You don’t know if you saved your life, you’ll only know if you didn’t.
Those words are from 70 year old Wade Dieno of Chitek Lake who worked around asbestos all his life and last November was diagnosed with mesothelioma and told he had 12 to 14 months to live.
His message to workers and home renovators is to always wear your personal protective equipment and never let your guard down.
He feels he was pretty good about wearing his PPE, but must have slipped up along the way and he doesn’t know where or when.
The message from Worksafe Saskatchewan is ‘Asbestos kills. It’s best to test.’
Asbestos was used in many common building materials up until the late 1990s and when it’s disturbed, like during renovations, tiny fibres are released into the air and can cause severe, even fatal, lung diseases.
Last year, almost 45 per cent of all work related deaths in Saskatchewan were from asbestos exposure.