Many family members of Canadian workers who became ill from exposure to asbestos are now developing cancers themselves. Doctors say that these second generation victims, known as 'bystanders', were inadvertently exposed to asbestos fibres brought home on parents' clothing.
They cited the situation of a 49 year old man from Ontario who is suffering from mesothelioma, an incurable cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. He saw his father die of the same disease ten years ago, then his sister and his brother. He said they were unaware of the dangers posed by the asbestos dust which coated his father's clothes and the interior of the family car.
Doctors are concerned by the rising number of deaths from mesothelioma across Canada which still produces asbestos, and whose government actively supports global asbestos trade. Canada has a 'no fault' workers' compensation system, but it only pays out to those who developed diseases as a result of exposure in their own workplaces, leaving some 'bystander' victims destitute.
Source TUC Risks 20th January 2007
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