When I was 17 I started to asbestos mine in the Yukon. I had the excitement of youth and looked like a great adventure. Mine was about 7 kilometers from the border of Alaska at Forty Mile River, which flows into the Yukon about 5 miles or so north.
I was the first time in August and worked on the crew area. This was the group responsible for outside maintenance of all things on the surface. This was fine when we had those few relatively warm days of summer, but later it was a bit difficult to work outdoors under 55F.
One of my first tasks was to keep clear the conveyor that took the unused asbestos tailings piles. Tailings piles are basically the dregs of the current asbestos after milling on the left and the mill on conveyor belts to large piles behind the mill. At that time there were about 100 meters.
They gave me a shovel and a small screen (for example, those little use paper, artists) and told to go shovel the line on tailings piles. Obediently I went with my little shovel to remove blockages of asbestos from the conveyor is clear. I distinctly remember at one point standing literally knee to asbestos stack 100 feet high and looks me in the mask of very poor quality and see the inside (where it should not be), any uncertainty to asbestos dust. Then I took the scarf (yes, I wore one), and I blew her nose. Sorry for the rude, graphic description, but it was gray. And that was my introduction to the work in asbestos mines.
Already in the early 1970s, it was known that asbestos can cause problems. Work in the mine, we get brochures handed around periodically propaganda, as it was never proven that asbestos was actually harmful. They were beautiful glossy brochures. I’m sorry I kept one.
Although I had the opportunity to go to the factory for various reasons, though I was glad that I do not work there. There were people who sweep the plant whose only job was to dust, which falls to the ground work. There is so much to him that it is constant work. Asbestos dust in the plant itself fell almost like snow and covered the ground completely. Without sweepers there would probably be a few inches of dust on the floor in an hour or were. In fact, I remember their brooms sweeping large deposits of dust on the floor, and new for them as they left to go.
Yukon itself was beautiful. Superb, in fact. I have had many great experiences there and saw some natural wonders I have not seen anywhere else I could. I hitchiked Alaska Highway with a friend. In those days the road was not paved. Most of the trip was a good family, who were in an old school bus on the way, are available. Rattle and dust. Rattle and dust. But we were in Whitehorse and
Dawson City. I loved Dawson. It was like a step back in time. Not only is the architecture and building, but the people friendly and old world charm, but tempered with a solution that you need to live in harsh conditions.
Yukon has to calm her down. Almost calm that you can feel. I found that only those who were there, and they were fully understand what I mean.
In all this beauty, I think the asbestos mine was a plague or a cancer on the environment. Fortunately, now restored closed for many years, the nature of the territory, but unfortunately asbestos mining has left the legacy of asbestosis and mesothelioma, with some former employees. There are many resources available to information, legal and personal mesothelioma, but do not let that consume a lot of soul and body. People are not sensitive enough to vagarities life as it is. There are a lot of “drama” going on without us spending all our efforts on the debt. Shut up. Remember your duty in life to help others. Be happy and try to improve life around you.
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