Chase Ripper

Britain's Coal Mines

Purpose of Coal What is it used for? Coal has many uses such as- An energy source for heat or electricity. A form of fuel. Making steel. Coal was once heavily used to heat homes. During the Industrial Revolution coal was primarily made into steel for rail road tracks, trains, and fueling trains.

Who worked in the coal mines? Young children and women primarily worked in the coal mines. They mainly used young children and women in the mines because they were easier to keep under maintenance and control. The children often worked the same hours as adults, but with less pay. The children had were used as trappers, hurriers, thrusters, and getters. The trappers job was to open and close trap doors to allow fresh to air flow in. The hurriers and thrusters jobs were to haul loads of coal back. Hurriers would be harnessed to the tub of coal, and the thrusters would help hurriers by pushing the tubs of coal. The getters were usually the oldest strongest members, Their job was to work at the coal face cutting the coal from the seam with a pickaxe.

Coal mining can end up leading to a lot of health hazards and or dangers. These health hazards and dangers include: Black Lung- Large exposure to coal dust can eventually build up to black lung. Usually when people acquire black lung disease it doesn’t do all too much, however in about 1-2% of people it can cause scarring. The scarring can destroy portions of the lung and blood vessels. This can eventually lead to serious respiratory problems, including respiratory failure. Mercury- Coal contains high counts of mercury, when burned it can cause loss of intellectual capacity of the nervous system. Coal Dust Explosions- These explosions occur from fast combustion of dust particles floating in the air. This is a decently common thing to occur within a coal mine. Health hazards/ Dangers of coal mining

Injuries and Death If any workers were injured within the coal mine they would NOT be ensured. All they would receive from an injury is an injury and a loss of work. They would be fired and deemed unable to work in the coal mine if the injury was to serious. If a worker was killed on the job sight nothing much would happen. They would not be insured and they would just be replaced, without much care.

Australian Mining Rio Tinto They mine copper, aluminum, iron, and diamonds. Prices of Iron In Australia, June 2012 the price of iron ore was

Who do they hire? Rio Tinto hires capable well experienced people. They do not hire children, only what you would expect from a modern day company.

Unions Most miners form unions to get them in a better working environment. Unions help workers to work collectively to deal with their issues like bargaining collective employment agreements, problem solving, and working on concerns of workers across the industry

Strikes If miners go on strike and get locked out and people come to take there jobs they are known as “scabs”. If the new workers crossed the picket line they would be called out as scabs.

Modern Dangers In modern day there are still many dangers of mining. Black damp: a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen in a mine that can cause suffocation. White damp: air containing carbon monoxide which is toxic, even at low concentrations. Black lung as well is still an issue for miners today. There are many improvements being created for mining safety. One large improvement that has been made is the ability to read the count of gases and toxic particles in the air. This does cost money to have these safety processions, but it is probably worth it in the end.

Raven Underground Coal Project The Raven Underground Coal Project is a coal mine in Comox that has a lot of controversies attached to it, for it can cause a lot of pollution. There are some benefits to have the Raven Mine in Comox such as creating many jobs for the unemployed. People would want to work in such an environment because it has decent pay (it creates a job for them if they are without one). Shellfish operation would be affected if Raven Underground were to be finished. Shellfish says they are saying that Raven Underground should be stopped and that it’s polluting the waters. Benefits

Coal is essential for making steel and if I were the owner of Raven Underground I would probably build a refinery near the mine. Roberta Stevenson is worried about pollution and money. Many, many shellfish have already died causing the company to lose out on 28million dollars already.

Map of Raven Underground Tsable river, Cowie creek, Cougar Smith creek, Wilfred (coal) creek, and Buckley Bay may be affected by the coal mine. These waters contain shellfish which are worth a lot of money.

Support? I am personally against the Raven Underground Coal Mine. I think it pollutes far too much and doesn’t belong here. Sure it provides jobs and money for some, but at a large cost of itself. It kills thousands of shellfish and pollutes the waters and the land. I don’t think that is really worth it.