OMA responds to cancer report

A submission by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA) maintains that a report on lung cancer in the hardrock mining industry presents no evidence that the disease is caused by current mining exposures.

The OMA was responding to report No. 12 of the Industrial Disease Standards Panel.

Any excess lung cancers appear to be restricted to uranium miners in the earliest periods of that industry, to gold miners prior to 1945 and to nickel miners prior to 1936.

The OMA suggests that a comprehensive, independent study of lung cancer as a public health issue be conducted. This study would identify the prevailing causes of the disease among the mining population and any potential workplace-related risks.