Niagara Transit System Submission

    I have asked for the opportunity to be able to speak to you because I am passionately opposed to your plan to add 154 diesel buses to the Niagara Transit System.  From a climate perspective it is most reprehensible given that we face an accelerating climate crisis that is not being addressed with anything approaching the seriousness that it so clearly demands.

       But I’m not here to address that.  I’m here to address the fact that the diesel fumes that will continuously be emitted from the 154 diesel buses are highly carcinogenic.  The International Agency for Research into Cancer (IARC) unequivocally accepts that exposure to diesel fumes significantly increases the risk of developing lung cancer.  It also maintains there is a plausible link between exposure to diesel fumes and other types of cancer; particularly bladder cancer.  Diesel fumes also cause serious throat irritation and are particularly harmful to anyone with asthma.

       This means that your planned purchase of these diesel buses will directly put at risk those workers who will drive them or otherwise work with them and, to a lesser extent, anyone who is frequently around these buses.

        I speak from first-hand experience.  I and other advocates who have handled WSIB occupational disease claims have been successful in filing claims for workers who developed lung cancer due to exposure to diesel fumes.  As a result, those corporation who exposed the workers who developed lung cancer due to their exposure at work to diesel fumes were made liable for the serious harm done to the health of the workers in question.

       Your decision to buy these diesel buses indicates that no one considered the hazardous health effects of exposure to diesel fumes.  Furthermore, it’s apparent that no one has any grasp of how costly successful claims for lung or bladder cancer can be especially if the affected worker dies as a result and has either a surviving spouse and or dependents.  A surviving spouse will be entitled to a surviving spouse’s pension for life, all at the expense of the employer.

       This means that the decision to purchase these diesel buses, based upon up front purchasing costs, was poorly informed with respect to the potential costs and displayed reckless disregard for the potential consequences for the workers who will drive them and any others who will be exposed to their cancer-causing diesel fumes.

      The decision to purchase these diesel buses should be abandoned.  If it is not, I will welcome any opportunity I get to represent those who will be its victims and relentlessly fight to win their claims with maximum costs to the employer.  You.