They say that working at a refinery will take ten years off your life. I'm not entirely sure who calculated this precise figure or how this conclusion was drawn, but I believe this statement is valid and moreover has two key components:
1) They start most off on a rotating shift. Essentially, you work from 5am to 5pm for four days, have a few days off, then work from 5pm to 5am, barring there's no overtime needed of course. Needless to say, this unnatural schedule takes a toll on the body and mind.
2) The firsthand exposure to a slew of carcinogens is higher than almost any other profession.
That being said, my father is one of the most happy-go-lucky people I know. My family lives less than a mile from the BP refinery that borders Carson and Wilmington, California. My father is a roughneck there.
He knew of the aforementioned "ten year life span reduction" and laughed it off. His day was filled with much more immediate dangers. It was not atypical for him to come home, smiling no less, with a story about how he had to jump and roll off of a moving train before it barrelled into another train or how he found himself knee deep in jet fuel. When a segment of the refinery exploded and caught on fire a few years ago, he along with his cohorts who were working at the time labored around the clock in torrential rain to get things as they should be.
I've never heard him complain...not even once.
Because of our proximity to the refinery and because of other light pollution, we have no stars in the night sky, only a crimson-brown wash. Driving home every night from college, I would see the lights from the refinery illuminate the horizon from the 405 south. Whenever I see refineries and palm trees, I know I'm home.
I couldn't begin to repay him if I tried, not that he would ever ask me to anyway. But for what it's worth, this one's for pops.
"For Pops" T-Shirt
