Paper

My grandfather worked most of his life at the paper mill in Camas Washington. It has since changed owners so I don't have to fear for my life when I tell you that he died of lung cancer most likely due to the asbestos removal that he was involved with at the mill. My father said that when he was growing up he would have to check every morning just to make sure that he hadn't shat his bed in the night. Not that he ever shat his bed, just that even after living next to a paper mill for years and years the smell was so bad that it was impossible to believe that the source wasn't right there in the bed with him. I too know this smell from visiting my grandparents as a kid, and my dad now (yes, he's back in the old home town now), and let me tell you it is a stench beyond reckoning.

Of course we're not here to discuss scent pollution.

We were discussing paper. Once the dangerous process of logging has been completed and the wood for the paper has been trucked, trained (sit up loggy - oh I mean transported by train), or rivered (a dangerous and difficult task of guiding logs as they float down the river) to the paper plant begins the next set of dangers in the book production process come about. Again, as with logging, the modern paper making process usually involves very large and dangerous equipment. (here is a cute kid's video about the paper making process: Paper Video

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