CANCER PROMPTS BENDIX STUDY (London, Ontario)

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CANCER PROMPTS BENDIX STUDY

The London Free Press

BYLINE: JULIE CARL, THE LONDON FREE PRESS

Experts are investigating a rare brain cancer that has killed at

least five workers at a closed south London truck parts plant.

Former workers at the Bendix Heavy Vehicles Systems plant on Wilton

Grove Road will meet tomorrow to learn about the study.

" We've found a cluster of five brain cancers among the workers,

" said Jim Reid of Canadian Auto Workers, Local 27, which represented

workers at the plant until it shut down in 1992.

Reid said the five cases represent " a significant rate. "

Former Bendix worker Vince Arbour, now a study researcher, said

this type of cancer is expected to appear in about eight people per

100,000.

Little is known about brain cancer's connection to work, said

Niki Carlan, the study's manager. Even less is known about women,

brain cancer and work -- and about 70 per cent of Bendix workers were

women, she said.

Carlan said she believes Bendix workers were exposed to formaldehyde

fumes from the hot stamp machines used on plastic brake parts.

The Workers' Safety and Insurance Board, which is funding the

$70,000 study, accepts brain cancer as an occupational disease in

firefighters because they're often exposed to formaldehyde.

The study will also look into the effects of solvents used at

the plant, she said.

So far, researchers, using pension records and seniority lists,

have identified about 600 of the more than 1,000 employees who worked

at the London Bendix plant from the time it opened in 1968. At its

peak, more than 500 worked there.

A spokesperson for Honeywell -- recently merged with Bendix parent

company Allied-Signal Inc. -- didn't know about the study. Tom Crane

said the firm always makes employee safety a priority.

Carol , a 23-year veteran of the plant, agrees with that.

She said Bendix always responded to employee concerns about safety

quickly. She said she recalls a ventilation system being installed

after workers spoke up about truck fumes.

plans to attend tomorrow's meeting but says she's not worried

about her health. Her best friend at the plant died of brain cancer

in 1996. Two other women who worked with and her friend have

also died of brain cancer, she said.

Other employees aren't so sure they shouldn't be worried.

Krzic said she isn't surprised about the health concerns.

She worked at the plant for 17 years before leaving in 1989 after

fumes there made her ill, she said.

She recalled fainting a couple of times, suffering weakness in

the knees, a lack of energy and constant headaches.

She said she believes as the plant grew more high-tech, more chemicals

were used, increasing her exposure.

Krzic recalls returning to work after one of her bouts that sent

her home. She talked to a friend, an engineer at the plant.

" I remember him saying to me, 'Life is too short. Look at yourself,

sick over this. Just quit.' But I didn't want to quit. I liked my

job. Two months later, he was dead, " Krzic said. He had died of cancer.

The Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers and the union

are conducting the study.

The safety board spends about $3 million a year on research into

occupational diseases, Carlan said, less than one per cent of the

$400 million the board spends in compensating sick and injured workers.

Workers and their families are welcome at the meeting at 10 a.m.

tomorrow at the Imperio Banquet Hall, 109 Falcon St. For more information,

call 659-9829.

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