I used to work for this abatement company which basically means I removed asbestos from old homes and buildings (true story: a year after graduating high school I was back removing asbestos fireproofing from atop where my old locker used to be). Basically, in Ontario if something was built prior to the mid 80s (1985 I think) it was full of asbestos; it was in drywall, insulation, vermiculite, fireproofing and even ceiling tiles (like the kind in your office). It used to be viewed as this miracle product in the construction industry, it was even put into concrete to strengthen it until everyone who worked with it mysteriously developed mesothelioma and people began looking into suspected side effects of its presence. It always felt to me as if my job was this microcosm of employment as in there was once this huge industry involved in mining, shipping and applying this seemingly innocuous mineral and than overnight that industry died and a new one had been born, removing it. Something we had collectively and recklessly placed throughout our environment now had to be removed somewhat urgently.

While Dr. Sinead Earley spoke of antique pipelines and pumping stations I was reminded of my time in crawl spaces & boiler rooms feverishly ripping off friable insulation in hallways and sections of buildings that had been sealed off, taped shut and forgotten. The convenient use of resources thoughtlessly abused only to realize the apparent damage done years later seems built into our DNA buried somewhere between strings of As and Cs and Gs and Ts. Maybe that’s hyperbolic but it certainly seems like a theme innately true over time; and just as removing century old pipeline involves helicopters and heavy machinery, removing asbestos didn’t come without its heavy environmental toll. It’s a pleasant thought to think we put it back on a truck, drove it up to Asbestos, Quebec (an actual place, not known for its tourism industry) where it was dumped back into the ground and Alpine Fur trees were planted atop for the moose to eat although this was not the case. In reality we put it into big yellow garbage bags (often using hundreds per job) and then put those bags into other clear plastic bags (yes, seriously) and then those bags were placed into a big metal container where it was driven to God knows where and buried. It’s not glamorous but did you think it would be? We moved a mess from one room to another, it’s the industrial equivalent of moving food around on your plate so your mom thinks you’ve eaten your veggies, its not gone just shuffled around. Anyway, I’m rambling and have reached my word count so to conclude, yes I learned lots, yes I was intrigued and no it’s not applicable to my research but it did make me think about how we clean up our messes, and the mess we make in doing so.