Taken Out by a Speck of Dust
For Jim Hobbs and his daughter Janice Martell
Taken Out by a Speck of Dust
When I heard her say “When you watch a man like that, get Taken Out by a Speck of Dust, You Fight” after describing who her father was, my emotions were very evident. Feeling both sad and mad caused my heart to drop, my throat swelled and wouldn’t swallow, my eyes became wet and anger started to boil. As Janice Martell illustrated who her father Jim Hobbs was, I could only think how much I wish I could have met the men and how much she loves him. Jim Hobbs died May 24, 2017 at the age of 76 from complication of Parkinson's disease. This was the direct cause from forced inhalation of the McIntyre Powder.
Personal Background
When I trained to became a Respirator Fit Tester, I started researching topics for an Instructional Orientation I would need to deliver prior to the actual test. Under the CSA Standards Z94.4-02, the criteria’s clear on what content must be conveyed to workers. Yet this content is the bare minimum. As a safety professional I wanted more information to inform my clients. Using Google, I started looking at occupational disease that are very preventable by utilizing a half face respirator with proper HEPA filters.
One such disease that’s very interesting for myself, as I am an ex-mason is Silicosis. Just as deadly as Asbestos, where-as one can develop the disease Asbestosis, Silicosis is the disease that’s developed from exposure to Crystalline Silica. Silica dust is, a substance found in concrete, bricks, block, stone, and a wide range of related materials.
Crystalline Silica and a History of Silicosis
They knew about it for over 460 years. Maybe note by name, yet the disease Silicosis was first discovered back in the 16th Century as a disease that developed in people who worked with stones and in mines.
In a book titled “De re metallica” [1] written 467 years ago in 1556 by a German author named Georg Bauer, whose pen name was Georgius Agricola makes mention of a disease described a pulmonary disease afflicting stonecutters and miners. [2]
Then in 1713, Dr. Bernardino Ramazzini, considered the founder of occupational medicine, also identified evidence of silicosis in stone cutters. Roughly 200 years later, Dr. Alice Hamilton, a physician whose work resulted in significant safety and health reforms, documented silica related illnesses among granite workers.[3]
In the early 1930s a tunnel was constructed as part of a hydroelectric project. Called the Hawks Nest Tunnel Project, it was later daubed, The Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster. [4] A 3-mile-long (4.8km) tunnel through Gauley Mountain located between Ansted and Gauley Bridge, West Virginia. With in 2 years of working on this project a hundred workers died from silicosis and another 1500 were already developing serious signs of the disease. [5] A final death toll was said to be 476 workers who died from Silicosis. A brief video can be seen here
Researching for Content
As I’m scrolling and researching for content for my new service of Respirator Fit Testing, a snippet from a website down the list caught my eye. The phrase “McIntyre Powder” was a little confusing to me. Now I’ll be honest. At first, I thought my internet was corrupter. Why is Google showing me stuff about an Apple and some powder. I then diverted my research and began looking into this McIntyre Powder. That’s when I came across the website titled the “McIntyre Powder Project”
However, the sites heading “Aluminum Dust Exposure & Health Issues”, was so compelling to read more, I had to see what this was about. The more I read, the more I felt sick to my stomach. Then one section of a sentence caused me to become overwhelmingly pissed off. I couldn’t believe what I read.
“From 1943 to approximately 1979, miners employed primarily in gold and uranium mines, and some base metal and radium mines in Canada, the United States, Belgian Congo, Western Australia, Chile, Mexico, and Geevor Tin Mine in England, were required to breathe in McIntyre Powder aluminum dust prior to each shift”.
Required Inhalation
That one word, “Required” sounded like it was some sort of legal directive. Much as our own safety authority here in British Columbia states something that is mandatory or essential. For example, in the WorkSafe BC Regulations 8.40 Fit Tests it says “A respirator which requires an effective seal with the face for proper functioning….”
However, this was not a law, or a Mandatory Directive in place by any legislative governing authority. NO, in this case Required meant a pre shift procedure that was forced upon workers as a condition of their employment imposed by the ownership of the McIntyre Mines.
McIntyre Powder
I contacted the website owner and the one who started the McIntyre Powder Project to find out more. This is what she had to say and I quote,
“McIntyre Powder was finely ground aluminum dust that was used by industrial licensees on their workforce as a theoretical medical treatment against the lung disease silicosis. Aluminum inhalation was used in over 200 worksites globally between 1943 and 1979. The aluminum dust was dispersed by a compressed air system into miners’ change rooms, and workers would be instructed to breathe deeply to inhale the aluminum into their lungs.
I am the daughter of one of the affected miners and I founded the McIntyre Powder Project in 2015 to document health issues in affected workers. I have spoken with hundreds of McIntyre Powder-exposed mine workers and they consistently reported that they had no choice but to inhale the aluminum, and that they were not allowed to cover their faces or otherwise attempt to avoid the aluminum inhalation.” - Janice Martell.
Chemically, this powder is created from 85% aluminum oxide and 15% elemental aluminum
Upon further research I also came across this video from back in 1979. Titled “Aluminium dust in mining” and presented by a CBC news program The Fifth Estate, it shows what these miners had to endure. In order to provide shelter, food, and security for their families, miners were forced to “Breath in Deeply” this black disgusting aluminum powder.
With in the episode a specific mine manager name Harry Pike verbally describes the procedure on how the powered is delivered to the workers. However, he refused to completely demonstrate the procedure in whole stating “It would serve no useful purpose to show this to the Canadian public”
Creators of the McIntyre Powder
The McIntyre Powder was created by The McIntyre Research Foundation. A so-called non-profit corporation financed by the McIntyre Porcupine Mines Limited. Originally formed to conduct research and investigations in connection with the prevention, mitigation, and elimination of industrial diseases. Established in 1939 as McIntyre Research Limited, they soon patented a theory and procedure for aluminum therapy as a preventative measure against silicosis in miners. Conjured up was the McIntyre Powder.
