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[Long_Cast]

Tex, I'm a calm person and I was extremely polite with my situation with WCB and the doctors.  I only spoke to the WCB lady once and it lasted less than 5 minutes.  I  believe the lady at WCB has been trained to say specific phrases so like "end your case" if she believes you're still fairly healthy. However, after hearing others about their dealings with WCB, I wasn't surprised of my outcome. I think WCB is quite a joke and you have to be dead or severely injured like losing a limb or paralyzed to the point that you can't work, then they will compensate you.  I'm more disappointed with my last visit at my GP than dealing with the WCB lady.  My GP hasn't been accurate as he guaranteed me that nothing will show up on the x-ray, and he was wrong. 

I don't really want to speak with the media as I would probably be in front page news in the Vancouver Sun or The Province. I work for a very large employer in the public health sector. I don't want to be a walking billboard for everyone in B.C. to know that I'm sick. The docs are telling me not to worry. However, one lady died at my workplace from asbestos exposure and my friend who is a teacher knows two teachers at one high school who died from asbestos related diseases after people were removing asbestos at the school.  I already spoke with my union shop steward but I don't know how to go from there.  Should I contact the police and have the police lay charges against my employer?

[canuckjgc]

Long Cast, your situation is obviously stressful and I do empathize.  I do agree with Tex -- if your doc and WCB both don't want to deal with you then you need to change your approach.  You also have to remember that WCB compensates you only for lost work time, not stress, not potential health issues. If you can still work, are not disabled, then basically you have no claim for WCB (not defending them, but just clarifying). 

You may want to educate yourself more about abestos exposure, get on some forums, etc.  You need a pretty large exposure over a long period of time for there to be any consequences.  And there is no way to have immediate health effects from an exposure -- asbestos just does not work that way.  As I said earlier, every human in the industrialized world has asbestos in their lungs -- it takes a lot to cause cancer 20 years from now.

Just trying to offer a different perspective for you.

[Long_Cast]

Update:  My GP referred me to see a pulmonary specialist regarding my current condition of chest pains and discomfort.  I have fairly severe right sided chest pain that comes and goes and it doesn't seem to go away after many months and he's trying to get it verified if it's cancer or not.  What's scary is that fact that if it's asbestos related cancer, it's uncurable. That's why I'm scared.

[Fish Assassin]

Hope it's nothing serious.

[barnun]

Hope you'll be alright. Don't know all the details about Asbestos, but im in the construction bussiness, i know guys who are 60, 70 years old that used to be exposed to this stuff day in and day out for years....still have no problems! Is it bad? yes! I don't know but I think it comes down to a case by case thing, just like smoking some people can smoke till they are 100, some till they are 50....

What I do believe though, is that you have to breath in a high concentration of it on a day to day basis to really have the cancer develop (it's what ive heard -- but who really does know as its just starting to become a real issue in the past few years), i'd say if you combine it with smoking, you're almost a guarantee for lung cancer type issues

[penn]

 Just what showed up on the x-ray and ct scan ? Asbestos particles are very small ,almost microscopic , I think it would be hard to see anything in one of those scans from one single exposure. Before you worry to much about your exposure , remember that people used to work heavily with that stuff for years with no protection or awareness of the risk at all . And many of them never suffered because of it .Mostly it came from long term exposure .
If it was removed by professionals properly I think you would have little chance of really being subject to much exposure at all . They do wet it down which prevents dust from flying up . Many of us still have the stuff in our homes even now with out knowing about it . It is in old lino floors that were installed up until about the mid 80's and sometimes later when old stock lino was still put into some places .
I don't mean to come across as making light of what you are saying , but worrying won't help . From one single event the chances are small anything will happen from it kinda like if you smoked one cigarette once compared to those that are regulars . Unless you actually come down with the disease or cancer you are really better off putting it out of your mind ,because the worrying about it is doing more harm then the actual exposure .
Having said this , yes your employer should have informed you it was happening . But had they told you ,would you never have set foot in that building again anyway ? Because if they did not prevent the stuff from getting into the air in the first place ,then they would not have been able to get it all out of the building afterward either . And you still would have been exposed even if you were not present during the removal process but came in afterward .
 

[river walker]

Just what showed up on the x-ray and ct scan ? Asbestos particles are very small ,almost microscopic , I think it would be hard to see anything in one of those scans from one single exposure. Before you worry to much about your exposure , remember that people used to work heavily with that stuff for years with no protection or awareness of the risk at all . And many of them never suffered because of it .Mostly it came from long term exposure .
If it was removed by professionals properly I think you would have little chance of really being subject to much exposure at all . They do wet it down which prevents dust from flying up . Many of us still have the stuff in our homes even now with out knowing about it . It is in old lino floors that were installed up until about the mid 80's and sometimes later when old stock lino was still put into some places .
I don't mean to come across as making light of what you are saying , but worrying won't help . From one single event the chances are small anything will happen from it kinda like if you smoked one cigarette once compared to those that are regulars . Unless you actually come down with the disease or cancer you are really better off putting it out of your mind ,because the worrying about it is doing more harm then the actual exposure .
Having said this , yes your employer should have informed you it was happening . But had they told you ,would you never have set foot in that building again anyway ? Because if they did not prevent the stuff from getting into the air in the first place ,then they would not have been able to get it all out of the building afterward either . And you still would have been exposed even if you were not present during the removal process but came in afterward .
 

  well put my thoughts are the same ..   90% of the stuff we stress and lose sleep about  about never happens ..true fact

[marmot]

Chin up dude.  Don't waste your time worrying about $hit that hasn't happened yet.  It will do you no good.  Trust me, I'm an expert at worrying about crap.