These subcategories reflect a review of major themes in story content. Consumer and Worker Protection includes: Public and Worker Safety, Aircraft Safety, Food Safety, Meat Inspection, Listeriosis Consumer Affairs, Service to Public.
Consumer & Worker Protection
| wdt_ID | Details | Author | Date of Publication | Media Outlet | Title | Category Name | Story summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | More details | Staff | 06/10/1984 | Canadian Press | {*} Foam blame narrowed | PUBLIC AND WORKER SAFETY | Thousands of Canadians were exposed to problems from urea formaldehyde foam insulation because of the negligence of two federal employees, a study prepared for the Law Reform Commission says. It added that acts or omissions by the two unnamed officials were probably sufficient to warrants convictions under the Criminal Code. It also draws similar conclusions about companies involved with the foam. The 225 page report, written by lawyer Clare MacLellan, was obtained by CP under the ATI Act. |
| 2 | More details | Staff | 29/04/1985 | Canadian Press | Foam moulds raise concerns | PUBLIC AND WORKER SAFETY | Government research on moulds growing on urea formaldehyde-foam insulation has raised new questions about UFFI health hazards and cast doubts on the methods used to reduce harmful gas emissions from the insulation. But the research on the moulds and their biological effects is ending because of budget cuts announced last November. Concerns from the National Research Council officials appear in documents. |
| 3 | More details | Peter Calamai | 18/09/1986 | Ottawa Citizen | Internal memos question aerospace safety checks | PUBLIC AND WORKER SAFETY | A federal safety watchdog didn't carry out any airworthiness audits - the most vital part of its safety checks - for almost eight years at one major Canadian aerospace manufacturer. And senior Department of Transport officials weren't going to admit this failure to an inquiring MP. A draft reply to parliamentary questions says merely that such audits are normally carried out every two years. The audit is how regulators double-check that aerospace manufacturers live up to government safety standards. But documents released to Southam News under the ATIA reveal for the first time that this self-regulating system broke down at Fleet Industries Ltd. of Fort Erie, a major sub-contractor to the civilian and military aerospace industry. |
| 4 | More details | Portia Priegert | 27/11/1986 | Ottawa Citizen | Budget threatens safety of Public Works staff: report | PUBLIC AND WORKER SAFETY | The health and safety of thousands of Public Works Canada employees is being jeopardized because the department's safety office doesn't have enough money to implement protection programs, says an internal government report. It would cost $3.6 million over two years to hire needed staff and to implement programs to protect employees from work-related injuries, says the 1985 policy paper on the department's occupational health and safety. The safety office receives a budget of only $30,000 and has only one full-time headquarters employee overseeing safety efforts, says the internal report, obtained through the ATIA. It recommends hiring 49 employees to investigate accidents, carry out inspections and provide measures to protect health of public works employees. |
| 5 | More details | Ken MacQueen | 27/02/1987 | Ottawa Citizen | {*} Study shows household mould can be health hazard | PUBLIC AND WORKER SAFETY | That neglected mould on the bathroom tiles, a damp corner of the basement or an overworked humidifier may be seriously damaging your health, according to a major new federal study. Mould growth in houses, compounded by excessive humidity and modern airtight construction techniques, can cause several serious health problems, including chronic respiratory or skin allergies, weakening of the immune system or in rare cases, severe damage to organs, says the study, one of the first comprehensive looks at the problem. "Symptoms from documented exposures have ranged from very minor to severe; some exposures have led to death," the study says. |
| 6 | More details | Rob Ludlow | 04/04/1987 | Ottawa Citizen | Canada's selective judgment on what's an environmental hazard; Pushing asbestos sales while decrying acid rain | PUBLIC AND WORKER SAFETY | While Canada hammers away at the U.S. for acid rain pollution, Ottawa and Quebec are funnelling millions of dollars into lobbying against a proposed U.S. ban on another environmental hazard, asbestos. The multi-million-dollar lobbying thrust, most of it with public money, is aimed at "rehabilitating" the tattered image of asbestos, a known culprit in lung cancer, according to documents. While Canada publicly pressures the U.S. for action on acid rain, it's lobbying just as hard out of the spotlight for a reversal of the proposed U.S. asbestos ban by the Environmental Protection Agency. While acid rain kills lakes, fish and trees, asbestos has been conclusively linked to thousands of human deaths from lung cancer and chest disease. |
| 7 | More details | William Boei | 21/03/1990 | Vancouver Sun | Earthquake aid 'nearly ready' | PUBLIC AND WORKER SAFETY | Ottawa is nearly ready to mobilize a vast network of people and resources to help the Lower Mainland dig out from the rubble of a catastrophic earthquake, a federal emergency planner said. The plan outlines Ottawa's response to an earthquake on the scale of the largest quakes ever recorded. It as not been made public, but a copy of the latest draft was obtained by Ken Rubin. The plan is designed to provide "a massive, automatic, integrated national effort to support provincial and local emergency response actions immediately following a catastrophic earthquake." It assumes the dead and injured could number "in the hundreds of thousands," with property damage "in the billions to the tens of billions of dollars." |
| 8 | More details | Mark Kennedy | 23/04/1990 | Ottawa Citizen | Little support for drug tests in transport; No major problem perceived | PUBLIC AND WORKER SAFETY | Canadians don't believe there's a major problem with alcohol and drug use in the transportation sector. They are also deeply divided over the merits of random testing, according to a government-sponsored survey, obtained by the Citizen through the ATIA. It provides little support for Transport Minister Doug Lewis's plan to impose tests on about 250,000 workers in the air, marine, rail, bus and trucking industries. The research project by two private firms was commissioned last year by Transport Canada. The report pinpointed several potential trouble spots for Lewis's program: e.g., There is likely to be a disagreement between the government's perception of "safety sensitive" transportation positions and the public's. |
| 9 | More details | Ken MacQueen | 05/10/1990 | Vancouver Sun | {*} Toxic herbicide found in B.C. wells, papers show | PUBLIC AND WORKER SAFETY | Traces of a herbicide linked to birth defects and reproductive problems have been found in farm wells in B.C. and New Brunswick. Tests by Agriculture Canada of 54 wells found 11 were contaminated with Dinoseb, a highly toxic herbicide that is banned in the U.S. and facing new restrictions in Canada. Although Dinoseb has been registered in Canada since 1947, a review by the federal health and welfare department "indicates appreciable risk for birth defects, cataract formation and male reproductive effects, even with full protective clothing," according to Agriculture Canada documents. |
| 10 | More details | Kelly Toughill | 02/09/1991 | Toronto Star | {*} Bad vibes about magnetic devices Ottawa sanctions electromagnetic medical machines even though federal scientists say some are worthless | PUBLIC AND WORKER SAFETY | Federal health officials regularly turn a blind eye to the sale of some electromagnetic devices they consider medically worthless, including one machine they believe can trigger a serious heart condition in some circumstances. Documents show that federal health officials have been warned about these over the years but have moved to stop their sale only after media stories about people paying high prices for the questionable treatments. e.g., Physio-field, a machine made in B.C., was investigated by health officials who asked the distributor to stop selling it late last year. Since then, the inventor has started selling the device again under a different name. |