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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Clairton, PA, is home to the country's largest coke manufacturing plant. It also boasts alarming childhood asthma rates. TONIC's Adam Banicki met with steel workers, community members, doctors and officials to learn how the two may be connected.
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I work at a steelworks in the UK in the coke oven plant, I work specifically on the coke battery. We're required to return our overalls after every shift to get them cleaned & to pick up fresh ones the next day because of the PAH's in the gas. We're also required to wear air stream helmets that cover your head and circulate air to minimise gas inhalation. Although it is my livelihood and essential to making high quality coke for the furnaces, and ultimately high quality steel, this process as far as the environment, health of workers and surrounding population is concerned is disastrous. The steelworkers are right, the most stand out & visible gas coming from the plant is always the steam, because the coke is over 1000 degrees when it is quenched, but to deny there is not a great deal of harmful gas being pumped into the air is a lie. Having a plant of that scale only dedicated to cokemaking is asking for cancer.
what was the yellow "steam"?
most likely sulfur. It depends on the type of coal that is used how much sulfur is in the coal.
Coke is essentially used in the iron production because it is basically pure Carbon and doesn't crumble while burning. To get these properties you essentially burn all those impurities from the coal off (carbon burns a lot slower than sulfur, hydrogen, and so on)
Usually Bituminous coal is used in the coke production and contains 0.7% to 4.0% (weight) of Sulfur and that is essentially burnt off.
Technically it would be possible to basically stop that Sulfur emission, but I doubt that it is done at that plant. The raffinery in Vienna uses a really new process to burn the rest of the vacuum destillation process (high Sulfur content) but they installed a "filter" and make sulfuric acid, which is usually used for car batteries.
Sure you do.
I bet it's not the company requiring it, too. It's some "supposedly-evil and misguided" regulators that are imposing these requirements on the company. Private sector doing the right thing for labor? Yeah right!!! This is why government regulations are a necessary evil. I wish we lived in a world where we didn't need to resort to this.
+Wicdz why would I lie lol. I work at Tata Steel
I work for US Steel in Pittsburg, Ca and I can tell you that they don't care what's put in the air. The community around the mill has a very high rate of asthma and cancer but it's a hush hush issue. We were just fined $2 million from environmental but we are never told why. The cancer rate at work is outrageous! We know the risks and accept it for the paycheck. It's the only place especially in California where you can make over 100k with just a high school education. Point is, the company would rather pay the fines than to invest a massive amount of money into fixing the amount of pollution they create.
If any of this comment was true you’d know Clairton Mill is in Pittsburgh PA you jackass.
@@elemento1991 www.ussposco.com/
US Steel in Pittsburg, California.
Zack He never said he worked at Clairton Works dude LMAO
Pittsburgh, Ca is a cold finishing facility. The emission from cold finishing is very little compared to primary end steel production.
@@coldwar45dude is lying. Us steel has no plants in California and hasnt had any since the late 90s so theres no way he actively works for them in California as he states
I assume that that 'yellow steam' is actually water vapor mixed with a high concentration of sulfur :|
But "it *just* turns to clouds", and you *just* get acidic rain.
Can confirm that is exactly the case. I drive past the place in the going to work and coming home, and that is literally the exact smell that comes when they are quenching in the mornings.
I live down river from this plant and I will say absolutely. I am not even all that close and I can tell when they are quenching coal with a lot of sulfur in it. Can't wait to move to another state.
fuckin jesus...:(
:... (
That Day Care lady is such a sweet, gentle lady. God bless her, may she live a super long healthy life. I like her 😊
"why is that steam yellow?"
"Might have a problem with the tower there or whatever."
Wow, I'm sure glad thats all cleared up.
Trainy these companies don’t care. They just pay their fine to get the government off their back and look like they are doing something. Fines for pollution are pennies to the millions of dollars they are making. Or they get penalized so badly they shut the company down and walk away with their big bags of money while everyone else suffers
Trainy lol it’s STEAM! Nothing to see here
They don't care if it pays for their huge truck, etc.
