OHCOW continues to work on claims for this cluster with high rates of cancer, even though the claims were rejected in 2008.

Background  

Algoma Steel, (formally Essar Steel) was founded in 1902, and is the largest employer in Sault Ste Marie and the second largest Steel producer in Canada.  Algoma Steel currently employees more than 2,700 unionized workers of United Steel Workers Local 2251 (USW Local 2251) and United Steelworkers Local 2724 (USW Local 2724). Their products are used in automotive, construction, energy, manufacturing, tube and steel distribution industries.

In May of 2008, USW Local 2251 held a 2-day Occupational Disease intake clinic in collaboration with OHCOW. Workers and their families had approached the union after being diagnosed with various Occupational illnesses. At the time of the intake clinic, Sault Ste Marie had four times the provincial cancer rate, according to the Algoma and District Health Unit and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) statistics. USW Local 2251 members accounted for 3% of the provincial Occupational Disease fatalities registered with WSIB.

540 USW Local 2251 members and their families attended the intake clinic on May 7th and 8th. After the clinic, they held five additional mini-intake sessions surveying an additional 193 workers. As a result, 1,165 claims were filed by USW Local 2251, 261 claims were allowed and 596 were denied. These denied claims were continued to be worked on by USW Local 2251, and files continued to be referred to OHCOW.

In 2022, USW Local 2251 and USW Local 2724 asked OHCOW to reopen the cluster investigation project. OHCOW then established an interdisciplinary team to review the previously denied and abandoned claims. Letters were sent to all past clients and workers who attended the intake clinic in 2008 re-offering services. The OHCOW team commenced consent calls, requested WSIB claims, reviewed the WSIB claim files and moved the files through interdisciplinary consult meetings. The claims were reviewed to see if literature and/or law and legislation has changed, and if these previously denied claims can now be supported.

The risk factors for cancer and various illnesses are multifactorial. For the patient to be entitled to benefits, a causal relationship between the occupational exposure and the diagnosis must be demonstrated. Lung Cancer and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the most predominant illness to come out of the Algoma Steel Cluster investigation project. Workplace exposures of asbestos, silica, coke oven emissions, respirable dusts etc. continue to be reviewed by our hygienists.

At this time our Algoma Cluster investigation team continues to work through files that have been reopened as well as newly referred files, this is an ongoing project.

What’s coming next?

• In 2025-2026, we will continue to contact workers or their next-of-kin through follow-up phone calls and letters to update their information and determine what further support can be provided.
• As part of our ongoing work, we will continue to obtain, compile, and review medical records and work histories of individual clients, and we will develop individual reports regarding the contribution of work exposures to health issues.
• Supporting workers through the WSIB GI Cancer Policy Change

In response to the recent policy change at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) regarding gastrointestinal (GI) cancer claims, OHCOW has taken proactive steps to support affected workers and advocates. Recognizing the significance of this change, we have activated a dedicated team to review previously denied claims and assess them under the new policy framework. Through this work, OHCOW is working closely with workers, their families, and advocates to ensure that previously denied files are reconsidered.

Investigating a Mini-Cluster of Brain Cancer Cases

A group of brain cancer cases have been identified within the larger occupational disease cluster. OHCOW has established a dedicated team to investigate these files. Our experts are conducting in-depth assessments to determine potential occupational exposures.

We want to hear from you! 

• Did you or your family member work at Algoma Steel?
• Do you have concerns about the impact of your work on your health?
• Contact The Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW) at 1-613-218-7345 or email jmontgomery@ohcow.on.ca
• for further information or to register with us as part of our Algoma Steel cluster investigation

Conversations with miners and their families are ongoing, and project updates have been mailed out. Presentations on McIntyre Powder have been made in educational institutions and unions.

Background

McIntyre Powder (finely ground aluminum dust) was administered to mine workers in Ontario in most gold and uranium mines between 1943 and 1979, under the mistaken belief that it would prevent the lung disease silicosis. Since 2016, OHCOW has been actively investigating the health issues linked to McIntyre Powder and multiple other mining exposures experienced by Ontario mine workers, such as diesel engine exhaust, respirable crystalline silica, lubricants, ionizing radiation, arsenic, solvents, dusts, fumes, and more.

