A group from a small Ontario city demanded Wednesday that nickel producer Inco accept total blame for the unsafe air quality found in many of their houses, and asked the province to take greater interest in resolving the issue.

The dozen Port Colborne residents, who call themselves the Coalition Against Contamination, stand by tests that show high amounts of cancer-causing nickel is present in their homes.

The southern Ontario community is the site of an old Inco refinery that processed more than 2.5 million tonnes of nickel oxide between 1918 and 1984.

Residents and the mining company have been locked in a battle over nickel contamination since 2000, when the province found higher-than-normal levels of nickel in the soil.

Inco insists the air levels are normal and that only one home contains air contaminated at levels above the average range of normal homes in Ontario.

Company spokesman Steve Mitchell said, "Those homes are safe. The air is safe."

But residents disagree and want the provincial government to force Inco to clean the inside of their homes.

One of the protesters who came to Toronto on Wednesday, nine-year-old Tommy Pearson, laments that playing baseball at the diamond is not possible because of the contamination.

"I have asthma and I really don't like playing in the dirt because I start coughing and hacking and it hurts my chest," said Tommy.

Protest organizer Diana Wiggins said the contamination has made many people sick with asthma, cancer, kidney failure and painful rashes.

She and 1,500 other Port Colborne residents have filed a class-action suit against the 100-year-old company.

Wiggins is holding out hope that government will take notice of the group's demands and side with the residents against Inco.

Ontario Environment Minister Chris Stockwell said Inco was ordered to clean up 25 homes in Port Colborne, but some residents refused to allow Inco to enter their homes.