If its not yellow you should be worried. It's a specific scrubber that is made to turn the steam yellow to indicate that it's working correctly
VICE, hire someone that knows more about science to do these interviews. I can tell this guy wants to ask tough questions but doesn't know enough to. As an environmental scientist, I would have tried to shred that guy who tried to justify the yellow steam by saying it's just pure steam.
he wants to ask tough questions but he cant because then the guy would just say no comment and end the interview, you have to tread lightly when interviewing people who know they're wrong
As It Is What It Is said, you can't "shred that guy" or else he'd just walk away and cut the interview, and this entire trip / story wouldve been a waste for Vice.
There's no reason to. The purpose of the documentary is not to change those people's minds. The point is to bring awareness to what's going on there and the people involved. They are not intervening, they are observing.
You'll never be able to change people's Bret and Owen "Harts"
You seriously think that a scientist could just go and do interviews without having the right education and exp. in journalism? Fuck off, dude - you know nothing.
Looks like the worlds biggest vape to me.
underrated
Typical uneducated leftist media tryna make vaping out to be bad for your health.
Also causes cancer
Anyone else remember that Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns tried to convince the citizens their power plant discharge was non-toxic by eating blinky??? Same thing.
Why are so many pro-trump Americans against environmental regulations? As an outsider I'm baffled by how against some of you guys in the US are against environmental regulation, climate change regulation and global warming prevention.
and global cooling prevention, and galactic heating prevention, and cosmic rays prevention
I think it has to do with getting immediate benefit vs long term benefit.
Sigh, they're ruining the lives of their children
because of the populist nature of US politics. It is always about the short term immediate result, because you can brag and shout about it louder. The country is going to a shit hole - people are getting poorer and dumber, even the economy is growing. It just lands in the hands of the ones who will never step foot near anything like that and will be well off even if the global warming will fuck up 99% of the planet because they will own the 1%. Show a stupid uneducated person a candy and he'll start screaming "murica first, f..ck carbon tax, f..ck treehuggers!! trump trump trump". So this is just plain awful. If they consumed less then at least the rest of the world could make a dent on saving the environment...
Kastytis Kemezys even if they don't believe in climate change, why are they so against renewables? gives your country energy freedom, creates far more jobs than carbon based energy production, far better for health of locals, makes you a technology leader etc.
it's crazy
Curious to know after the company is fined where does this MONEY go to? Does it get recirculated back to those in the community who are suffering from the side effects or used to implement better standards for pollution in the town?
Of course not!
U.S. steel is in my city too and they've never done anything for the community. People say it helps the economy but nothing ever gets better locally, it's just chain stores like anywhere else. The smell from the mill is awful and ik its destroying everyone's health. U.S. steel is greedy and evil bc of the amount of damage they've caused
The funny thing is, you don't see nearly this many problems surrounding facilities to do with nuclear energy because the regulations and rules governing them are so much more strict. People don't fuck around with radiation. But they don't give a damn if they poison their kids with coal. The irony is that coal actually contains a good bit of radioactive contaminants which end up in the atmosphere and surrounding environment. Because of the strictness of regulations at nuclear facilities, coal plants actually generate more radioactive pollution than nuclear plants. Not waste mind you, pollution. Which for the sake of this conversation will be considered any waste which ends up somewhere other than in containment.
'We should not have to worry about having to breathe.' This got me
yes i live in clairton and our steel company kept paying the pollution fines like it was nothing
You forgot The air also smells Here in Clairton ( that is probably true of most towns with mills but still ).
At this point would you sue the factory?
I couldn't live there my anxiety would be through the roof, I'd feel like I was suffocating.
Family lived there for almost 25 years and none of them have any problems
Fuck that hits home i have athsma and i was born near tasman pulp and paper mill
Cool spotlight on the issue. Very important!
