From the Hamilton Spectator

The Ontario government says it’s launching a new independent review of the system that helps people who get sick following exposure to workplace toxins.

“There have been injustices that need to be fixed — and no one should be waiting decades for compensation,” said Labour Minister Monte McNaughton in an interview.

McNaughton announced Tuesday that the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto will begin work immediately on a review for release in December.

MAP scientists study complex health issues, according to their website, including the effects of social inequality on human health.

For years many local advocates have asked the provincial government to overhaul the way the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) makes decisions on which cases get benefits and which ones are rejected.

After a rash of cancer cases emerged in Peterborough among General Electric plant workers beginning in the 1990s, many applied for WSIB benefits — though some cases have been accepted for compensation, many more have not been.

MAP scientists will look at how occupational illnesses are identified, monitored and prevented, McNaughton said.