Jamie West, NDP MPP for Sudbury, has been working with former mine workers and affected family members to secure an apology from the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to the 25,000 Ontario mine workers who were forced to breathe \u2018McIntyre Aluminum Powder.\u2019 West made the following statement after the government issued that apology:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an important day in Ontario mining. Seventy-nine years ago today, despite expert evidence recommending against its use at the time, the Ontario government of the day sanctioned the first use of McIntyre Aluminum Powder for use on mine workers in Ontario.<\/em><\/p>\n During the 36 years that it was in use, more than 25,000 Ontario mine workers — primarily in uranium and gold mines — were forced to breathe a finely-ground aluminum dust known as \u201cMcIntyre Powder\u201d. Before the start of each and every shift, the doors of the dry (the mining change room) were sealed shut. The ventilation was turned off, and a mist of fine aluminum dust was pumped inside. The dust would make the air turn black.<\/em><\/p>\n Locked into this room, the workers were told to breathe deeply so that the dust could coat their lungs and \u2018protect them.\u2019 If the workers refused, they were fired. For 36 years, mine workers were told that breathing Aluminum Powder would protect them from harm. Instead, many miners experienced immediate and long-term health effects.<\/em><\/p>\n That simply wasn\u2019t fair. It wasn\u2019t fair to the 25,000 Ontario mine workers that were forced to breathe McIntyre Aluminum Powder. It wasn\u2019t fair to their loved ones, their spouses, their children, their fathers, their mothers, and their friends. It simply wasn\u2019t fair.<\/em><\/p>\n And so today we are here united as Members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, 79 years after the first use of McIntyre Aluminum Powder and 36 years after its final use. We are here to tell you that we are sorry.<\/em><\/p>\n Nous sommes d\u00e9sol\u00e9s. L’utilisation de la poudre McIntyre a \u00e9t\u00e9 sanctionn\u00e9 par le gouvernement de l’Ontario. Ce n’\u00e9tait pas juste pour les vingt-cinq mille mineurs Ontariens. Ce n’\u00e9tait pas juste pour leurs amis et pour leurs familles. Nous sommes d\u00e9sol\u00e9s.<\/em><\/p>\n We are sorry that between 1943 and 1979 more than 25,000 Ontario mine workers were forced to breathe McIntyre Aluminum Powder. We are sorry that the use of the McIntyre Aluminum Powder was supported and sanctioned by the Ontario government of the day. We are sorry that this happened to people who dedicated their lives and their work to the betterment of our province.<\/em><\/p>\n We are truly sorry. Nous sommes vraiment d\u00e9sol\u00e9s.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Ed Graham, former mine worker<\/p>\n \u201cI put old shirt rags over my face to avoid the aluminum dust, but a supervisor caught me and told me to take that rag off my face. When I asked the supervisor about the aluminum dust, I was told, \u2018Keep asking questions like that and you won\u2019t be here very long.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Bill Ferguson, former mine worker<\/p>\n \u201cAt the start of each shift they would line our lungs with that aluminum dust before we went underground. The theory was that the silica and rock dust wouldn\u2019t stick to your lungs and you\u2019d cough up the aluminum at the end of your shift, but that didn\u2019t work. They sprayed me with that for 18 years.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jamie West, NDP MPP for Sudbury, has been working with former mine workers and affected family members to secure an apology from the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to the 25,000 Ontario mine workers who were forced to breathe \u2018McIntyre Aluminum Powder.\u2019 West made the following statement after the government issued that apology: \u201cThis is an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 11:29:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57454,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57453\/revisions\/57454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}