Miners embrace stricter silica dust controls

Mine workers in Labrador West are welcoming new rules intended to control the amount of harmful dust in their air.

Known to cause cancer, silica dust also can cause the lung disease silicosis, which has no known cure and is usually fatal.

Jim Skinner, president of the United Steelworkers local at Wabush Mines, said workers have been trying to improve the rules surrounding exposure to silica dust for years.

"These regulations are updated to the degree that they are the best in the industry," Skinner said.

"It's going to address a lot of the problems that residents of Labrador West are having and as well as the miners in the mine, to make sure this place is a healthy and a good place to live," he said.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government developed the new rules with Wabush Mines and the Iron Ore Company of Canada.

Government Services Minister Dianne Whalen said the new rules go beyond the last set of rules, which were adopted in 1984.

"We're going to be looking at our medical surveillance, and we're going to [ensure] dust control programs are being monitored. There [have] been new improvements in that," Whalen said.

The Silica Code of Practice, as it's called, is expected to lead to better air quality for residents of the two Labrador communities.

For now, the rules apply only to the two mines. Whalen said she would like to see them expanded to other mines and quarries.