Charl-Pol factory in La Baie | Exposed for years to carcinogenic fumes

A plant in La Baie, in Saguenay−Lac-Saint-Jean, exposed its workers to extraordinary levels of toxic contaminants for nearly a decade or more. The CNESST had to intervene dozens of times on this subject before the company corrected the situation, and workers are still complaining of abundant smoke and inadequate ventilation.

This is demonstrated by hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The Press through an access to information request.

A March 2014 report from the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) states that “workers exceed the maximum permissible exposure standards for welding fume, iron and manganese”, toxic contaminants. The CNESST then relied on samples dating from June 2012.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer considers that “welding fumes cause lung cancer” and notes that “positive associations have been observed with kidney cancer”. Exposure to manganese is associated with neurotoxic risks and can cause tremors, problems with coordination, balance, memory and attention, as well as mood disorders, according to Maryse Bouchard, holder of the Chair Canadian research center on environmental contaminants and population health and teacher at the School of Public Health of the University of Montreal.

“The employer has a duty to take the necessary measures to ensure that his establishment is laid out in such a way as to respect the standards of maximum admissible exposure”, reminded the CNESST on numerous occasions in its reports.

Seven years to comply

The employer, industrial supplier Charl-Pol, took almost seven years and 22 warnings to comply by installing a new ventilation system, approved by the Commission in February 2021.

The initial deadline to remedy this “derogation” — the term used by the CNESST to designate a situation that the employer must correct — was just over five months. But Charl-Pol took so long to take the necessary steps that the number of follow-ups carried out exceeded “the maximum capacity allowed by the CNESST’s computer system”, we learn in a November 2020 report, so that a new override had to be created to reset the counter to zero.

In the meantime, the CIUSSS du Saguenay−Lac-Saint-Jean carried out other assessments of the exposure to contaminants of welders in the spring of 2019. This work showed that “all measurements of exposure to dust not otherwise classified, at iron and manganese exceed the maximum exposure standard established by the regulations,” reads a subsequent CNESST report.

Two other waivers given in March 2014 relate to inadequate ventilation systems that failed to protect workers from contaminants emitted at the plant, which now employs 60 people. These shortcomings were not corrected until five years later, in April 2019, when the initial delays were less than a month.

In interview with The Press, Charl-Pol’s director of human resources, Jean-Sébastien Michaud, initially refused to explain why the company took so long to comply. He also did not respond when asked if he knew of the links between welding smoke and cancer.

Charl-Pol’s director of business development, Gabriel Tremblay, contacted The Press later to explain that the initial delays were, in his opinion, insufficient to bring the corrective measures requested by the CNESST. He added that the company is well aware of the links between welding smoke and cancer, but measures are in place to mitigate its effects. He claimed that the factory had not listed any cases of cancer among its employees.

The CIUSSS refused interview requests from The Pressbut spokesperson Mélissa Bradette indicated that “the regional public health department has not received any declaration of a reportable disease or requests for services related to occupational diseases related to this environment”.

The CIUSSS has not made another assessment of worker exposure to contaminants since 2019. Mr. Michaud, of Charl-Pol, nevertheless affirmed that the plant now meets the standards.

Fines of $22,644

Between 2014 and today, Charl-Pol has received 11 statements of offense from the CNESST, all intended for the La Baie plant. The company also operates another plant in Portneuf. She successfully challenged some of those findings, but still faced a total of $22,644 in fines, including at least $4,101 for violations related to her ventilation issues.

However, no statement of offense has been issued to Charl-Pol on this subject since May 2018, according to the documents sent by the CNESST, while one of the breaches was not deemed to have been corrected until February 2021. Occupational Health and Safety Act provides fines of up to $14,528 for repeat offenders.

Since then, “the employer has complied with the derogations […] by ensuring that the workers wore respiratory protective equipment protecting them from contaminants present in the air, ”assured the spokesperson for the CNESST Antoine Leclerc-Loiselle, which was repeated by MM. Michaud and Tremblay, of Charl-Pol.

“Workers cough and spit”

Although the CNESST and the employer, Charl-Pol, consider that the problems of ventilation and worker exposure to toxic contaminants have been resolved, at least six anonymous complaints have been filed with the CNESST in the last two years on this subject. .

“The air quality in the workshop is abysmal,” reads a worker complaint filed in April 2021. “The air quality is poor and dangerous in the factory”, learns- on in another, served in June 2021, which also mentions that “visibility is limited to approximately 50 feet [15 mètres] “. According to the worker who filed this complaint, the new ventilation system has been “closed for a long time and is no longer used”.

“Workers are coughing and spitting due to the air quality in the factory” and the ventilation is often not functional, can be read in another complaint in August 2021. Same thing in November 2021, when we also complained of poor personal protective equipment. The CNESST inspector however indicated that “the facts related could not be observed despite the intervention without an appointment” following this complaint.

But in March 2022, another complaint was filed with the CNESST regarding the presence of smoke and the absence of ventilation, adding that the immigrant workers are “without respiratory protection”. Among the 60 employees of the Charl-Pol plant in La Baie, there are 14 foreign workers from Colombia and Tunisia.

The latter “cough a lot” in the smoke “harming the health of the workers” during the evening shifts, can we finally read in the most recent complaint obtained by The Press, dated July 28. Echoing the grievances expressed previously, this worker also complained of a ventilation system that does not work and of reduced visibility due to smoke.

The CNESST noted that a union representative – the workers of this factory are affiliated with the CSN – “confirms what the worker tells us” and that “the situation is worse in the evening”.

“Half the workers want to report situations and the other half don’t want to (and go so far as to hide information) so as not to risk their jobs”, it was added, remarks apparently based on those of the CSN representative, whose name was redacted before the document was sent to The Press.

The August 2021 complaint also indicates that the employer “would have made threats of dismissal or plant closure” when workers complained.

“We refute all that”

“It’s a file that we don’t stop working with the company,” said Erik Fortier, union representative at the La Baie plant. But “smoke management is not always as easy as it looks”.

“The CNESST, they thought it was enough,” he said of the ventilation system approved by the Commission after derogations that stretched over years.

“Of course we know that there is still room for improvement, but, I mean, we are not being refused by the management side”, he however assured in an interview with The Press. Mr. Fortier, who has worked at the Charl-Pol plant in La Baie for eight years, was surprised by the complaints sent to the CNESST in recent months, of which he has not heard.

“I know there are a few workers who complain about the fact that there is a lot of smoke,” he conceded, however.

The director of human resources, Mr. Michaud, also said he was surprised by the recent complaints against the La Baie plant. “We refute all that,” he said, assuring that the company has internal mechanisms to handle complaints and that there are currently no grievances regarding ventilation or air quality.

He said the ventilation system works well, day and night, and that Charl-Pol is a “leader” in workplace health and safety. Regarding the allegations of threats of dismissal or plant closures, Mr. Michaud replied that the union was “there to protect the workers if that ever happens”.