“We need real change in the province’s most-dangerous industry”

With a rapid expansion of mining operations projected for Ontario in coming years, United Steelworkers Local 6500 – the province’s largest mining union – is sounding the alarm on the critical need for greater worker protections against deadly occupational diseases.

Ontario lags significantly behind most other provinces – and behind even the Trump administration in the U.S. – when it comes to regulations protecting mining workers from exposure to toxins that cause occupational diseases, USW Local 6500 compensation officer Sean Staddon testified during an all-party committee hearing in the provincial legislature in mid-May.

Unless those outdated regulations are modernized, an already disturbing death toll from occupational disease among workers will worsen as the industry expands, Staddon said. So much so, he added, that he would not want his children working in the mining industry.

“If my kids came to me and said they wanted to work underground, I’d tell them, ‘no, it’s too dangerous, you’ll get sick and you won’t (live long enough to) enjoy your retirement,’ ” Staddon told the committee, which is studying proposed legislative changes to the workers’ compensation system.

“The reality is that mining is not just dangerous for acute injuries, but for irreversible occupational diseases – 87% of mining fatalities come from fatal occupational disease,” he added.

Exposures above recommended levels

“Mining workers face a 54% higher chance of getting lung cancer in their careers and a 165% higher chance of getting COPB (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). These illnesses are caused by known exposures – diesel engine exhaust, silica, arsenic … Yet, Ontario allows these exposure limits far above what researchers and scientists say (are safe). Higher than Australia, higher than the United States. That’s not prevention, that’s accepted poisoning.”

Staddon cited examples of the disturbingly high exposures to toxic substances faced by Ontario mining workers.

USW Local 6500 and its allies have been fighting for years for a reduced Occupational Exposure Limit (OEL) for diesel particulate matter in Ontario mines. The union’s fight resulted in a significant reduction in the OEL for diesel particulate in 2023.

However, even with that reduction, Ontario miners still face exposure levels that are six times higher than the safe, scientifically recommended level that is in place in many other jurisdictions in the world.

Ontario mining workers also endure levels of exposure to silica that are four times higher than the scientifically recommended safe level that is in place in many jurisdictions around the world and in most other Canadian provinces.

“We need to bring exposure limits in this province down,” Staddon told the legislative committee.

“Ontario has some of the highest exposure limits for known carcinogens and it’s embarrassing.”

Protecting workers ‘the right thing to do’

USW Local 6500 also is urging the Ontario government to modernize its workers compensation system by introducing presumptive legislation to recognize mining workers’ illnesses as occupational diseases and expedite the processing of compensation claims.

“If we are serious about protecting workers, we need real change … for mining workers in the province’s most-dangerous industry,” Staddon told the committee.

“If a worker spends their career underground and gets lung cancer from the work they do, it should be assumed it came from work. Science supports it, and it’s the right thing to do.”

The reforms advocated by the USW are supported by New Democratic Party members of the legislative committee, particularly Sudbury MPP Jamie West, former Local 6500 member and the Official Opposition’s Critic for the Labour and Energy and Mines portfolios.

PHOTO: Dave Lisi, USW Local 6500 Health and Safety Chair, addresses media at Queen’s Park on the critical need to better protect mining workers from toxins that cause deadly occupational illnesses. Lisi is flanked by Sean Staddon, USW Compensation Officer, left, and Sudbury MPP Jamie West, Official Opposition Critic for the Labour and Energy and Mines portfolios.

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