This is what gave New England Acid Rain in the 70's and 80's, right?
drops everything and watches whole thing. Vice documentaries are where it's attttttt
Very insightful but this dude asks too many questions with blatantly obvious answers.
I can appreciate the locals wanting to have clean air. I grew up down the Ohio River from there where chemical manufacturers have large plants. But in that area if you removed the plant, there is no town. Unless they want to sell sticks.
wow this is sad. I hope one day changes can be made.
🙏
water vapor, a.k.a. steam, can be mixed with other things....
"We have the strictest emissions system in the world"
Drives 6.2L home
Steam can carry chemicals. Saying it is just steam doesn't mean it's safe.
I grew up in Pittsburgh and I've been past this plant I C town vice your in the 412 but the air quality was said to have got better idk I moved away 10 yrs ago 💛🖤💛
Dude that did this has got some trippy eyes, but that's a sad story foreal
The journalist has incredible eyes.
I fucking died laughing when he said “that ones yellow”
was that a metal detector in the school? jesus...
Yellow steam? o yeah thats very safe. lol
That isn't smoke. It's steam. Steam from the steamed clams we're having.
Keeping these jobs in america isnt a solution...we need a president that closes down mining and refining for good and provides alternative jobs...
Just make fines escalate for repeat offenses so people can't afford to keep getting violations. There is no point in creating a rule and saying somebody is wrong or that you shouldn't do something, then make it more cost effective to ignore said rule forever.
I can taste the air tonight, the steam trickles with color. as I cough and gag so you can make your dollar.
9:50 lmao those kids fashion
the yellow one is probley the chemical scrubber needing a change
Which would have given warning indicators weeks ahead of time. There is a digital guage that shows it's status in live time
still better than Norilsk
his eyes are diff colors!! that's crazy
Somebody knows what the music starting at 5.45 is?
The yellow appearance is simply due to vantage point and position of the sun at that time of day. I'm sure you won't believe me though.
AHAHA do to my lack of understanding of steelwork before I clicked I presumed they were saying a Coca-Cola factory was producing toxic air. Should have known when they didn't put a capital C on Coke
I remember that the same city was in Cimino Deer Hunter, isn't it?
I dont know why theyre trying so hard to save the town. Let it die, and stop wasting time.
Is sulfur that bad? hell in Florida we got sulfur in the ground water people aren't dropping dead from that here.
Coke? Am I getting this right COKE?
ohnemoy0 yea i was confused too... so coke as in cocaine...?????🤧
shii y’all think the smokes bad you should come out here in the morning and smell the “fresh” air 😭😭
Why dont they just move away..jesus. Just move. what a depressing ass city
this color grading makes me freaking depressed
Funny the town is built around the 70 year old plant. This town will be great when the plant is closed and everyone is at mc Donald's' much better ventilation.
Tonic? Is the atmosphere a soft drink?
BlackBlade4Life ah I see. Thanks
Just normal yellow steam nothing to see over here
21:00 pretty much sums it up, reality check...
Steam barely stays visible this is smoke
Luxury Fun no lol you can see steam too
You haven't seen BEIJING!!!
ybian they did a video on Beijing years ago
Hola soy de México y no le entendí nada lo ciento. saludos
good reporter
ok, I gotta know.. which one is real? the left or the right?
Pepsi gets the last laugh.
that vice what i like
It's not just steam. I monitor "steam" for a living as a CEMs Technician, that "steam" while heavily regulated is still full of SO2, NOx, CO, H2S etc. which all in their own way are harmful.
Very harmful to say the least. I would bet that guy saying it’s just steam fully believes that too as he has had it pounded into his head by noses who knew they were destroying his health. Even the least harmful stuff in that “cloud” is extremely bad for our health. Lots of it being corrosive, noxious, flammable, or outright poisonous. It accumulates in the very lane around that plant. I would wager no one living in that city is safe
*ITS JUST YELLOW STEAM, JUST TRUST ME*
SEEMS LEGIT
That is sulfur from the coal burning process, which you could filter and produce sulfuric acid but I doubt that they do that.