What did we accomplish this year?

• Conducting intensive follow-up outreach to workers and their families
  - In addition to the significant number of incoming calls and inquiries we receive almost daily from workers or their surviving family members, we prioritized actively following up with our McIntyre Powder-exposed mine workers to gather updates on their health status, contact information, WSIB claim outcomes, and more.
• Initiating 479 phone calls and sent 490 letters to workers or their next-of-kin, including 375 follow-up outreach calls and 104 follow-up letters to document updates and provide further services as needed.
• Mailing project update newsletters to 509 workers and their families.
• Supporting workers and their families to navigate the WSIB claims process, including assisting with the initial paperwork to file claims for 35 workers for 42 health conditions. We continue to link workers with worker representative services for WSIB claims.
• Raising awareness through our annual newsletter, media engagement, and email outreach to MP mine workers and their next-of-kin regarding the findings of a new study published in American Journal of Industrial Medicine that links McIntyre Powder exposure to increased risk of specific types of cardiovascular disease (heart attacks, ischemic heart disease, and congestive heart failure). We began the process of assisting affected workers or their next-of-kin to commence new occupational disease claims for cardiovascular disease, as a result of this study.
• Registering 14 new McIntyre Powder-exposed mine workers for our services.

We conducted multidisciplinary reviews of individual worker files and provided individualized reports to support workers’ compensation claims.

• Our Physician-led multidisciplinary team reviewed the medical and work history records for 52 workers to assess for any work-related health issues and determine the next steps.
• We provided our MP mine workers (or their legal next-of-kin) with 21 individual medical and 17 occupational hygiene reports addressing their specific work exposures and health issues. These reports supported the pursuit of individual WSIB claims, and reconsideration of denied claims.

We conducted educational presentations to the next generation of labour leaders and occupational hygienists.

• Presentations on McIntyre Powder history and our work with the McIntyre Powder cluster were provided through our community partner, the McIntyre Powder Project, to Labour Advocacy students at Laurentian University, Occupational Hygiene senior students at the University of Toronto, and labour leaders at the USW Justice 2024 conference.

What’s coming next?

• We will continue to support workers to complete the initial paperwork to start workers’ compensation (WSIB) claims for health conditions related to their mining exposures, and to link them with services from the Office of the Worker Adviser to represent them on claims and appeals.
• We will continue our ongoing work to gather, compile, and review individual client medical and work history records, and to provide individual reports to workers regarding the contribution of their work exposures to the development of their health issues. This will include a specific focus on cardiovascular disease, given the recent study findings.

We want to hear from you!

• Did you or your family member work in Ontario mines that used McIntyre Powder?
• Do you have concerns about the impact of your work on your health?
• Contact OHCOW at 1-800-461-7120 for further information or to register with us as part of our group of McIntyre Powder-exposed mine workers.

The Project

In 1981, a German plastic auto parts firm came to Canada and first located in a 22,000 square foot facility in Kitchener, Ontario. Initially, automobile parts were made in Germany, then, were shipped to Kitchener for completion, and finally routed to General Motors in the United States. In 1984, a new production line was developed using a process called “post‐lamination” for making auto side molding with coated stainless steel sheet metal.

Employees at work. Source. 

By 1986, parts were manufactured at the Kitchener plant using an innovative process, “reaction injection molding,” brought from Germany and called “R‐RIM”. With production expanding, the company set up a second facility in Peterborough, purchasing a 200,000 sq. ft. metal clad structure, which was expanded in the late 1990s to accommodate its larger thermoplastic injection molding machines and production operations. The current plant is well over 350,000 square feet. Over a decade (1986 to 1996), the Ventra Plastics workforce grew from 75 to 575 women and men, with production increasing from one product to 30 different products. Initially when most jobs involved close “hand work”, the workforce included more women than men (60:40), becoming closer to 50:50 as operations became more automated.

The Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW) has been actively engaged in with the Ventra Plastics workers since 2004, working very closely with Unifor Local 1987. Many different illnesses have been reported, including but not limited to:

Cancer

• Lung
• Salivary Gland
• Breast
• Prostate

Ventra/Pebra worker obituaries compiled by Rose Wickman and Jackie Dufty (Unifor Local 1987) to mark and honor lives lost.

