Brunswick Mining & Smelting (TSE) is doing its best to improve working conditions at the Belledune smelter in New Brunswick where 110 workers were found to have unacceptably high levels of metal in their blood.
The 64.7% owned Noranda (TSE) subsidiary has already spent $7 million to install a new change house and to incorporate a gas cleaning device to reduce the amount of contaminants to which 500 workers within the plant are exposed.
As part of the next phase of a study conducted by McGill University in Montreal, the company, with help from the Occupational Health and Safety Branch, will take a detailed look at the health of 100 plant workers.
“We have found that the most effective way to control lead ingestion is by encouraging workers to pay close attention to their own personal hygiene,” said Brunswick Mining President John Carrington.
He says employees are now prohibited from eating and smoking on the plant site. They are also required to change out of their working clothes at the end of their shift before going home.
Workers who are found to have more than 40 micrograms of lead per litre in their blood are automatically relocated to alternative job stations where the chances of being exposed to that level of lead is much lower.
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