@@thrownchance smarter than acid rain for sure
It was steam that came through a lime scrubber. A type of scrubber specifically designed to eliminate harmful toxins from the steam before exiting the battery. The yellow is from the desgin of the scrubber aswell the mixed cleaning agents
when a person says "trust me" you know its lies
kronaxxx x Trust me, when people say trust me you shouldn't trust them.
huh? My comment isn't there? I never posted it... o.0
same for a person that says "believe me"
kronaxxx x read this as he said it lol. Also was reading, listening, watching, and thinking, "I also used to run on coke." Also I may have ADD. I have definitely have AD-WOAH LOOK A RABBIT.
Distrust me
Sad when the President Of The Union pretty much sounds like the PR man for the company .Yellow. steam?/? Unions were meant to protect workers not just spout the companies lies...
holy fuck that place looks depressing
frankenstein01 Having spent some time in Western Pennsylvania, I can attest to that fact. Pittsburgh is s nice little city, but the surrounding areas are very unpleasant.
frankenstein01 looks like jobs
www.science.gov/topicpages/c/coke+oven+emissions.html FOR GENOCIDE
i live about 15-20 minutes away from Clairton, every time I drive past it's just ugly to look at, also on the side of the plant in big letters it says "CITE - Continuous Improvement To Enviroment" while spewing smoke in the air.
frankenstein01 that's literally just what outer Pittsburgh looks like haha
You gotta love how Americans will sell each other down the river for a couple dollars! “ That’s just steam “ “ My check hasn’t bounced in 44 years “
A job mixed with denial must be a fantastic thing, ......... Yellow steam smelling of eggs may not be a good thing, but lies and denial kicked in "oh it's fine its clouds"
If the people of the town are 20 times more likely to develop cancer then what does that mean for the people that work at the place
I imagi- I hope they get safety gear. America is infamous for choosing corporate profits over lives.
I really can't careless about health of people working there, stating money as an excuse. If you have to destroy the planet to pay the bill, maybe it is time to get the fuck out of this shit hole.
My pap worked there for 37 years and today at 86 he's still going strong
@@Mck499 black lung
That old guy talking about the love hate relationship with the EPA doesn't like homeboy asking questions. Looks at him like he's a panty-waist, Nancy boy. LOl
It's more cost effective for the steel companies to pay the very small fines imposed than to make the changes necessary to be in compliance with emissions. That's just not right - if the penalties were significantly more than the costs to comply and meet (or even exceed) the emissions requirements, then and only then would changes be made. The almighty dollar is held in higher regard than the quality of life for the residents in the area. Yes, as a former resident of Western Pennsylvania, the air quality is much, much better than what it was in my grandfather's era - but it is not good enough.
I wonder if this situation would be rectified if the board or officers of the steel companies lived in the immediate area? Would they care about their families health be more important to them than their salaries?
I bet those workers that were protecting the company got a big bonus out of that
"Haven't had a bounced check in 44 years" (smiles) " oh it's just steam from water" (not smiling)
yeah, who needs the EPA? the private sector always self-regulates and everyone acts rationally for long-term interests. MAGA.
I watched this video way longer than I should've before I realized it wasn't about Coca-Cola
vice can you plz do a follow up on this story!!! same thing here in hamilton ontario canada... U.S steel is the worst!
Chinese steel a dozen times worse
Mystic Virgo He meant "U.S. Steel" as in the name of the steel company the video focuses on. Also there is no difference between american steel and chinese steel manufacturing, china just produces more.
Canada actually does something with its regulations unlike most countries like the US. You have little to nothing to worry about, you have more to worry about driving your vehicle on the road.
I realized he was talking the company and not the industry .. still China does not have near the regulations for emissions than the united states and europe have. as well as quantity .. this due to polices that made it more cost effective to ship out iron ore and scrap to china...
