BAIE VERTE/ST. JOHN’S – The Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission, the United Steelworkers Union, the Baie Verte Peninsula Miners’ Action Committee and the SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research of Memorial University, are pleased to announce commencement of the final stage of the Baie Verte Miners’ Registry project. The goal of the Registry is to collect data on the work history and health status of the former employees at the Baie Verte mine site in order to provide information related to asbestos exposure and its possible health impacts.  

Work on the Registry was suspended temporarily after the Commission and Central Health learned that researchers extracted data from a number of medical charts at the Baie Verte Health Centre without signed consent forms of the owners of the charts.  A review completed by Memorial University of Newfoundland confirmed that the neither the leadership of the research team nor its local employees violated any research ethics standards and that the data were kept confidential within the research team. No confidential work history or health information obtained without consent will be included in the Registry. 

The partners in this project are committed to completing the Baie Verte Miners’ Registry early in 2011 for the benefit of the workers employed at the Baie Verte mine site, their families and the community. The registry approach to occupational disease is a first for Canada.  

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