From 2012 to 2016, Armando Lazo Bautista sprayed pesticides on apple trees and blueberry plants in Franklin, Montérégie, in jeans and a t-shirt, without a mask or protective clothing or glasses, and sometimes from a tractor. . The Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT) has just recognized that his non-Hodgkin lymphoma is an occupational injury linked to his exposure to pesticides, a first, according to his employer and his legal representative.
Many people now hope that this judgment will gain traction, because sick farmers in Quebec have been trying to have this type of cancer included in the list of occupational diseases for years.
From 2015, the symptoms of this temporary agricultural worker from Mexico set in and intensified, but in the summer of 2016, “his condition deteriorated”, details the judgment that fell last December and was recently accessible. He “spits blood”, and soon after, the diagnosis falls. He quickly began chemotherapy treatments, which he continued in Mexico from December 2016.
Mr. Lazo Bautista will never return to Canadian territory, since he no longer participates in the temporary agricultural worker program because of his state of health.
It was not until 2017 that he filed a claim for occupational disease with the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST), after learning during a consultation with a doctor that this type of cancer is strongly linked to exposure to pesticides.
Too late for the CNESST, which refuses to examine his request since the regulatory period of six months has expired.
Certain details of his version of the facts are contested by his employer, Les vergers Ivanhoé Faille. This longtime agricultural producer told TAT that he provided rubber gloves, a long raincoat and boots for the spraying. “All the protective equipment was available, but I can’t check if he took it from the tablet,” he reiterates in an interview with The duty.
The TAT, however, favored the testimony of Mr. Lazo Bautista on this aspect, in front of the “change of version of the employer as well as his very defensive behavior”, writes judge Sonia Sylvestre.
On the phone, the agricultural producer admits to having been “emotional”: “Of course no one wants to make the world sick. I spray [des pesticides] I also water. I treated him well, Armando. »
He claims to have helped him pass medical tests quickly and to have extended his stay as long as possible so that he could receive treatment. “Other employers will just call the agency [de recrutement] in Montreal and send them back on a plane,” he said.
A first in Quebec?
Mr. Faille says he is “rather surprised” by the decision, as he knows that other agricultural producers have taken steps to have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma recognized as an occupational disease. “For everyone else, it didn’t work out, so why did he win his case?” I don’t know,” he continued.
“It’s a first, to my knowledge”, also exclaims Michel Pilon, on the phone. Coordinator of the Network of Assistance to Migrant Agricultural Workers of Quebec (RATTMAQ), it was he who pleaded the cause of Mr. Lazo Bautista before the TAT.
Mr. Pilon says he is very happy with the decision and hopes “that the CNESST will also be more open to looking at these claims”.
On the side of the CNESST, there is no data on the number of people compensated for having developed this cancer in a professional context, indicated a spokesperson at the Homework.
For Romain Rigal, it is also “a first recognition”. A member of the group Victimes des pesticides du Québec, he sees the decision “with a very positive eye”: “What the legislator did not recognize, the judges are in the process of establishing. »
Quebec has indeed refused to include this type of cancer on the list of occupational diseases in agriculture, despite the addition of Parkinson’s disease last October. “Jurisprudence has just been created,” says Mr. Rigal, also director of programs at Parkinson Québec.
The Union of Agricultural Producers preferred not to comment on this particular case for the moment. The powerful association has already asked the Quebec Minister of Labour, Jean Boulet, to be able to revise the list of these diseases periodically in order to follow the evolution of science.
Link between pesticides and cancer
The important thing in this judgment was to prove that it was “more likely than not” that the lymphoma resulted from the occupational hazard, wrote the judge. She noted that the worker had been exposed in particular to glyphosate and malathion, considered probably carcinogenic substances by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Several studies are cited in the decision. France has determined that there is a causal link and has included this cancer in the table of occupational diseases in agriculture since 2015.
A pan-Canadian class action is currently underway against Monsanto (Bayer). The plaintiffs want the company to compensate people who have been diagnosed with this type of lymphoma and who have applied Roundup, a glyphosate-based product.
In the United States, the company has already spent more than 10 billion US dollars to reach out-of-court settlements with approximately 125,000 claimants, according to its estimates.
In Quebec, a person unable to work due to an employment injury is entitled to an income replacement indemnity which corresponds to 90% of his salary, confirms a spokesperson for the CNESST. In the case of Mr. Lazo Bautista, the sum could therefore reach $100,000 to $150,000, according to Michel Pilon, of RATTMAQ. He had been “very ill” and undergoing regular treatment until recently, Pilon said. His lungs still appear to be affected, so there will be an assessment of his fitness for duty.
As for Ivanhoé Faille, he claims to still use these pesticides, trying to choose “the mildest”, some of which are used in organic farming. Mr. Faille also says he is trying to meet consumer demands, at the price they want to pay: “Everyone is for organic, but no one wants to buy an ugly apple, or blueberries that crumble in the hands. »