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Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

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Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#101

Post by willcipriano »

spankalee wrote: post #35
willcipriano wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> OSHA had only 750 safety inspectors in place at the end of FY2021[0] Contrast that with recent efforts to hire nearly one hundred thousand IRS agents to get a sense of the priorities of your leadership. [0] https://www.fisherphillips.com/en/news-insights/workplace-sa...

Tax cheats are bad, actually. And those taxes are required to pay those safety inspectors, among others.

10% of what went to Ukraine would've hired how many safety inspectors?

Ukraine is a life or death situation you say?

Solicosis isn't?

How many tax men do we need before we get the government to do the bare minimum here?

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#102

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #75
mabbo wrote: post #39

What I find interesting when comparing the US the Canada on topics like these is that in Canada, there is self-interest in demanding workers be protected. Like beyond the fact that it's a good thing you do. Because we have a public health care system, funded by taxes, having a large number of young men out of the work force (not paying taxes) and using the health care system effectively means my taxes, everyone's tax…

Last I checked, Canada doesn't share a border with Mexico and some portion of these Latino "day workers" are illegal immigrants. Day workers are often paid under the table and when I have read other stories about them, they tend to include medical horror stories like "So, this guy cut 3 of his fingers off and they didn't even take him to the ER. They just returned him to the place where they had picked him up." This…

Canada doesn't have a border with Mexico, but it does have its share of undocumented and under-protected workers.

> While there are no accurate figures representing the number or composition of undocumented migrant population in Canada, estimates range between 20,000 and 500,000 persons

> Research suggests most undocumented individuals live in large urban centres and typically work in seasonal and informal sectors, such as construction, agriculture, caregiving and housekeeping.

> Undocumented migrants are a vulnerable group due to their lack of immigration status, as was seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have limited access to health care, social services or employment protections.

Source: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/co...

Until this year, asylum-seekers could transit through the United States into Canada under the Safe Third Country Agreement, by crossing the border at an irregular crossing like Roxham Road.

Sources: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/deal-roxham-road-migrants-b...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-asylum-seeker-increase...

https://web.archive.org/web/20230601135133/https://www.nytim...

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#103

Post by charles_f »

jerzmacow wrote: post #88
charles_f wrote: post #55

Tangentially related, there's this copper mining museum in BC (1) in what used to be one of these corporate towns where you lived and died. They do a quick demo of the equipments they used back in the day, in a pre cut hole. Even with your hands on your hears it's painful, teeth chattering - and they don't even really hit the rock. People working in there weren't wearing any sort of hearing protection and became deaf…

"it is what it is" plus having a hungry family to feed?

Oh yeah absolutely, but being a shareholder in there? I mean it's always easy to judge people whose context you don't know, but I think you can draw a line and this is past it

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#104

Post by DoreenMichele »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #102
DoreenMichele wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last I checked, Canada doesn't share a border with Mexico and some portion of these Latino "day workers" are illegal immigrants. Day workers are often paid under the table and when I have read other stories about them, they tend to include medical horror stories like "So, this guy cut 3 of his fingers off and they didn't even take him to the ER. They just returned him to the place where they had picked him up." This…

Canada doesn't have a border with Mexico, but it does have its share of undocumented and under-protected workers. > While there are no accurate figures representing the number or composition of undocumented migrant population in Canada, estimates range between 20,000 and 500,000 persons > Research suggests most undocumented individuals live in large urban centres and typically work in seasonal and informal sectors, s…

A quick search suggests there are 10.5 million in the US.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/04/13/key-facts...

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#105

Post by Aeolun »

ChumpGPT wrote: post #90
mabbo wrote: post #39

What I find interesting when comparing the US the Canada on topics like these is that in Canada, there is self-interest in demanding workers be protected. Like beyond the fact that it's a good thing you do. Because we have a public health care system, funded by taxes, having a large number of young men out of the work force (not paying taxes) and using the health care system effectively means my taxes, everyone's tax…

>What I find interesting when comparing the US the Canada on topics like these is that in Canada, there is self-interest in demanding workers be protected. Like beyond the fact that it's a good thing you do. Is there any evidence of this? That the Canadian Gov cares more about workers than the US Gov? >Because we have a public health care system, funded by taxes, having a large number of young men out of the work for…

I don’t think cutting in the open air and cutting in tiny sweatshops are at all comparable.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#106

Post by Anon1096 »

mabbo wrote: post #39

What I find interesting when comparing the US the Canada on topics like these is that in Canada, there is self-interest in demanding workers be protected. Like beyond the fact that it's a good thing you do. Because we have a public health care system, funded by taxes, having a large number of young men out of the work force (not paying taxes) and using the health care system effectively means my taxes, everyone's tax…

Perhaps unexpectedly, people dying are usually _cheaper_ for a healthcare system than healthy people. This has been studied a lot with smokers, basically people in old age cost far more than young people and thus a true cost-minimizing system would not be how you expect. Of course, we aren't trying to minimize cost so the premise is flawed.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#108

Post by Aeolun »

Kirby64 wrote: post #56
dmbche wrote: post #2

"Nearly half of the workers suffering silicosis in the UCLA and UCSF study said their workplaces were using water to control dust. Roughly a quarter said they always had respiratory protection. Fazio said studies have found that in many shops, dust is so thick in the air that respirators cannot filter out a sufficient amount. Metzger argued that the kind of sophisticated and costly measures that would be needed to re…

It seems that the synthetic stone is not the cause, but highlighting the problem: poor enforcement of safety standards and inadequate PPE provided to workers. Just because there's more silica doesn't mean that it's suddenly unsafe whereas cutting granite is safe. Even drywall or cutting concrete you're supposed to wear PPE.

> Even drywall or cutting concrete you're supposed to wear PPE

Yeah, but it doesn’t kill you within a few years if you don’t, right?

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#109

Post by chiefalchemist »

swagempire wrote: post #93
Tao3300 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More policy preaching from ultra-white northern countries that don't let anyone in. It's such a tired trope...

Canada is pretty heavy on immigration I hear-- its how they partially make up for a declining birthrate.

It's not only Canada that uses immigration - legal or turning a blind eye to illegal - to make up for falling birthrate.

Look at Germany. Look at France. Look at what's happen to Japan because such an option isn't as viable.

It's simply not politically feasable to say, "Without immigrants, our economy is f'ed."

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#110

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #104
mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada doesn't have a border with Mexico, but it does have its share of undocumented and under-protected workers. > While there are no accurate figures representing the number or composition of undocumented migrant population in Canada, estimates range between 20,000 and 500,000 persons > Research suggests most undocumented individuals live in large urban centres and typically work in seasonal and informal sectors, s…

A quick search suggests there are 10.5 million in the US. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/04/13/key-facts...

On a per-capita basis that's not hugely different, but one of the reasons may be that Canada provides a somewhat easier path, relative to the United States, to becoming a legal immigrant rather than remaining undocumented.
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