Toxic work: Workplace safety and industrial hygiene in Canada’s munitions industry during the Second World War

Alex’s project explores how industrial hygiene was mobilized during the Second World War to support Canada’s munitions industry, which manufactured roughly 4.6 billion rounds of ammunition and artillery shells by 1945. His project focuses on the small army of doctors, nurses, and industrial hygienists who monitored working conditions, safety, and worker health. Their medical expertise was crucial to production because munitions factories were dangerous places: the flow of chemicals, explosives, propellants, acids, and other volatile compounds exposed workers to toxic and energetic hazards. Accidents, fires, and explosions were common, but the scale of production also generated microscopic residues and poisonous vapours that could contaminate environments and infiltrate workers’ bodies. The grant allows Alex to train a team of graduate students in archival research and analysis in medical and military history to uncover new insights into the history of preventative healthcare, workplace safety, and TNT poisoning in the 1940s.