Poor hygiene and lack of attention to safety standards are the cause of workers’ elevated arsenic levels at Simplot’s ammonia plant expansion here, according to the provincial workplace safety and health department.
Boilermaker Craig Morrison said workers at the $230 million project grew concerned when they were taken off the site a few weeks ago and given new instructions about how to handle the toxic heavy metal, which has been linked to cancer.
“Most guys were pretty mad,” Morrison said. “They told us there should be no arsenic and when we found out, they pulled us out.”
Read Also
Manitoba Parkland research station grapples with dry year
Drought conditions in northwestern Manitoba have forced researchers at the Parkland Crop Diversification Foundation to terminate some projects and reseed others.
It was discovered last month through random urine checks that arsenic used in construction material had made its way into some of the 20 welders working with high-risk material on the site.
Officials with Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health were called in to re-train workers and inspect safety equipment and cleaning facilities.
The department’s executive director Geoffrey Bawden said the situation is safe, provided workers follow the strict regime set up to prevent contamination. The division of Manitoba Labour ordered Simplot to find ways to better protect its employees, and those have been put in place, he said.
Morrison said the company told workers the amount of arsenic detected was at an acceptable level. He’s not happy about the situation, but said he won’t quit.
“It’s a pretty good job,” he said. “We just have to believe it.”
Project construction co-ordinator Tony Tarr said workers were told about possible arsenic exposure and were given the choice of whether to work in higher-risk areas.
The company put a safety plan in place with strict rules about washing hands before smoking or eating and how to dispose of contaminated coveralls.
“What we found when we looked at the site were examples of where they had not been following well-laid out practices, practices they were well aware of,” Tarr said.
“If they follow the procedures it should be a non-issue.”
Workplace Safety and Health worked with Simplot to identify potential hazards before construction began. The company knew workers handling the pipe could be exposed to arsenic, which was embedded into the pipe when the plant was operating in Sicily.
The “somewhat elevated” arsenic levels revealed the safety measures weren’t working, Bawden said.
“They were not toxic levels, not people being sick and not people being hospitalized,” Bawden added, but he would not give exact levels of the workers affected.
“Instead of waiting until we did have illness, we sent our people out again,” he said. “Without pointing fingers, you need to be rigorous about washing hands, smoking and wearing respiratory equipment.”
Workplace safety said it plans to beef up surprise inspections to the site, believed to be one of the largest construction projects currently under way in Manitoba.
