Sweeping it Under the Rug: Decontamination and the Environmental Costs of Canada’s Munitions Industry

• In Event: Unwarranted Influence: Canada's Military-Industrial Complex and the Environment, 1940-1980

Abstract

During the Second World War, Canadian industries produced mountains of weapons, ammunition, and explosives. Between 1939 and 1945, approximately 4.4 billion rounds of ammunition, 72 million artillery shells, 1.5 million firearms, and over 144,000 tons of Trinitrotoluene (TNT) were manufactured by a vast network of newly-constructed war factories. Although such productivity was a wartime necessity, manufacturing munitions was not only dangerous for workers, it also generated significant environmental contamination. Ordnance production requires a diverse and potent mixture of toxic chemicals, acids, heavy metals, and other volatile components. Despite specialized equipment and stringent safety guidelines, accidents and injuries were common. In addition to these energetic dangers, the scale and pace of production exposed workers to microscopic health hazards: residues, particulates, and vapours from explosive compounds infiltrated workers’ bodies and the surrounding landscapes and waterways.

Drawing from a wide-range of archival sources and my on-going research into the history of munitions disposal after the Second World War, my paper will examine the health and environmental consequences of Canada’s military-industrial complex. Using explosives production and destruction at several sites across Canada (such as the Defence Industries Ltd. factory in Nobel, Ontario or the Canadian Army’s training base outside Vernon, British Columbia), I will explore how the contamination of military and industrial activities was interpreted by government and military officials, scientists, and medical experts in the 1940s. Contextualizing contemporary knowledge about toxicity and pollution is crucial to understanding the porous nature of postwar decontamination procedures and the ineffective disposal of unexploded ordnance. By examining the war’s “long shadows” in Canada, this presentation offers new insights into the troubling social, economic, and environmental costs of the military-industrial complex.

Author

• Alex Souchen, University of Western Ontario