The Federal Government of Canada: Stop the opening or re-opening of ANY ASBESTOS MINES in Canada

In my youth I was nievely exposed to ‘free asbestos shorts’ as a plumbing apprentice in 1970-71, when eagerly I soon learned what a ‘blown tube’ on a boiler meant.
Being the ‘smallest member on the crew’ guarantied me the job of climbing through the natural gas power burner mount opening on the old revamped coal burning, tube rib design hot water heating boilers at the Park Village Apartments in Prince George, to rebuild the ‘target wall’.

These boilers had three parallel rows of heat collection tubes running the length of the boiler in a ‘rib type’ design, so if a tube in either of the outer rows was blown, it had to be welded from the ’outside’ by removing the ‘outer covering section’.

So, with only the ‘target wall’ to rebuild it could be done without removing the ‘front boiler door’ (this required 3 - 4 more hours of work) providing the worker could squeeze through the burner connection opening. (this was all prior to Confined Space regulations too!)

Here, I was also introduced to asbestos shorts ... first hand and in the raw form, as in ... pouring it from the paper bags it was packaged in, into a five gallon pail, then mixing it with water into a mortar which is what I would then use to ‘build’ the fire brick target wall. ... That was after having climbed in to break up the remaining wall, and passing the ‘fire bricks’ out to my cousin to prepare them further by chipping off the remaining asbestos grout from the previous time. ...

All the while, ... we weren't even provided with the cheepest paper dust masks! ... since no workmen’s compensation rules had been written on this yet, so, how were we to know? ... we weren’t warned, ...  BUT WE DO KNOW BETTER NOW ... AND NO EXPOSURE IS ACCEPTABLE!

During my stint in Fort McMurray (2006-2010) we went through intense asbestos abatement training, and were told plus shown what ‘early third world type worker exposure’ had been like, ... so when I tell my story people are shocked that this has happened in Canada! ... and even more amazed as I am ...

Because, ... I used to watch, WAIT and worry because, ... I have so far out lived the normal mortality curve of 20 -25 years after even light exposure to this carcinogen.

STOP ... STEVEN ... HARPER ... PLEASE ... DO NOT LET THEM DO THIS TO ... ANYONE ... ANYWHERE ... ANYMORE!

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