Among others (e.g., pancreatic, colon, GI)

• Chronic Toxic Encephalopathy (CTE) - brain injury
• Female Reproductive Issues
• Respiratory Outcomes (e.g. COPD)
• Cardiovascular disease
• Asthma
• Headaches and Migraines 
• Musculoskeletal Issues

In 2025, Ventra Plastics workers face new challenges and stressors, including job loss, due to the implementation of automotive industry tariffs by the United States’ Trump administration.

What did we accomplish this year?

• Mailing project update newsletters to workers and their families.​
• Continuing to conduct health and exposure interviews with workers and their families.
• Conducting reproductive health questionnaires with workers who have expressed concerns about their reproductive health and potential connections to work tasks.
• Supporting workers and their families in navigating the WSIB claims process, including assisting with the initial paperwork to file claims, completing the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board Intent to Object Form (ITO) and actively collaborating with Unifor Local 1987 and The Office of The Worker Advisor (OWA).
• Hosting a virtual information session to register new workers, to discuss key diagnoses and exposures within the plant, to share information about reproductive health, and to support workers in understanding the worker’s compensation process.  The recording of this virtual session is here. 

What’s coming next?

OHCOW and Unifor Local 1987 will host another in-person session on June 24, 2025

• Continuing worker outreach in 2025-2026 by conducting follow-up calls and sending update letters to workers and their family members. These follow-up efforts will allow us to obtain any updates to health information and assess how we can offer additional support.
• Continuing our ongoing work in the collection, compilation, and examination of the individual client files, medical and work and exposure history. We will further review client files and provide reports detailing the correlation between the workers work and exposure and the onset health issues.
• Continuing to work with our Interdisciplinary team to review files and provide reports to the workers or estates legal representatives to submit to The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) on their behalf.
• Planning to host an information session focused on reproductive health concerns, including creation of a resource outlining key exposures of concern (e.g. chemical, physical, emotional) as well as recommendations related to task modifications that could improve safety. An occupational health physician and/or nurse will be present for this session.

We want to hear from you!

• Did you or your family member work at Pebra/Ventra Plastics?
• Do you have concerns about the impact of your work on your health?

Please Contact our Occupational Health Coordinator, Jessica Montgomery at 1-613-218-7345 for further information or to register with us as part of our group of Ventra Plastics Project.

For workers with reproductive health concerns:

We are investigating potential linkages to workplace duties or hazards.

In 2014 OHCOW saw 15 patients with a variety of nasal and respiratory symptoms from the Kellog's plant in London, Ontario. Three workers had been exposed to carbon monoxide. 20 patients from this factory are currently being seen by OHCOW.

What did we accomplish this year?

We secured WSIB advocacy and began patient work.

• Advocacy was secured with an Office of the Worker Advisor (OWA) team.
• A Kelloggs Intro meeting brought others up to date with documents and work completed so far on this project.
• Approximately six workers were contacted, and each reported multiple issues.
• Our new system with OWA initiated compensation claims for those workers that have been called. Currently we are awaiting the status of those WSIB claims.

What’s coming next?

An OHCOW/OWA meeting is planned to allow both organizations to develop common ground with our processes. Freedom of Information Requests with WSIB, MLTSD and MOE are moving forward, and OHCOW will be conducting more worker outreach in 2025/6. This outreach will include letters to workers or their next-of-kin, to update their information and take histories to identify occupational diseases from their other work experience. Once the WSIB claims of the 20 workers are received, we will meet to review the outcomes, update our CHR with cases, and identify common denied diseases for physician and hygiene work ups. Also in the works:

• Finishing reports on the current twenty patients, with referrals to the OWA.
• Gathering, compiling, and reviewing current WSIB claims and those that have been submitted in the past.
• An active Kellogg's Facebook page (with 70 followers) will be used for outreach, with postings and information. We will monitor the response from that posting.
• Arranging for medical and industrial hygiene assessments to provided individual reports for workers and their workers compensation (WSIB) claims for health conditions related to their work exposures.  These claims will be case managed by Occupational Health Nurses.

