Alarmed: Andrew Conlon is worried about CFA health risks. Picture Tommy Ritchie 88186
By Noel Murphy
ANDREW Conlon is one of some 20 Geelong people looking to lodge a class action against the CFA over alleged exposure of its workers to cancer-causing chemicals at its Fiskville Training Centre.
Mr Conlon’s late parents both worked at the centre, where workers were exposed to carcinogens, according to Professor Rob Joy’s report “Fiskville: Understanding the Past to Inform the Future”.
They died in the early 1990s, his father of heart disease, his mother of bone cancer. It wasn’t until this year that Mr Conlon and his siblings began to suspect a solid link between their deaths and their jobs with the CFA.
“It was always a suspicion but this obviously strengthened when we saw the long list of people we knew well who were affected,” he said.
“Myself, a school mate and my two brothers and sister were exposed going to school every day.
“I can’t bring back my parents but I would be very angry now if I fell ill and my wife and three children were impacted.”
Legal firm Slater and Gordon’s Andrew Baker said Geelong was over-represented on a list of almost 200 people connected to the Fiskville centre who had contacted the lawyers.
Mr Baker said about one-third of his Fiskville clients had been diagnosed with cancer while others had a range of complaints including respiratory illnesses or auto-immune diseases.
Mr Conlon, a father of three from Point Lonsdale, grew up on a farm next to the CFA centre. His parents worked there during quiet periods on the farm.
“Our father was one the pad operators who Professor Joy’s report recognised as some of those most at risk and mum worked in the kitchen,” Mr Conlan said.
He said he had little doubt chemical exposure at Fiskville contributed to their deaths.
“The research shows that if you’ve got any sort of pre-disposition to heart disease which Dad did then the pad is about the worst place you could be,” Mr Conlan said.
“Mum should have lived a long life but her mother outlived her and she only had a brief time with one of her grandchildren and has been deprived of time with nine others.”
