WCB struggles with 'really cold trail' for sick Zonolite workers

Special investigators with the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba reached a dead end in their search for former employees of WR Grace who may have been exposed to asbestos-laden vermiculite decades ago.

The U.S.-based WR Grace company produced the Zonolite brand of insulating material at two Winnipeg processing plants between the 1940s and 1980s.

Zonolite is made by heating a mineral called vermiculite, which came from a WR Grace mine in Libby, Mont., that was naturally contaminated with a carcinogenic form of asbestos.

Hundreds of former WR Grace employees in the United States have fallen ill or died from asbestos-related cancers and other illnesses. In Manitoba, provincial officials had known of only one former worker who had died.

Earlier this year, a special investigations unit at the WCB was enlisted to search for former employees of the Winnipeg processing plants who may have become sick from asbestos exposure on the job years ago. It had been the first time the board enlisted the unit for such an intense search.

The investigators were given 124 names of former Winnipeg employees dating back to 1972. Initially, they tracked down 19 of those workers and started a number of asbestos-related claims.

But WCB spokesman Warren Preece said Thursday they haven't found a single person since then. The remaining 105 workers simply could not be found.

"It's a 30-year-old trail, so it's a really cold trail," Preece said.

"And despite sort of going through the steps of old phone books and Henderson Directories, we weren't able to find current addresses for any of these people."

Search continues with doctors

The board doesn't have the resources to continue with an intense investigation, Preece said. Instead, it will rely on doctors to help find other former workers.

It has sent a letter to all Manitoba physicians alerting them to the signs of asbestos-related illnesses and advising them to contact the WCB if they learn any of their patients ever worked at WR Grace.

"We did the best we could with the resources we have in terms of following down that list of names," Preece said.

"We think that the most effective way to reach people who are exhibiting symptoms of asbestosis and other related diseases is through the medical system."

Preece added that because asbestos-related illnesses take decades to develop, people who worked for the company in the 1960s or '70s would likely be getting sick now.

Seven WR Grace executives were indicted on Feb. 7, 2005, for allegedly trying to conceal that its products were contaminated with asbestos.