The Royal Commission on the Health and Safety of Workers in Mines, informally known as the Ham Commission, was a 1974 Canadian royal commission founded to investigate and report on the safety of underground mines. [1] [2] [3]
The commission was created by Bill Davis as a result of the 1974 Elliot Lake miners strike and led by James Milton Ham. Findings from the commission formed the basis of all subsequent health and safety legislation in Canada.
In the 1970s, the Canadian mining sector had the highest injury rate of all industries in Canada. [4]
On 18 April 1974, uranium miners at Elliot Lake, concerned about the prevalence of lung cancer and silicosis, started a fourteen-day wildcat strike. [5] [6] The strike prompted Ontario Premier Bill Davis on 10 September 1974 to ask engineer and university administrator [7] James Ham to lead a commission on the health and safety of workers in uranium mines. [4] [8] The commission focused on the two uranium mining regions in Ontario: Elliot Lake and Bancroft.
James Ham submitted his report on 30 June 1976. [4] [8] Later the commission became known as The Ham Commission. [3]
The commission produced 117 recommendations [8] including a need for legislation to provide workers with three rights, [9] which the Institute for Work & Health described in 2010: [3]
- "Knowledge – having ready access to information about actual and expected conditions at the workplace, and about the state of health of the workers;
- Contributive responsibility – to provide individual and collective insight on problems on the basis of knowledge and work experience; and
- Direct responsibility – to make operative decisions that influence conditions at work". [3]
These three rights have become the basis of all modern health and safety legislation in Canada. [9] The commission created the concept of the Internal Responsibility System [1] [3] which became a key element of the Occupational Health and Safety Act in 1979. [1] [8] The Internal Responsibility System requires that workplaces properly control risk, although systems of government inspections and regulation were also recommended, with that responsibility falling to the Ontario Ministry of Labour. [3] Other recommendations were documented in United Steelworkers union leader Lynn R. Williams' 2011 memoir One Day Longer: [10]
- that government consult with industry and workers while creating safety rules in mines, specifically with regards to dust and ventilation
- that government make rules to measure dust exposure in mines
- that workers get compensated for injury from workplace hazards
- that air quality be monitored, with specific regards to radiation, dust and contaminants
- that government consult with workers, industry and the Workmen's Compensation Board and create better systems for reporting of accidents and injuries
- that a health and safety committee be struck at every mine with equal representation from workers and management
- that priority be given to the accredited training for mine workers
- that workers be have a mechanism to object to tasks assigned by their line manager if they deem them unreasonable and that their objection be heard by more senior management with an auditor observing
- that industry stated health surveillance of workers [10]
The recommendations led to the passing of Bill 70, [10] which lead to the creation of the provincial Occupational Health and Safety Act in 1979. [3] Because the commission was a federal government process, the findings did not immediately affect provincial legislation, however the unionized miners used the recommendations from the commission to inform their collective bargaining. [4] [8]
Vic Pakalnis, the CEO of the Mining Innovation Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation described Ham as the "father of occupational health and safety in Canada." [4]
Elliot Lake is a city in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is north of Lake Huron, midway between the cities of Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie in the Northern Ontario region. Once dubbed the "uranium capital of the world," Elliot Lake has since diversified to a hub for advanced manufacturing, forest harvesting, mine reclamation expertise, retirement living, all-season tourism and remote work.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is a US labor law governing the federal law of occupational health and safety in the private sector and federal government in the United States. It was enacted by Congress in 1970 and was signed by President Richard Nixon on December 29, 1970. Its main goal is to ensure that employers provide employees with an environment free from recognized hazards, such as exposure to toxic chemicals, excessive noise levels, mechanical dangers, heat or cold stress, or unsanitary conditions. The Act created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
The Canada Labour Code is an Act of the Parliament of Canada to consolidate certain statutes respecting labour. The objective of the Code is to facilitate production by controlling strikes & lockouts, occupational safety and health, and some employment standards.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is a large agency of the United States Department of Labor which administers the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 to enforce compliance with mandatory safety and health standards as a means to eliminate fatal accidents, to reduce the frequency and severity of nonfatal accidents, to minimize health hazards, and to promote improved safety and health conditions in the nation's mines. MSHA carries out the mandates of the Mine Act at all mining and mineral processing operations in the United States, regardless of size, number of employees, commodity mined, or method of extraction. David Zatezalo was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, and head of MSHA, on November 30, 2017. He served until January 20, 2021. Jeannette Galanais served as Acting Assistant Secretary by President Joe Biden on February 1, 2021 until Christopher Williamson took office on April 11, 2022.