The Neelon Casting project is an investigation into the occupational exposures and working conditions at a Steel foundry in Sudbury Ontario specializing in brake parts manufacturing. Established in 1975 under the name Neelon Steel, the facility underwent ownership changes to become Dana brake parts, and eventually Affinia Canada Corp. In 2007, the plant, which employed 240 workers at the time, closed.
Throughout the 32 years of the Foundry’s operation, over 2,000 unionized workers were employed there. Since the inception of this project, more than 500 of these former workers and family members have reached out to the United Steelworkers, Local 2020 to share and document their experiences working at the plant.

Since 2020, OHCOW has been actively engaged investigating the health concerns reported by the Neelon Casting workers and their families. The connections between the working conditions, chemical exposures, and the prevailing health issues noted among the former employees are being investigated.

What did we accomplish this year?

• Continuing to conduct work and exposure interviews with workers and their families.
• Supporting workers and their families to navigate the WSIB claims process, including assisting with the initial paperwork to file claims, and working with The United Steelworkers, Local 2020.
• Our Occupational hygienists created a data base to store all the Ministry of Labour documentation that was previously requested through Freedom of Information requests.
• Our occupational physicians have reviewed all the Neelon Casting files that have been denied due to medical and if they were able to support the claim have provided written reports to the worker representatives to support to The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.

Supporting Workers Through the WSIB GI Cancer Policy Change:

In response to the recent Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) policy change regarding gastrointestinal (GI) cancer claims, and asbestos exposure, OHCOW has taken proactive measures to support affected Neelon workers and their families. Recognizing the impact of this policy update, we established a dedicated working group comprising an Occupational Hygienist, an Occupational Health Coordinator, and a Legal Representative to provide expertise and guidance in navigating this updated framework in policy 16-02-11 (October 1, 2024). Our primary focus is to review previously denied Neelon GI cancer claims and assess them within the framework of the updated policy. This involves conducting detailed re-examinations of the worker’s work and exposure histories to determine if the claim meet the revised asbestos exposure criteria. By leveraging our expertise in occupational hygiene, and legal lens we are ensuring that each case is thoroughly reviewed

What’s coming next?

• Plans to conduct extensive worker outreach in 2025-20256 through follow-up phone calls and letters to workers or their next-of-kin, to update your information and determine what further supports we can provide to the Neelon Casting Workers and their families.
• Continuing to support workers to complete the initial paperwork to initiate Workplace Safety and Insurance Board claims (WSIB) for health conditions related to their exposures at the Neelon Casting Foundry, and to link them with services from The United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2020 or The Office of The Worker Advisor (OWA)
• Continuing our ongoing work in the collection, compilation, and examination of the individual client files, medical and work and exposure history. We will further review client files and provide reports detailing the correlation between the workers work and exposure and the onset health issues.

We want to hear from you!

• Did you or your family member work at Neelon Casting, Dana Brake Parts of Affina Canada Corp?
• Do you have concerns about the impact of your work on your health?
• Please Contact our Occupational Health Coordinator, Jessica Montgomery at 1-613-218-7345 for further information or to register with us as part of our group of the Neelon Casting project.

Historic photo of the Dominion Tire Factory in Kitchener, Ontario.

The Rubber Worker Project is one of OHCOW’s most long-standing projects. Research has shown that there are links between certain rubber industry exposures and health impacts experienced by workers, including cancer outcomes. In this project, we aim to review and conduct research on potential connections between rubber work and health as well as share our learnings with rubber workers and their families to help: (1) prevent or reduce harmful exposures at work, (2) synthesize medical and hygiene evidence for worker’s compensation claims, and (3) identify areas for further research. 

What did we accomplish this year?

We continue to update our rubber worker client database to prepare for further case support.

• Our rubber worker project database allows us to investigate emerging links between certain workplace exposures and health outcomes.
• This year, we have used the database to better understand how cases are proceeding through the workers compensation system.
• For example, 15 case decisions have been overturned at WSIAT, whereas 18 additional cases are currently under appeal.

We are reviewing groups of cases organized by common diagnoses and exposures to identify known and emerging patterns.