That's not really the case. While the process is pretty much identical, the difference in technologies used is tremendous.
I used to live in Allegheny County, and I can confirm that the factories in the area are really pervasive if you stop to think about it... I remember the coughing that the UTZ chips factory used to give me, too... Shit.
manmade pollution... yet were arguing about it
You can tell the Union member doesnt know what hes talking about. Clearly Clairton is having issues and instead of addressing those issues he just wants everyone to ignore the problems.
"Yeah thats steam..." ok
*Pans over to yellow one*
"Oh, uhm, yeah that's also just steam..." MHMM SURE
With Trump leaving climate agreements American companies must geht their shit together and think about the future themselves. Will not work in most cases cause people are greedy af. A vast majority of groceries you can buy in the US wouldnt even be legal in the EU
What a stinky liar 4:20
Leaving this place was the best decision of my life.
I live 20mins away from clarion and I actually never knew the impact clarion works was having on the area
I understand where the union is coming from. Coke is quite lucrative. I mean, we're talking in upwards of $300 per gram street value lol
U.S Steel makes $11.57 Billion Dollars in Revenue..was is $2.2 Millions dollars in fines to them.. smh
DaanBeats stop talking your stupid and have no idea what your talking about
Rick Bricker c'mon man why insult people..the understanding that they make a lot of money with petty fines still is at hand. I hope your day is going well and continues to get better.
Thanks for the Documentary Vice, it's hard to believe they would build a huge industrial complex like that with suburbs and homes looking over. Suppose that was the way it was done in the past and to unprofitable to move the factory at this point. There is no way heavy industry like Coke production won't have a negative health effect on people living in such close proximity.
Something in the Clairton and McKeesport air also causes multiple sclerosis
Pennsylvania has the highest MS population
My pap worked their rate ontop of the battery (where the steam comes from) he stood over it for 36 years and as of today he's the strongest 86 year old I've ever met
why do they keep taking a hard working mans jobs away , this sucks
Charlie: Oh, I'm sorry. Well I could put the trash into a landfill where it's going to stay for millions of years, or I could burn it up, get a nice smokey smell in here and let that smoke go into the sky where it turns into stars.
Mac: That doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about stars to dispute him.
Great piece - that being said, a sterner and more knowledgeable host would have been beneficial. The yellow steam was an absolute joke; no one was falling for that, pal.
those union workers are either paid liars or in heavy, knowing, denial.
Or literally paid off by the company; which in that region - is not at all unusual
Those union workers don't want to be jobless because of some hippie's concern about "muh Earth"
@Ferden - It's more like "muh children" because people there are 20 times more likely to develop cancer because of said steam releasing pollutants. Not that an ignoramus like yourself cares about facts or anything. I look forward to the conservative generation finally dying out within the next 20 years.
They may just be too dumb to realize it is more than steam. Seriously there are groups of people that are this dumb
The employees are either ignorant or bound by employment. Steam can absolutely carry particles, end of story.
See that yellow steam? It's just steam, it's the same as white steam, exactly the same.
See that yellow snow? It's just snow, it's the same as white snow, exactly the same.
That dude saying it's just "steam" sounds drunk af lol
Haven't we learned to not listen to old people at this point? The newer generation is willing to change, but the older generation, not so much. The old man is obviously lying to the guy, but is too hard headed to say that he believes they are polluting the air...
Those guys only care about making just enough money to be fairly comfortable and living out their lives uneventfully. “Never had a check bounce” wow that’s something to write home about. Speaking of good healthcare, they are gonna need it.
Eyyyyy this was neat since I live in pittsburgh
"Our plant is the cleanest in the country, trust me" sound familiar? "No one does anything better than me, believe me" - Trump... see what you did America? The social cancer is spreading
Why do they have a metal detector in the school? Is the gun situation in the US really that bad?
yes. Clairton is a high crime area however it has one of the best highshool football teams in the country ! GO Bears!