Once regarded as a miracle construction material because of its fire resistance, asbestos is now known to be one of the most dangerous airborne contaminants in the world. Exposure to even very small amounts of this crystalline substance can cause potentially fatal lung diseases such asbestosis, mesothelioma and lung cancer.

Building on expertise in the historical geographies of asbestos mining, waste, and toxicity, our team will examine the “inescapable ecologies” (Nash 2006) of asbestos in Canada. We plan to trace the historical routes of asbestos exposure, contamination, and remediation, connecting mine sites in B.C. (Cassiar), Quebec (Thetford Mines) and Newfoundland (Baie Verte) to occupational disease in the bodies of asbestos workers at processing and production facilities in southern Ontario (the GE facility in Peterborough and the abandoned Holmes Foundary in Sarnia). We will also examine the records of Ontario’s Royal Commission on Asbestos (Archives of Ontario RG 18-193), which has a significant amount of detail and oral testimony relating to pollution inside factories and within communities. Based on oral histories and archival research, this sub-project links the occupational health controversies that arose at these sites with emerging concerns around environmental asbestos contamination and remediation, and any linkages among gender, race and illness in asbestos workplaces.