A union representing steelworkers is requesting Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) recognize more workplace cancer claims.

The union, United Steelworkers (USW), has called for policy changes recommended by the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC). According to a report by OCRC director Dr. Paul Demers, an estimated 3,000 occupational cancers occur every year in Ontario – however, only about 400 compensation claims are made by workers in the province. Worse, only 170 of those claims are accepted, the report found.

Demers’ report, released about half a year ago by the Ministry of Labour, also found that Ontario is far behind major European countries in the recognition of occupational cancers claims. The province’s policies and regulations on specific cancers are “unfairly restrictive” and not updated to the findings of scientific bodies, the OCRC report outlined. Demers recommended two new policies based on his findings – improved assessment of exposure to multiple carcinogens in the workplace, and a renewed look at the relationship between occupational and non-work exposures.

“Recognition of work-related cancers is the first necessary step to preventing them in the future,” said USW Ontario director Marty Warren, adding that such policy changes are long overdue and are critical in providing justice to victims of occupational cancers.

“The science has been there for years and this report was turned in six months ago. Carcinogens don’t cancel each other out or operate in a vacuum,” commented Warren. “Asbestos, diesel exhaust, silica, tobacco smoke and arsenic aren’t competing inside the lungs. They act together and multiply each other’s cancer-causing effects.”

The union regional director added that if the WSIB and Ontario’s Ministry of Labour do not act on the report’s findings, “it’s a sign that they have no intention of acting at all.”