Surprisingly, carbon black exposure is NOT associated with increased risk of lung disease. I was raised in Borger,TX. home of a huge plant. In the fifties and sixties,before regulations,the black covered everything. Even now google the image and you will see the black patch west of the city. I thought all wild animals were coal black until I was twelve. My Dad worked there for many years, is ninety now and no lung disease. As a native and a physician, I investigated the risk from the carbon and confirmed the really is not a risk to health in spite of the look. One speculates that the pure charcoal/carbon may have at worst been neutral and possibly had some protective effect from carcinogens. Unfortunately, most of the men working there also smoked cigarettes and did suffer the consequences to health.
I grew up in Fritch, Texas, which is between Amarillo and Borger and not too far from Sunray. My dad worked at the carbon black plant in Borger in the 1950s & '60s. Sometimes we'd pick him up after work. The men would take a shower at the end of the day at the plant, but he could never ever wash ALL of the black off. The "whiteface" cattle in the area always had gray faces. We rarely had a problem with the carbon black getting all the way to Fritch - about 15 miles - but we had relatives in Buenavista, a "suburb" of Borger who had a lot of problems with laundry hanging out, etc. Seemed completely normal at the time to us too but sure seems funny now. Not ha-ha funny but kind of sad funny, I think.
Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Sun, 04/01/2007 - 10:05pm.
I grew up in Aransas Pass, Texas in the 1940's and the "Carbon Black Plant" out in the scrub Oak brush just off the coast of Redfish Bay, East of the town, belched dense black smoke constantly . . my neighbors, the Gentry boys, came home from work every day looking just like this fellow . . . a damp rag was required to wipe off our clothesline to remove the black soot before the wash could be hung out. Seemed completely normal at the time!
