Victims of aluminum dust in mines are needed for clinic

Janice Martell is finding more and more cases like her father’s.

She is spearheading the McIntyre Powder Project, one that is aimed to identify miners that may have breathed in aluminum dust in underground mines around the world.

The dust was meant to help prevent silicosis, developed and sold by the McIntyre Mine in Schumacher and sent to other mines around the world.

“The theory was if you inhale this aluminum dust, it would coat the lungs, coat the silica molecule and won’t embed in the lungs and prevent silicosis,” says Martell.

“That didn’t happen.”

The powder project began in 1943, but ended in 1979.  Martell says many that breathed in the dust still suffer from the after-effects to this day.

Her father, Jim Hobbs, worked at a mine in Elliot Lake.  She claims that dust contributed to him developing Parkinson’s Disease.

Since starting the project, Martell has heard from hundreds of others.

The Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers is also helping out, setting up an intake clinic at the Ramada Inn on Riverside Drive May 11-12.

Martell says many people are expected to show up to tell their story and at the end of it all, the findings from everyone will be prepared into a report to determine if the aluminum dust is really the cause of the health issues some miners are experiencing.

Even a bus is coming up from Elliot Lake for the clinic.

For more details on the project, you can check their website or through their Facebook page.