OHCOW satellite office opens
A new medical clinic for patients concerned they’ve become ill from exposure to toxins in the workplace officially opened in downtown Peterborough on Tuesday.
The Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW) Peterborough satellite office is now open on George St. N., on the upper level of the building that houses Subway (George St. N. at Simcoe St).
The new OHCOW clinic offers medical assessment for workers who would otherwise have to travel to Toronto to see a doctor specializing in occupational health.
The Ministry of Labour agreed earlier this year to provide funding for the satellite office in Peterborough.
That funding came after years of lobbying from people who’ve become ill – often with cancer — after working at the General Electric plant in Peterborough.
For years widows and cancerstricken retirees of GE have also been asking the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) for approval of workers’ compensation claims stemming from workplace toxins that existed at the plant up until 2000.
The small clinic was packed for the ribbon-cutting on Tuesday with GE retirees, their family and friends and OHCOW staff from Toronto.
Medical officer of health Dr. Rosana Salvaterra was also there, as well as Coun. Diane Therrien and Mayor Daryl Bennett.
In his remarks, clinic resident physician Dr. Noel Kerin spoke of the “horrendous” number of cancer diagnoses in former GE workers over the last several years.
He also praised a study produced locally by retired occupational health researchers Bob and Dale DeMatteo, with help from several GE retirees and sponsorship from Unifor (the union representing workers at the plant).
The study says that more than 3,000 toxic chemicals were used at GE in Peterborough between 1945 and 2000, before the plant was scrubbed clean. Of those 3,000 chemicals, at least 40 are either known carcinogens or are suspected to cause cancer.
Kerin called it “leather-shoe epidemiology” and said the study is a template for any other group of people who want to research occupational disease in a particular workplace.
Dave Wilkin, chief operating officer for OHCOW, said in his remarks that a future step for the local clinic will be to try to produce a similar study to explore illnesses of people who’ve worked for Ventra Plastics in Peterborough. Robert DeMatteo, the co-author of the study on GE, said there was “a perfect storm” of conditions at the plant to produce “a pandemic of occupational disease”.
Those 3,000 toxic chemicals were used at GE in an open-concept plant that had “a poor-tonon-existent” ventilation system, he said.
Workers used no gloves or respirators, and they ate lunch at their work stations, causing them to ingest additional toxins.
Sue James, who worked in payroll for years at GE and whose father died of cancer after a long career at the plant, called for more awareness of occupational disease.
She said that when patient go to the hospital for respiratory illness, they’re immediately asked whether they smoke.
“Not, ‘What did you work at, all of your life?’”
The OHCOW office address is 349A George St. N., unit 206.