operations are expected to resume production as planned on October 1.
The new protective measures include:
* fully sealed clothing to prevent skin exposure;
* air supplied welding hoods with a 1000 times protection factor against inhalation exposure;
* a revised work schedule of staggered shifts that will have each welder in the boiler for only 6 hours in a 12-hour shift;
* decontamination facilities to ensure workers stay clean and do not take contamination from the workplace;
* daily thallium and arsenic biological tests, as well as weekly tests for lead and cadmium. Tests for mercury will be taken at the beginning and end of the work;
* additional job site air monitoring;
* a special joint company, union, contractor safety committee;
* daily formal audits of safe work procedures by Teck Cominco Safety Coordinators; and,
* all workers on the job will be given copies of all safe work procedures and Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS).
Doug Magoon, General Manager of the Trail Operations said, "With the re-start of maintenance work in the smelter I want to reaffirm our company's absolute commitment to worker health and safety."
"I also want to reiterate my apology and that of the company to those workers and their families for the anxiety caused by the workers' exposure to high levels of thallium, brought about by the company's failure to identify the high thallium content of the material on the walls of the boiler where they were working," he said.
Medical authorities indicate that thallium levels in the workers are falling rapidly and that no one is expected to suffer long term health effects.
BC and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council
MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AUGUST 27, 2001
BURNABY ... Construction workers performing scheduled maintenance work at the Cominco smelter at Trail, British Columbia have been exposed to Thallium.
The following crafts were on the Cominco site: Boilermaker, Bricklayer, Carpenter, Ironworker and Labourer.
The scheduled maintenance work at the smelter has stopped.
Since Friday, August 24th, workers have been undergoing medical examinations to measure levels of toxicity. Results of the examinations are not complete.
The British Columbia and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council will issue updates germane to this matter as information becomes available.
We anticipate some workers medical reports being completed and available the afternoon of Tuesday, August 28th.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of labor and economic issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use'" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
