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When engineering consultant Mike Thomas came to this company town on the banks of the Ottawa River in May 2006, he thought the job would be similar to countless others he had done. Check out the local pulp mill for ways to improve its efficiency, write a report and go home.
It wasn’t so easy. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
Within a day of his arrival at the sprawling Tembec plant, he was in a hospital attached to an oxygen tank and suffering from sulphur-dioxide poisoning.
What he didn’t realize when he came to the plant was that Tembec has a history of gas leaks that not only have sent many employees to the hospital but on at least one occasion, Nov. 9, 2002, were toxic enough to trigger sensor alarms in the town, forcing people to stay in their homes.
The huge Tembec plant hugs the banks of the Ottawa River downwind from Témiscaming.
Most of the plant consists of a large paperboard factory, which does not use toxic gas. But behind the factory are a series of buildings where the company produces cellulose pulp for use in textiles, drugs, food additives and industrial chemicals. It also produces high yield pulp for paper making.
Waste from the pulp is processed into a host of related chemicals like ethanol, sulphates, sodium, ammonium and phenol formaldehyde resins. The gas leaks come from the pulp and chemical operations, usually from leaky pipes and valves or when operators change filters or clear pipe blockages.
Only 2,800 people live in this northern town, which is about 500 kilometres northwest of Montreal. But pretty well all of them in one way or another rely on the Tembec pulp mill for their livelihood. The plant employs about 1,000 workers. If it fails, this town fails with it.
Témiscaming is a root metaphor for what is happening to our world, as it weighs health and environmental issues against jobs and economic growth as society struggles with fighting climate change and the widespread chemical contamination of the Earth.
CSST and public health officials say they do not have data to compare Tembec’s performance with other pulp mills in Quebec, although overall pollution figures indicate Tembec has been among the worst violators in the province. And while the company has spent millions of dollars upgrading its facilities to the point where even the workers admit it’s much safer than it used to be, gas leaks are still a problem and each year workers wind up at the local hospital.
Many workers in this company town have more than just a job-dependency on the plant. Their family history is inextricably linked to its fortunes as generation after generation have passed through its steaming and cavernous buildings, handing down their jobs to sons and, more recently, daughters.
They are also shareholders. In 1973, when the plant went bankrupt and closed down, the community and the union joined with outside investors to bring it back to life.
Since then, the union and management have worked closely together. For example, Luc Rossignol, who is president of Local 233 of the Communications, Energy and Paper Workers Union, is a company director and member of the health and safety committee.
The Quebec Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST) and public health records indicate, however, that this committee has not done its job in protecting worker safety.
An investigation by The Gazette shows that during the past 15 years, dozens of workers have been treated at the hospital after being poisoned by gas leaks of sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphates, chlorine and other toxic gases at the plant.
In some cases, according to government documents obtained by The Gazette, workers have claimed that some poison gas accidents at the plant have gone unreported. So there are likely more incidents than what is detailed on government medical and workers’ compensation records.
Ironically, the original owners of the plant designed the town along the concept of the English “garden city,” with red brick cottages and townhouses built around boulevards and common gardens. According to the Témiscaming website, this was done to attract workers to a “comfortable and pleasant environment.”
But pollution and poison gases have skewed the equilibrium of this garden atmosphere, forcing regional public health officials and the CSST to demand the company clean up its operations by the end of this year.
Tembec spokesperson Richard Fahy said that in 2005, the company established a health and safety “action plan” that has substantially reduced the health risks from gas leaks.
“Yes there are leaks, okay, but then again it’s one thing having a leak, it’s another having consequences to employees,” he said.
He said the company has established a plan with the CSST to reduce the health risk to employees by ensuring that all employees working in danger areas, such as the pulp mill and chemical operations, carry masks.
“That’s what we have done since 2004 and whether there are still leaks, yes there are. But all the mitigating measures … have been put forth,” he said.
He added that some engineering work remains to be done to reduce the number of leaks.
He said, however, there is always a potential for leaks “because we use chemicals in the industrial process.”
Tembec has been struggling to keep its far-flung corporation of 50 pulp and paper and wood-product mills from going bankrupt. It recently refinanced its entire operations to start a new era in its roller-coaster history.
Last year, the company quietly pleaded guilty in the criminal division of Quebec Court to 19 counts of polluting the Ottawa River with pulp effluent between April 9, 2003, and Dec. 14, 2004. It paid $750,000 in fines and levies.
The prosecution was unusual. According to a 2003 study by the Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC), which is part of the provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Quebec government has not been prosecuting pollution violators. From 1995 to 2000, the CEC cited 1,093 pollution violations at pulp plants but didn’t prosecute any of them. The study claimed Tembec had the second most violations at 225.
But even more worrisome are the persistent cases of poisonous gas leaks.
CSST and public health officials said concerns about the large number of employees inhaling poisonous gases first came to their attention in 1995. The company took action to reduce the leaks and the incidents of poisoning fell off. Then in 2004, the CSST and health officials noted an increase.
“There has been a lot of follow-up by inspectors for that company because there were problems of safety, notably the possibility of exposure to noxious gases,” CSST spokesperson Héloise Bernier-Leduc said in an interview.
