Clean coal in Ohio
I remember back in my photography days traveling to tiny bergs such as Hell's Kitchen and no chef Ramsey wasn't even born yet. Driving up a narrow road in a town that had no post office or even one stop sign you could hear the roar of heavy equipment.
As I got to my appointment you could tell but not see that the coal company was digging just a few hundred yards away from the house on the other side of a hill. There was a bit of dust in the air but it was the constant noise that would have driven me nuts. Why is it that the poor always seem to take the brunt of our manufacturing processes? You buy I nice little piece of acrage on the outskirts of town hoping to have a good place to raise the rug rats and what was once farmland now becomes a strip mine. The poor slobs get hit in the head not once but several times. They fight the companies from coming and when the lose they fight the noise and pollution. And they lose. Then when the mess is left to poison them yet again they fight once more and lose. But the last fight, for their own life and health, they lose even if they win the case. Because no amount of money will ever replace your health when you're slowly dying.
So you stop to consider it. This was many miles from me, out of sight out of mind. It's the next guys problem. Let him deal with it until it happens to me. Nah that's not going to happen to me or could it?
Sad to think that over the past ten years our regulations on pollutants were either watered down or simply not enforced. I saw that first hand in my own industry. Now you can take responsibility for your own situation. I have air and water filters in my home, but you can only go so far in protecting yourself. Then it is up to our government to step in and correct things. I believe we are on that course, but from what was ignored in the recent past it will take time to correct things.
21 comments:
Hey just a note to let you know I was EHS for a number of years. On your respirator it looks like a P100 pre filter.
Some People don't we are the guardians of the planet.
Later
If the poor didn't want to get cancer and die then maybe they should have been rich.
That is indeed a P100. And when Bush got in guess what happened? They lowered the standards on respirators. Now a paper dust mask is considered a respirator although I refuse to wear a paper mask for protection. So I ask how exactly do you get a fit test on a paper mask?
Randal I could be rich. I'll just sell all those books I stole from the library.
Molly Ivins wrote about the plight of poor people overtaken by extractive operations and chemical industries. There's a huge area in Louisiana that is overrun with chemical plants, with residential areas all through it. The people were there first, but of course the plants mean jobs and tax revenues, so the people's health and safety is well down the priorities list.
Elsewhere, the coal industry isn't satisfied with strip mining any more. That's penny ante. Now, coal outfits are leveling mountains, changing water tables, damaging rivers and contaminating vast areas. But hey, they provide some jobs and revenues.
As for regulating, it probably would take at least three committed eight-year Democratic administrations, back to back, to get oversight and regulation to where they ought to be. Even then, you can bet it would be a knock-down, drag-out fight every step of the way.
Demeur
Absolutely correct. In fact paper mask can be more dangerous than nothing at all because you breath the particulates even deeper into your lungs. I remember watching TV on 9-11 and saying to my wife...Look what they gave to all the people in the streets..paper mask. The only thing they are good for is wiping your Ass. The thing is you have to have a written program to give out those things in the work place.
I think you have read some of the numerous stories I have done on this and I have another coming up for earth day but no one is listening and it is too late to turn around if ever we could. It is even worse than Gore says!
Who in the hell is Ramsey? I spent a lot of my youth in a mining town where the rivers ran gray, we didn't know any better at the time you know. Yet, I've made it to 67, maybe I've just gotten lucky.
I don't care what kind of mask you wear my friend, you're still going to die. It's just one of the cold hard facts of life.
Ya Billy but I'd rather die of old age than a slow painful death from one of the cancers. I've seen first hand what a toxic death looks like.
BBC
If that were true Firefighters wouldn't bother donning one. OMG what not just respirators but all other PPE does is keep you safer. Yes in the end we all die. It's just what it is you die from that concerns Safety people. I think the shipyards where all those people came down with asbestosis if given a chance would have opted for a (mask). All I'm saying is if you got to deal with shit, you should be as protected as possible. By the way it could tale 35 years after being exposed to asbestos that symptoms can be seen.
You don't know what you are going to die from anymore than I know what I'm going to die from, the whole idea is to not be afraid to die.
And I don't care how careful you are, you may get one of the cancers anyway.
Richard Feynman got cancer and refused treatment, he just got dead. And if you don't know who Richard Feynman is, shame on you.
You fucking pussies, you're just afraid to die.
Yeah I know that Guy...hell of a Bongo player. Kidding...
As far as afraid to die...Nope wrong guy.
If I was afraid of death I wouldn't do what I do. It's just that I've seen first hand what it does to stupid people who think they're superman and won't wear any PPE.
As you already know, sixty years ago my dad built the house I'm still living in. It was fresh air country. Now we have a huge power plant less than 1/4 mile from my front porch. Should I stop smoking? I dunno. I can't tell the difference from MY pollution and the soot that filters through the house, settles on our faces during the night, and covers the lawn and all outdoor equipment.
I'm Back: Joe was a firefighter for 36 years. At first, they wore no protective masks when they entered buildings, but later OSHA came up with more and more demands and some of those were due to the modernization of chemical compounds being made and used.
Paper masks do nothing past the first few moments of exposure to airborne PARTICLES, not chemicals.
After working at ground zero looking for survivors, New York is still following Joe for health updates. And, yes, Joe smokes. It can't be worse that what he's been exposed to, but we all know what happens to smokers if they live long enough.
grammy dana
There is no such thing as clean coal. We need nuclear "fired" power plants everywhere!
Dana
Please for me and all I know thank Joe for all he does and have done.
I'm sorry for your home.
Tim and Melissa
I agree that in some trades good protection is important, like fire fighting, tearing apart nasty buildings, making porn movies, things like that.
But I seldom have worn any kind of a mask when doing things in my trades, but I wasn't subjected to most of those nasty things for more than a few minutes anyway.
The use of renewables for generating power is to be congratulated. The latest coal market news and coal prices is that emerging countries are predicting to use large amounts of thermal coal for power generation and coal mining for steel production.
Cherry of www.coalportal.com
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