Vancouver/Mission – The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of three women who argued that their breast cancers were caused at Misison Memorial Hospital .
They were employed there as lab technologists.
The Lawyer for the Health Sciences Association of B-C (on behalf of two of the women), said the precedent-setting case is a victory for all health workers who care for others.
The high court’s decision means the causation of an occupational disease doesn’t have to be established to a medical certainty, but that the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal has the authority to weigh the evidence.
The cancer cluster at the lab at Mission Memorial Hospital goes back to 1990, and there were six cases between 2000 and 2005.