Dr. Réal Lacombe, head of the regional public health authority for Abitibi-Témiscaming, said the plant has been “a big problem.”
One worker who is on sick leave for angina told The Gazette he has been gassed more times than he can remember.
“I usually drink milk,” said Marcel Lamarche, 60. “I find that that helps.”
Lacombe said short exposure to small amounts of sulphur dioxide (SO2) should not harm breathing passages. But lengthy exposure or exposure to large amounts can cause serious, lasting damage to the respiratory system.
SO2, which is the most common gas at the mill, combines with the moisture of the lungs to become sulphuric acid, destroying the lung tissue and harming the body’s ability to transfer oxygen to the blood.
“Exposure to large amounts can be deadly,” he said.
The Gazette obtained nine CSST reports on the Tembec gas leaks between Sept. 23, 2004, and Dec. 20, 2007. In each report, the CSST erased the names of the workers to protect their privacy.
The first report states that from October 2003 to September 2004, there were 41 incidents of toxic gas leaks, poisoning 30 employees.
Of these 41, 27 were sulphur dioxide, three were chlorine and four were hydrogen sulphide. In seven other leaks, the gas was not identified. The report does not say whether the employees who inhaled the toxic gas suffered any long-term health effects. But in all cases the government paid for their sick leave through workers’ compensation.
The report also states 75 per cent of the toxic gas leaks were caused by a “mechanical breakdown.”
Employees are supposed to wear gas masks on their belts and put them on whenever they smell a leak. But many of them are so accustomed to the gas they no longer smell it.
According to CSST inspector Mario Leroux, the company was not always prepared to take action to make the mill safer for its employees.
He noted in one report, dated Oct. 4, 2006, on gas poisoning that Tembec gave him false information. The report states that company officials claimed corrective measures to reduce the risk of gas leaks inside the plant had been taken, when in fact they had not. The report did not describe the measures to be taken.
The inspector states in his report that “for a second time” he has had to emphasize to company officials that “it is unacceptable that, regardless of the seriousness of the file, false information was given to inspectors.”
Tembec’s Fahy refused to comment on this report other than to say that the CSST has accepted Tembec’s action plan to improve health and safety.
Leroux said in a report dated Jan. 26, 2005, that he received a telephone call from an unnamed worker who said the company did not want to make the corrective measures it had promised. Again, the measures were not described in the report.
However, both the union and the company claimed the situation had improved.
But this is contradicted by subsequent reports stating the leaks continued. From October 2004 to September 2005, there were 29 incidents in which employees inhaled poisonous gas, plus another 28 incidents between October 2005 and September 2006.
Between May and July 2006 alone, five workers were taken to the hospital for treatment. Three of those workers were not carrying masks, one did not have the time to put on his mask and the fifth regarded the mask as useless because he had already breathed in the gas.
Leroux stated in a report dated Oct. 4, 2006, the “facts leave me to conclude that the employer is not in control of the situation.”
More than a month later, on Nov. 26, a worker was gassed by carbon monoxide and SO2 while simply walking through the plant. The report does not say whether the worker was taken to a hospital nor does it say why the gas had leaked.
Three days later, on Nov. 29, 2006, a female worker was taken to the hospital after inhaling an unidentified toxic gas. The report does not identify her or reveal her symptoms. Nor does it state whether she suffered any long-term effects from the gassing.
Then, on Jan. 2 and 3, 2007, a worker on the overnight shift was gassed twice by hydrogen sulphide while working on the plant roof.
In the first instance, the H2S triggered his detector at five parts per million, which is considered high. In the second incident, which happened two hours and 15 minutes later, he was again gassed by H2S, in a different place on the roof. The report does not say where the gas came from.
Despite the fact that he was wearing his mask, the gas was able to penetrate. He was taken to a hospital. Again, the report does not say whether he experienced any long-term damage to his health.
Then on Jan. 16, 2007, the same woman who was gassed the previous November felt ill again after inhaling gas from an acetone-based glue. This was the first time the plant had used such a glue, and the worker was not made aware of the danger, the CSST report states.
In 2007, CSST records based on information from Tembec show there were 22 cases of gas poisonings at the Témiscaming plant.
Neither the CSST nor public health officials have statistics on how many workers have suffered long-term effects from gas exposure. Nor do they have statistics that compare Tembec’s performance with other pulp mills.
By law, workplace accidents that result in a worker being sent to the hospital have to be reported to the public health department.
Public health department figures show that from 1995 to 2007, 92 workers had to be treated in hospital after inhaling toxic gas. Lacombe, of the regional public health authority for Abitibi-Témiscaming, said he doesn’t know how many of these workers have suffered long-term problems.
He said that many other workers self-medicate by giving themselves oxygen after a leak at the plant. These workers do not appear in public health statistics.
“If even one worker has to go to the hospital, it is unacceptable,” Lacombe said.
He said the public health department has had to demand on three different occasions – in 1995, 2001 and 2006 – that Tembec tighten safety regulations at the plant and reduce gas leaks.