Black lung disease (BLD), also known as coal workers' pneumoconiosis, or simply black lung, is an occupational type of pneumoconiosis caused by long-term inhalation and deposition of coal dust in the lungs and the consequent lung tissue's reaction to its presence. It is common in coal miners and others who work with coal. It is similar to both silicosis from inhaling silica dust and asbestosis from inhaling asbestos dust. Inhaled coal dust progressively builds up in the lungs and leads to inflammation, fibrosis, and in worse cases, necrosis.
James Milton Ham, was a Canadian engineer, university administrator and President of the University of Toronto.
The Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 is an International Labor Organization Convention adopted at the 82nd International Labor Conference (ILC). The convention (C176) was developed and adopted to better recognize the inherent hazards of the mining workplace and the necessity of addressing these hazards on a global scale.
The National Day of Mourning, or Workers' Mourning Day is observed in Canada on 28 April. It commemorates workers who have been killed, injured or suffered illness due to workplace related hazards and occupational exposures.
Denison Mines Corp. is a Canadian uranium exploration, development, and production company. Founded by Stephen B. Roman, and best known for its uranium mining in Blind River and Elliot Lake, it later diversified into coal, potash, and other projects.
This is a timeline of labour issues and events in Canada.
Madawaska Mine (previously known as Faraday Mine) is a decommissioned underground uranium mine in Faraday, near the town of Bancroft, Ontario, which produced 9 million pounds (4,082 tonnes) of U3O8 concentrate, at an average ore grade of 0.1074%, during its two periods of production.
A safety management system (SMS) is a management system designed to manage occupational safety and health risks in the workplace. If the system contains elements of management of longer-term health impacts and occupational disease, it may be referred to as a safety and health management system (SHMS) or health and safety management system.
The Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) was founded in 1969 by the National Coal Board (NCB) as an independent charity in Edinburgh, UK and retains its charitable purpose and status today. The "Institute" has a subsidiary, IOM Consulting Limited, which became fully independent in 1990 and now celebrates its 25th year within the IOM Group as an independent consultancy and also the commercial part of the IOM organization. It specializes in asbestos surveys and services, occupational hygiene services, nanotechnology safety, laboratory analysis and expert witness consulting services. IOM is therefore one of the UK's major independent "not for profit" centres of science in the fields of environmental health, occupational hygiene and occupational safety.
Canada is the world's second-largest producer of uranium, behind Kazakhstan. In 2009, 20% of the world's primary uranium production came from mines in Canada. 14.5% of the world production came from one mine, McArthur River. Currently, the only producing area in Canada is northern Saskatchewan, although other areas have had active mines in the past.
Ontario Mine Rescue is the program that creates, oversees and evaluates mine rescue training and standards in the province of Ontario. The Ontario Mine Rescue program is administered by Workplace Safety North, part of the prevention arm of the Ontario Ministry of Labour.
Occupational epidemiology is a subdiscipline of epidemiology that focuses on investigations of workers and the workplace. Occupational epidemiologic studies examine health outcomes among workers, and their potential association with conditions in the workplace including noise, chemicals, heat, or radiation, or work organization such as schedules.
The Division of Industrial Hygiene was a division of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) with responsibility for occupational safety and health programs. It existed from 1914 until 1971, when it became the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). It had several names during its existence, most notably the Office of Industrial Hygiene and Sanitation in its earlier years and the Division of Occupational Health during its later years.
Uranium mining around Bancroft, Ontario, was conducted at four sites, beginning in the early 1950s and concluding by 1982. Bancroft was one of two major uranium-producing areas in Ontario, and one of seven in Canada, all located along the edge of the Canadian Shield. In the context of mining, the "Bancroft area" includes Haliburton, Hastings, and Renfrew counties, and all areas between Minden and Lake Clear. Activity in the mid-1950s was described by engineer A. S. Bayne in a 1977 report as the "greatest uranium prospecting rush in the world".
The Elliot Lake Miners Strike was a wildcat strike by approximately 1,000 uranium miners who worked at Denison uranium mine in the Elliot Lake area of Ontario, Canada. The strike was the first time that Canadian workers had taken industrial action over safety concerns, and it led to Ontario Premier Bill Davis creating a royal commission which led to the creation of new health and safety legislation.
Uranium mining in the Elliot Lake area represents one of two major uranium-producing areas in Ontario, and one of seven in Canada.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)