%0 Journal Article
%T Workers¡¯ Fight for Justice: A Retrospective Exposure Profile Study of the GE Factory in Peterborough, Ontario
%A Dale DeMatteo
%A Robert DeMatteo
%J NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy
%@ 1541-3772
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1048291119850779
%X Occupational disease recognition is often hampered by lack of historical exposure data. This paper describes research documenting major chemical exposures of Canadian General Electric workers in a plant in Peterborough between 1945 and 2000. Workers¡¯ experiences with diseases over forty years, and their frustration with the continual denial that these were work-related, drove this study. Researchers used qualitative methods, participatory action research, hazard mapping, and risk assessment. A report that incorporates this study¡¯s findings documents extremely toxic exposures that placed Canadian General Electric workers at a disproportionate risk of occupational diseases. Since the report¡¯s release, the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board reconsidered 233 previously denied claims in the light of ¡°new evidence¡± and overturned one half of those it reviewed. The retrospective exposure profile methods used in this study may serve as a useful model for workers and their organization when plants close
%K occupational disease
%K occupational risk analysis
%K retrospective exposure profiling
%K participatory action research
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1048291119850779