The co- inventors of the treatment were Dr. W.D. Robson and J.J. Denny, who were respectively, plant physician and engineers of the mining company. With that being said, who remembers the Camel cigarette commercials. Camel Cigarettes stated "4 out of 5 doctors preferred Camel over any other brand" or how about the movie Erin Brockovich. It's a well know fact that company "paid for" doctors with do and say anything they are told to.
In 1946, the shareholders of McIntyre Research Limited turned over their interest to McIntyre Research Foundation. The Foundation's research work was initially concerned with the chemical and physical processes which determine the incidence and rate of development of silicosis.
With in the fore mentioned Fifth Estate program Aluminium dust in mining, The head of the McIntyre Research Foundation William Dicks, who is not a doctor nor has any medical expertise, rather in a former Vice President of the mine bearing the same name demonstrates how fine the power is. He also says silicosis is a management problem they don’t force a man to take it, referring to the powder. I personally do not believe this vice presidents last comment.
Deliverance
The McIntyre Power is derived to workers by way of inserting a canister of the powder within the tubing of a system that pumps air into the rooms where mine workers change into their work cloths. Prescribed for 10 minutes at concentrations of 20,000 – 34,000 ppm (parts per million), workers were in a sealed room (Fig.1) where as some sessions lasted as long as 20 minutes. [6]
Figure 1 Basic layout of a Mines changeroom, where workers were forced to inhale the McIntyre Powder. Gas Chamber
Similarities
In retrospect, I really don’t see much difference in the thinking of the mine owners and the Nazi perpetrators of a secret plan called The Final Solution during WWII. The only difference between these two gas chamber procedures is, the former was designed to commit genocide and the later was to keep making the ownership of these mines richer. Yet people died because of both.
This is what miners had to endure. This is what the father of Janice Martell went through daily. Never coming home and bitching about it. He suffered in silence and every day before work he sustained another so-called treatment of being gassed with McIntyre Powder. He put up with this, sacrificing his body, health and eventually his life for one specific reason. That was for him, to see his children get a good education ands careers. Therefore, they themselves would never know the hardships of being a miner.
Yet his youngest daughter Janice knows all to well now what he and over 27,000 other miners had to live with.
Who was Jim Hobbs
On Saturday July 15, in the year 1940, over in Europe, World War II was well into it’s second year. The German U-Boat U-137 was commissioned. The Allied evacuation of military personnel and civilians from France codenamed Operation Aerial began. The French fortress at Verdun, which famously never surrendered in World War I, surrendered to the Germans. Yet back her in Canada Jim Hobbs was born. The eldest son of 11 children in total, It was soon learned by Jim just how tough times could be.
For me to describe who Jim Hobbs was, just couldn’t do it justice. So please Watch this video showing you his life as it’s narrated in her own voice by his daughter Janice Martell. I can only ad from a person who never was honored to met him, he sounded like a man’s man, much like my own father who was born a little earlier.
Diseases derived from Forced Inhaling of the McIntyre Powder
With some debate into the full list, and as research is ongoing, some of the diseases derived from forced inhaling of the McIntyre Powder are both respiratory disorders and neurological disorders. These include Parkinson’s, ALS Lou Gehrig’s disease, Alzheimer’s, dementia, Lung Cancer.
On a personal not, I watched my mother her younger sister, and a cousin die from ALS, after suffering with it for some time. ALS is a neurological disease that affects motor neurons—those nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. Voluntary muscles are those we choose to move to produce movements like chewing, walking, and talking.
We watched as my mom turned from a 5foot 10-inch 180lb woman who baked bread from scratch, dug and planted a garden, to running the entire home, transform into a 98lb person who couldn’t talk anymore, needed to be feed through an intervenes and required a in room crane so the nurses could bath and change her.
In addition, my mom’s older sister died from Alzheimer’s after suffering through that for years. The elder sister was emotionally worse to witness. Even though we all knew her, she didn’t know any of us any longer.
These are diseases nobody would ever want to go through, witness a family member die from, or even wish on their own worst enemy. One can only imagine what these miners have gone through and are still going through to this day.
McIntyre Powder Project
Out of 452 miners (both living and dead) on the McIntyre Powder Project list, two-thirds have respiratory disorders and one-third have neurological disorders. The most common neurological disease is Parkinson’s with 43 miners out of 452 being diagnosed with the condition. Alzheimer’s is also common, with 27 miners being diagnosed, followed by dementia in 16 miners.
There are 97 cancer diagnoses on the list, 47 of which are for lung cancer. There are also some relatively obscure conditions such as Lewy body dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. According to ALS Canada, the lifetime risk of developing ALS is 1 in 1,000 — but there are 14 known cases of ALS among the miners.
Voluntary Registry
The purpose of the Voluntary Registry is to provide a centralized place to gather and document health issues in miners or other workers who were exposed to McIntyre Powder aluminum dust in the workplace. Most of those miners/workers are retired or deceased, so hearing from their SURVIVORS is key to ensuring that every worker who struggled with or died from health issues potentially related to aluminum dust exposure is accounted for.
To sign up, please follow this link.
Source References
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_re_metallica
[2] https://www.silicosis.com/history/
[3] https://www.silica-safe.org/regulations-and-requirements/status-of-regulatory-efforts/history
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawks_Nest_Tunnel_disaster
[5] https://www.silica-safe.org/regulations-and-requirements/status-of-regulatory-efforts/history
