Keeping the lid on solvent dangers

It has been nearly four years since the rare cancer death of a young Christchurch painter triggered alarm bells about the potentially lethal effects of solvent-based paint products. Much has changed. YVONNE MARTIN reports.

Seven-year-old Holly Gibson talks to her father as if he were still alive. On visits to the Avonhead cemetery, she kisses the photo on Jason Gibson's headstone and twirls at his graveside, just as she did when he was fading in Christchurch Hospital's bone marrow unit almost four years ago.

Holly has now spent half her short life without her dad. Her mother, Sonia Hilton, worries that most of Holly's memories are reconstructed from photos and videos she regularly watches of her playing with her daddy, rather than actual recollection of the laughs and cuddles.

Holly's extended family pitches in to help keep her dad's memory alive. She leaves small treats for him in a homemade wooden box at his grave. They clear the box, placing a chocolate frog "from Daddy for Holly" to discover on her next visit.

"She struggles when she goes to family events at the school and kids' birthday parties. She is really drawn to other kids' dads," says Hilton.

On the other hand, Hilton is relieved her daughter has no memory of how sick her father looked in his final days in hospital and the forest of tubes protruding from his body.

Gibson died 24 hours after Holly's last visit of a massive brain haemorrhage, surrounded by members of his family.

His death came on November 12, 2003, just six days after the Christchurch painter was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He had sought help for nosebleeds and a cough, only to learn the dreadful truth.

But to his Cashmere parents, Tony and Annette Gibson, something was not quite right.

Jason Gibson's behaviour had undergone huge change in the months leading to his premature death – mood swings, irrational outbursts, headaches, lethargy and an inability to concentrate.

Tony Gibson, a painter himself, suspected the cause was not hereditary or genetic, but chemical.

He began asking tough questions, while his wife and Hilton trawled the internet for references to painting and cancer.

Between them, the Gibsons have been able to convince the authorities that their son's acute promyelocytic leukaemia was linked to his more than 13 years as a painter.

A key breakthrough was the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) cancer panel's investigation into Gibson's death.

It found on June 30, 2004: "Jason's work as a painter has been sufficiently lengthy to make an occupational cause for his leukaemia likely."

The Gibsons' story first featured in The Weekend Press in October 2004, about a year after Gibson's death and four months after the cancer panel's decision.

Much has happened since then, including a battle to get Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) recognition of the work-related death, and therefore financial support for Hilton and Holly.

The Gibsons have poured their souls and money into a campaign to warn users of the killer punch of solvent-based paint products – everyone from car spraypainters to house painters and weekend renovators.

And the industry is responding, with some paint suppliers displaying the Gibsons' warning signs and trainee painters being taught how to reduce their workplace solvent exposure.

"It's too late for our son, but it might not be too late for someone else's son," says Tony Gibson. "I know now through the connections I have in the painting industry that people are a lot more aware of the dangers than they were."

Painting is no longer a benign profession and pastime, and probably never was.

One study, from John Hopkins University in the United States, found 150 cancer-causing substances (carcinogens) and 300 toxic chemicals that may be present in paint.

Among them are organic solvents used to dissolve or thin paints for an easier spread. Scientists have found that solvents absorbed through the skin or inhaled over a long period of time can lead to alarming symptoms, as Gibson had towards the end of his life.

Hilton talked of noticing a change in her husband in 2001, almost two years into their marriage.

"He'd get really irritable and there was no reasoning with him at all, and there'd be silly things that would spark him off."

Sometimes he would ring during the day and warn her to stay away from him when he got home to avoid an argument.

"I just thought he was being a s....... sometimes, so I had a chocolate bar ready when he walked in the door. I thought he was in a bad mood and needed energy, but he needed a lot more than chocolate," she says.

Then there was the pungent stench of solvents coming off his skin, strong enough to repel Mork, the family cat. After rubbing up against Gibson, the cat would screw up its face and let out a shivery "haargh".

"We used to think it was hilarious," Hilton says.

The family's electronic searches found a long-established link between leukaemia and the chemical benzene, prolonged exposure to which can destroy bone marrow.

Further sleuthing identified two of benzene's closest chemical cousins, toluene and xylene.

Tony Gibson says: "I know how Jason worked. He wasn't a silly boy, but like everyone they think they're bullet-proof.

"Everyone thought it was the paint. Everyone protected themselves against the paint, but then they washed their bloody hands in the solvent. I washed my face in this s... I never knew it was cancer-causing."

Reading through Jason Gibson's polytechnic books from his student days in 1991-92, the Gibsons found warnings that solvents caused eczema and other irritations, but nothing about their power to kill.

The OSH cancer panel that believed Jason's cancer was work-related was awake to the link between painting and cancer.

Its decision pointed out that the International Agency for Research on Cancer was so concerned about workplace exposure it classified the whole occupation of painting as carcinogenic as early as 1989.

The agency quoted five studies on leukaemia that included painters and other studies linking toluene and xylene to increased risks of leukaemia.

But convincing ACC that Gibson's death was linked to his job was a much harder task. It initially declined help, but the Gibsons refused to let the matter end there. They referred ACC's medical opinion to the OSH cancer panel for a response.

The panel, led by Dr Evan Dryson, was unequivocal. Its response in January 2006 reiterated that Gibson's cancer was clearly not hereditary or genetic.

"It must therefore be environmental or occupational, there is no other option," it said. "(ACC doctor's) opinion has not caused us to change our mind."

Finally, ACC relented and is paying Hilton a $115 weekly childcare allowance, plus a $160-a-week spouse payment. Holly gets another $55 weekly for herself.

"I'm sure she would prefer to have her dad," says Hilton.

However, the money allows Hilton to work part-time and focus the rest of her energies on her daughter.

In the past few years the Gibsons have swung their efforts into a "Glove Up" campaign. They have had stickers designed with a blue glove, reminding painters of the need to take precautions when handling solvents.

Tony Gibson has distributed the signs to participating paint suppliers.

"We've got to educate people. We have got to tell them, `Hey, listen guys, glove up when you are dealing with solvents'," says Gibson.

Annette Gibson says: "We don't want to ban solvents. If shops are selling them, then they need to sell the appropriate gear with them."

Tony Gibson has also worked with the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, which has strengthened its warnings to trainee painters about the potential risks of exposure.

Painting and decorating tutor Brian Heward tells students the Jason Gibson story as a salutary lesson.

"It's a rather sad lesson. Of course, a lot of young people today think they are 10 foot tall and bullet-proof and I'm in the ideal situation to influence that thought," he says.

"We would be failing in our job not to keep up to date with the issue and to keep pushing it as hard as we can."

Tony Gibson now hopes to take his message to the wider community. He is standing for the Christchurch City Council and the community board in the Riccarton-Wigram ward in the local body elections under the Christchurch City Vision ticket.

Mayoral aspirant Jo Giles leads the group and Gibson is its environmental and dog control spokesman.

Hilton and Holly, who live near the Gibsons, are ready to deliver Tony Gibson's pamphlets to letterboxes in the months leading up to the October elections.

Holly has accepted her dad will not be coming home after Hilton's careful explanation about life and death.

"I said, `Daddy's body is like a chrysalis. When he turned into a butterfly and flew away, his chrysalis was still there. He's a special angel'," says Hilton.

"It was hard for us to understand it, let alone her."

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