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Already making a name with its leading-edge structural integrity technology, Ottawa's Giatec Scientific is cementing its future with $150,000 from Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) to bring its portable concrete analyzer to market. The money, which is awarded under OCE's Market Readiness program, will be used to further develop the iCOR hand-held device which can detect areas of deterioration in concrete structures before it happens. "Giatec is finding solutions to increasingly common and potentially life-threatening problems associated with aging infrastructure," said Tom Corr, president and CEO of OCE. "We are proud to continue supporting this made-in-Ontario innovation." Based on 10…

A new Canadian study suggests women working in certain industries appear to have a higher-than-normal risk of developing breast cancer. The study says women working with automotive plastics and in food canning operations are roughly five times more likely to develop breast cancer before menopause than women who do not. Women working in tooling, foundries and metal-related manufacturing have nearly double the risk of developing breast cancer as other women. And women working in bars and gambling facilities are more than two times more likely than other women to develop breast cancer. The study was the result of a multi-year…

The plant at the centre of an extensive beef recall has resumed shipping products for the first time since an E. coli outbreak forced its closure in September. The union representing workers at XL Foods Inc. in Brooks, Alta., says the shipments include a full range of products, including ground beef and steaks. “They are shipping product to retailers,” Doug O’Halloran of the United Food and Commercial Workers union said last week. “The people they were supplying before, I think they are loyal, their customers are going to come back. That is a good sign.” The union said the beef…