Miners did not only face threats within the workplace, but were very often exposed to pollution where they lived from smelters and other types of ore processing facilities. Ore processing often involves burning crushed material at high temperatures to isolate a desired element or compound. Roasting ore can also release other chemicals, producing smokestack pollution that is threatening to human and non-human life. One common pollutant from mine smelters is sulfur dioxide, which causes chest pain, shortness of breath, and respiratory challenges that can be fatal. Arsenic trioxide is another common smelter byproduct, a substance that is deadly to many organisms in high concentrations, or it may cause skin conditions or cancer over many years of low-dose exposure. Smelter stacks may emit a range of other harmful heavy metals, with each one having unique impacts on local people and environments, and they may also be a major source of water pollution as slag waste, tailings, and contaminated slurries and dumped into local waterways.

Our research on smelter towns in Canada is meant to show that danger very often followed miners into their homes, and that concentrating solely on workplace exposures does not capture the range of toxic threats to miners and their families. Our work will focus on some of the biggest smelters in Canada, including the Horne Smelter at Rouyn-Noranda, the Inco smelter at Copper Cliff/Sudbury, and the huge smelting facility at Trail, British Columbia.