It's a tough life fella's. Don't know how I managed to live this long. Why, come to think about it I know guy's from Libby and Kellogg and Moab, and a couple other towns who are even older than me. Wonder how they lived so long...
Libby, Montana is a mining town: Vermiculite
Kellogg, Idaho is a mining town: Lead
Moab, Utah is a mining town: Uranium
All got ton's of bad press in the newspapers and TV, much more than deserved, in my opinion.
As a teenager I tore down several houses with asbestos siding, don't know how much vermiculite - and other insulation - I've handled. I worked for years in mining, must have breathed in a ton of lead dust, and other stuff that's bad for you. Even worked for a year as a lead burner - that's welding lead lined tanks and lead pipes with lead rods.
Heck, I worked all sorts of electricity, in hot, dusty and humid mining environments. Look down a drift with little air flow, 106 degrees, if someone is walking you see their legs, the rest of them is in the clouds. Well, not real clouds - particles of dust, when they get heavy from the moisture in the air they fall to the ground. Hence, 2' of clear air, which allows you to see the legs of someone walking. We even had to do our work while we were soaking wet. Sweat dripping off your nose. Would clean and soak our tools overnight in used transformer oil. Never had any PPE. Still like that in those mines, boys.
If you go to those towns you will find some people were adversely affected by those elements. But the vast majority were not. I believe a lot of personal hygiene and poor housekeeping and poor child care had an awful lot to do with it. Those small towns had championship sports teams, and many kids went to college on athletic scholarships. I happen to know some who became doctors, lawyers who practiced before the Supreme Court, wall street brokers, a general in the Air Force, two Olympic skiers, my classmate owns a short line railroad in the south! These guys I mentioned all came from families whose father worked in the mine or lead smelter. From a couple small towns with a couple thousand people.
My last job was a coal fired power plant. Came home and spit coal dust every night. Everyone who works there does.
I had a real good friend who died at 40 from lung cancer. Did not smoke, and never lived or worked around any of that stuff.
