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Sailors on Chicoutimi exposed to 'toxic soup' of chemicals: navy

Article online since June 19th 2008, 0:00
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Sailors on Chicoutimi exposed to 'toxic soup' of chemicals: navy

HMCS Chicoutimi rests on the syncrolift after being removed from the harbour in Halifax, Nov. 5, 2006. The Canadian navy says sailors aboard HMCS Chicoutimi were exposed to a toxic cocktail of chemicals during a fire aboard the used submarine in 2004. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX - An ailing sailor who was on board HMCS Chicoutimi when a lethal fire broke out in 2004 says the military has failed to monitor the heath of the sub's crew despite acknowledging Thursday that they breathed in known carcinogens for days after the blaze.

The submariner, who didn't want his named used, said the navy hasn't tracked several chronic health problems that he and others have experienced since they were exposed to a mix of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and other irritants and gases.

"They don't have my best interests or the crew's best interests in hand," the Halifax-based sailor said in an interview.

"There's been no effort to compare files to see how many guys are suffering from what. That concerns me the most because, later on, I don't want to lay in the hospital and find out I'm in the same room with four other guys from the Chicoutimi and we all have the same thing."

The crewman, who suffers from respiratory and neurological disorders, made the comments a day after the military briefed about 30 of the 55 crew and their families about the array of chemicals detected in the smoke.

The British-built Chicoutimi was on its maiden voyage to Canada from Faslane, Scotland, when a fire broke out on Oct. 4, 2004. Lt. Chris Saunders of Halifax died later in an Irish hospital.

The 89-page report states that the fumes and soot likely contained recognized carcinogens such as benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and dioxins and furans.

And it clearly states that the crew likely inhaled cancer-causing contaminants.

"It is reasonable to conclude that the HMCS Chicoutimi smoke contained chemical carcinogens, and that the crew were exposed to them," it says. "The actual risk of developing cancer will depend on the amount, or dose, of exposure."

But military officials insisted it's unlikely crew will develop any form of cancer since their exposure to the chemicals was limited to the fire and the five days they spent breathing in the fumes as they were towed back to port in Scotland.

Cmdr. Jeff Agnew said Thursday that medical experts who prepared the report suggest that crew would most likely become ill from chemical exposure up to six months after the fire.

"The damage would present itself probably within the first three months," he said. "If you not had any damage in that first early period, chances are slim to zero that you will ever have an effect as a result of the Chicoutimi fire in your life."

But the unnamed submariner said he knows of crew members who have become sick more than six months after the incident and have not been properly tracked by the department.

The report compares the toxins to those faced by firefighters battling blazes in house fires, stressing that it's not one single chemical that can cause the most damage but a combination of many.

An official with the International Association of Fire Fighters dismissed the claim that crew wouldn't likely contract illnesses after that period, saying he's seen firefighters develop conditions years after exposure to fire-borne chemicals.

"I don't agree with that," Richard Duffy, whose group represents 288,000 people in North America, said from Washington. "You could have perfectly healthy people and you could have long-term effects that may not manifest themselves for many, many years.

"I don't buy that argument. It could be just the opposite."

The report also found that the known carcinogen Peridite was among the materials that burned in the blaze. The noxious insulation adhesive is found throughout all four used British submarines that Canada bought.

But Agnew again stressed that it was a limited exposure and the Peridite that burned was contained to a small area.

The military commissioned the report shortly after the fire that was caused when a rogue wave washed down an open conning tower hatch and caused a short circuit in a major electrical connection.

In the aftermath, some of the crew began to suffer from a variety of debilitating illnesses, including breathing troubles and variety of neurological disorders.

Although the navy promised to analyze the smoke and soot in a board of inquiry the following spring, the tests were not completed until last week, almost four years after the fire.

Liberal Senator Colin Kenny criticized the military for the "glacial pace" at which it moved in getting the analysis done.

"I can't understand a delay of that length of time," he said Thursday in Ottawa. "It doesn't make any sense to me."

Crew members worried for years because they had no idea what they were exposed to and what it would do to their health.

Agnew said the analysis involved pain-staking laboratory work at the National Research Council and the navy's medical branch had to study the potential impact on human health.

About half of the sub's crew members have left the military, are about to be discharged or are on the medically disabled list.

Many have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress. Some have developed severe breathing difficulties that prevent them from climbing a flight of stairs.

The unnamed sailor said he inhaled the noxious fumes on the sub for more than three hours because the breathing systems on the bridge weren't working.

Some sailors have had fainting spells, short-term memory loss, while others have developed chronic conditions such as asthma, and neurological disorders.

"They admitted the smoke we inhaled was toxic - we already knew that," said the submariner. "What are you doing for the guys who are ill?

"Administratively, they're not doing enough."

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