• We supported 36 workers and/or their families with new or existing WSIB occupational disease claims.
• We conducted in-depth reviews of 21 occupational disease cases with our interdisciplinary team (physicians, nurses, hygienists, etc.)
• We held a case conference with the Office of the Worker Advisor to provide updates and outline next steps for each shared occupational disease file to ensure we can keep them moving forward in a timely manner.
• This year, we have expanded our targeted case reviews to include GI cancers, including stomach, esophageal, and colorectal cancer.
• We will continue to review primary outcomes of concern raised by rubber workers and their families (e.g. bladder and lung cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, COPD, etc.)

We are preparing educational materials for workers.

Salivary gland cancer

• Salivary gland cancer is a rare cancer of the salivary glands, which are the glands that produce saliva in your mouth. Multiple rubber workers in our cohort have been diagnosed with this illness.
• We finalized a systematic literature review on existing connections between salivary gland cancer and occupational/environmental exposures in 2024 (submitted for publication Spring 2025).

Rubber industry hazards resource

• Our hygiene team has worked to create a document summarizing key rubber industry hazards. To-date, we have included information on N-nitrosamines, carbon black, and toluene, with plans to expand.

We hosted a focus group with rubber worker retirees (SOAR) to learn more about exposures.

• We met with a group of rubber retirees to (1) provide updates on the status of OHCOW medical cases, (2) learn more about plants that are currently active in Canada (to support us in sharing our lessons-learned with active workers), and (3) to gain feedback on the format, location, and timing of our next in-person information session planned for 2025-26.

What’s coming next?

• We plan to update our website with new educational materials for workers and their families.
• We will continue to expand worker outreach in 2025-2026, including to active rubber workers.
• We are planning a public information session in summer/fall 2025 to share our findings to date.
• We will continue to support workers with exposure prevention and worker compensation matters.

We want to hear from you!

• Have you and/or your family members worked in the rubber industry?
• Do you have concerns about the impact of your work on your health?
• Contact OHCOW anytime for a medical or exposure prevention consultation at rw@ohcow.on.ca.

Our team continues to gather and review available medical and work history records for individual GE clients. We also research and review available evidence from scientific studies and clinical literature of health conditions that have links to past workplace exposures at GE Peterborough.

What did we accomplish this year?

• We completed medical and occupational hygiene reports for lung cancer, liver cancer and prostate cancer cases.

• We created various exposure assessment tools and occupational hygiene (OH) assessment templates, that allowed us to assess multiple cases with the same diagnosis

• Occupational hygiene exposure report templates, for each of the diagnosis examined this year were created, utilizing standardized text and a review of all relevant occupational exposures related to the diagnosis. This approach allowed for timely, concise, and consistent exposure assessments of similar types of denied claims.

What’s coming next?

A Freedom of information (FOI) request was submitted to obtain occupational health and safety records for General Electric Trenton. OHCOW has received this documentation, and the GE project hygiene team is currently assessing this information.

• Continued interdisciplinary teamwork with Prostate Cancer (Reproductive System) claims
• Interdisciplinary team focus on Pancreatic Cancer and Respiratory disease processes
• Review and recognition of files that can be revisited by WSIB due to policy changes and updates
• Continued review and interdisciplinary team work on files from a body systematic perspective
• Continued efforts to communicate with workers, worker advocates, families and interested stake holders by OHCOW reach out and town halls
• The March GE Project community partners meeting will be scheduled later this year

We want to hear from you!

• Did you or your family member work at General Electric in Peterborough?
• Do you have concerns about the impact of your work on your health?
• Contact OHCOW for further information or to register with us as part of our GE Peterborough worker cohort.

Back Injuries and Materials Handling Video Series

This series of eight videos was produced during Global Ergonomics Month 2024 in recognition of the MLITSD Industrial Sector Compliance Initiative on Material Handling. This year-long enforcement campaign asks inspectors to visit various sectors where fatalities and critical injuries are taking place. The focus is on workplaces where materials, articles or things are lifted, carried, or moved, and puts workers at risk of being injured by their movement.

GO TO PLAYLIST

SEE THE GLOBAL ERGONOMICS PAGE 2024