He noted that Tembec has succeeded in reducing its leaks since they reached a high of 41 in 2003-04.
Dr. Gordon Brock, a general practitioner in Témiscaming who frequently works in the emergency ward at the local hospital, voiced complete support for Tembec.
He is chairman of Tembec’s occupational health committee.
His job is to establish a plan of action for health and safety in the workplace and to ensure that it is carried out.
Brock said it is inevitable that a company as large as Tembec will have workplace accidents.
“The analogy is traffic accidents,” he said. “The rate in our society is not zero.”
He said he has 7,000 to 8,000 patient encounters per year, and can’t remember how many involved gas poisoning.
“Tembec has been a first-class employer in my experience,” he said.
But that wasn’t the experience of Mike Thomas, who is suffering serious long-term effects from his gassing.
Thomas came to study the Tembec plant in Témiscaming in May 2006 as part of a team of consultants hired by Tembec to audit the plant functions to improve efficiency. After spending only one day at the plant, he was rushed to the hospital suffering from severe gas poisoning.
According to his medical records, he had a predisposition to asthma. The SO2 poisoning caused his weakened lungs to lose 25 per cent of their capacity.
Thomas, 65, said in an interview that when he first walked into the plant, he was immediately struck by its poor condition. “I didn’t feel safe from the moment I stepped inside it,” he said. “Pitted floors, some kind of fluid on the floors in places you didn’t know whether it was water or acid or what it is. Concrete floors that had been pitted by water dripping on them and stuff running over them. And dripping from pipes overhead and all sorts of things like that. Just nothing that I had ever been used to. I mean, it was a total shock to my system.”
Thomas spent his first day touring the plant with a supervisor. He started May 24, 2006, at 6 a.m. By noon, he said, the plant had suffered two major breakdowns of equipment due to sloppy work. But other than as examples of how bad the plant was operating, the breakdowns had no effect on Thomas. It was the third incident that sent him to hospital.
He said he and some workers climbed three storeys to where SO2 was injected into boilers for making pulp. Gas suddenly began leaking from a filter.
Thomas said he didn’t think there was any danger because none of the workers put their masks on.
“Then, they hurried from the piece they were working on to another big piece of equipment and then … one of them started putting his gas mask on and then somebody else (put their mask on) so I thought, ‘I better put mine on, quick.’ And I’m certainly slower than they were, because I’m not familiar with gas masks. Anyway, I got the dam thing on and everything seemed to be okay.”
But it wasn’t okay. That evening, Thomas collapsed in his motel room. He crawled into bed feeling sick. The next morning, he collapsed in the shower.
He was taken to the hospital and medical records show he was diagnosed with SO2 poisoning and lost 25 per cent of his lung capacity.
“I was in the clinic on oxygen for nine hours,” he said.
Thomas said he has not been able to return to work as an engineering consultant since the accident because of lack of energy.
“It’s impacted my life pretty badly,” he said. “I had intended originally to work until I was 70, and this accident put a stop to that. Before the accident I was a very fit person working out in the gym. I mean, I used to pump more iron than guys half my age.”
He has hired a Montreal lawyer to sue Tembec. He said he still hopes his lungs will repair themselves, but so far hasn’t made much progress.
Tembec’s Fahy had no sympathy for Thomas.
“Frankly, that consultant was on site one day. There was a incident there … there was no complaint. Then the next day, he goes to the hospital and complains about health issues. Frankly, this is somebody who … is trying to make a buck out of it.”
Lacombe and Bernier-Leduc both said Tembec has promised to improve conditions at the plant this year.
“Our inspectors are visiting them frequently to assure that all the necessary measures are taken,” Bernier-Leduc said.
GAS LEAKS AT TEMBEC PLANT
There have been 120 recorded incidents of employees inhaling poisonous gas at Tembec’s Témiscaming plant since October 2003:
Oct. 2003 to Sept. 2004: 41 incidents.
Oct. 2004 to Sept. 2005: 29 incidents.
Oct. 2005 to Sept. 2006: 28 incidents.
Oct. 2006 to Sept. 2007: 22 incidents.
POISONOUS TRIO
Sulphur dioxide: SO2 is a colourless gas that smells like burnt matches. It can mix with water vapour in the lungs to form a sulphuric acid mist.
Exposure to high levels of SO2 can cause breathing problems, respiratory illness, and worsen respiratory and cardiovascular disease. People with asthma or chronic lung or heart disease are the most sensitive to SO2.
Hydrogen sulphide: This colourless, toxic and flammable gas is responsible for the foul odour of rotten eggs.
Hydrogen sulphide can poison several different systems in the body, although the nervous system is most affected. Exposure to lower concentrations can result in eye irritation, a sore throat and cough, nausea, shortness of breath, and fluid in the lungs. These symptoms usually go away in a few weeks.
Higher concentrations of 700-800 ppm can be fatal.
Chlorine: Chlorine is one of the most commonly manufactured chemicals in North America and is used as bleach in the manufacture of paper and cloth and also as a solvent and disinfectant.
Chlorine is a toxic gas that irritates the respiratory system. It was used to gas troops in the First World War.
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008