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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

#21

Post by smeej »

hackernewds wrote: post #13
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…

Vote with your wallet is the most effective method. Look at plastic straws today. What kind of countertops should be avoided? Would have been nice if the article suggested some solutions as well

Plastic straws are still ubiquitous everywhere they weren't legislated out of existence. What does that have to do with voting with your wallet?

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#22

Post by bluGill »

barrkel wrote: post #10
victorbstan wrote: post #4

A lot of workers don’t wear protective gear. By choice. Nobody to blame but themselves.

This is both a collective action problem (people not using the right gear will be faster and cheaper than those with, meaning bad behavior outcompetes good) and an information asymmetry problem - workers are usually not fully aware of the problems they're creating for themselves.

Also people don't think they care. In high school one kid told me 'I don't want anyone to wipe my butt when i'm old, so I'm going to commit suicide at 50, therefore my smoking isn't going to harm me'. He is now approaching 50, I wonder if he still thinks that, but I haven't seen him since.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#23

Post by aaomidi »

fzeroracer wrote: post #14
victorbstan wrote: post #4

A lot of workers don’t wear protective gear. By choice. Nobody to blame but themselves.

Realistically, protective gear (actually protective gear, not thin dust masks) is expensive. The workers cant afford it, and the businesses want to save the money. There's some small margin of workers who have access to protective gear but don't wear it, but in reality for most workers it's the job of the company to provide it and train workers to use it.

And low quality protective gear makes your day absolutely hell.

You know the when these stores even supply this protective gear, they get the cheapest option that’s still legal.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#24

Post by linsomniac »

~5 years ago I had a quartz countertop installed. For the final install, the workers were out in the front yard making some final cuts. My 10yo son comes out to see what's going on, looks at the giant cloud of dust, says "Silicosis ain't no joke" and goes back inside.

I've taught him well.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#25

Post by nerdponx »

hackernewds wrote: post #13
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…

Vote with your wallet is the most effective method. Look at plastic straws today. What kind of countertops should be avoided? Would have been nice if the article suggested some solutions as well

I'd like to know as well. When my parents remodeled their kitchen they got some kind of simulated granite aggregate made of recycled material that I believe was fully heatproof and held up very well over the years. But did somebody get silicosis in the process?

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#26

Post by jader201 »

Not long ago, we had our countertop replaced (from quartz to granite). They ended up having to make a cut in it while it was sitting in our kitchen. Our home was in a cloud of dust for several hours, and when the dust finally settled a day later, every surface imaginable was covered in dust.

I’m pretty sure none of them wore masks when doing this. I honestly didn’t think to wear a mask either (since they weren’t and never really even warned us how bad it would be), but fortunately we were behind closed doors most of the time the particles were in the air.

Fortunately it was a granite countertop and not quartz. But I still can’t imagine that stuff is good to breathe on a recurring basis, and it still amazes me that they were fairly casual about the whole thing.

My guess is the industry just isn’t educating workers about the risks.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#27

Post by dml2135 »

Not surprised. Back in my artist days, the studio I rented was in a building with a countertop business on the first floor. The extent of their safety measures were blowing the dust out into the back alley. Most workers rarely, if ever wore masks, and the inside of the shop was absolutely covered in dust. The dust would make it up to me on the second floor, everything in my studio would accumulate a thin layer just a week or so after cleaning.

Wasn’t great but the rent was cheap, until it wasn’t

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#28

Post by whimsicalism »

thadk wrote: post #8

According to this podcast, Cass Sunstein, co-author of Nudge, used his economist-oriented federal government department to delay and block legislated regulation related to protection for silicosis during the Obama administration. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id...

Jeez - Sunstein has such great work in legal scholarship, but I guess power corrupts?

Even more surprising to me was Sunstein and his wife Samantha Power attending Henry Kissinger's birthday party after Power previously published a book basically pinning 150,000 deaths in Cambodia directly on him. They knew this guy is basically a war criminal and still went to celebrate his birthday.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#29

Post by WirelessGigabit »

wcunning wrote: post #5
jimbob45 wrote: post #3

Many went without masks. Some had water spurting from their machines, but others had nothing to tamp down the powder rising in the air. Does OSHA not require masks in these cases?

Definitely an OSHA requirement, but there's no guarantee that 1) management supports the necessary supplies, checks, reminders, actions, etc or 2) workers want to wear the respirators/masks in general. On top of that, inspectors may be instructed (depending on inspection management, training, etc) that the water based dust suppression is good enough. Even if they want to see masks, management and workers may only imp…

Even though there are whistle-blower protection laws, they aren't good enough. No-one should fear risking their job when they stand up for their own health.

Management on the other hand should enforce masks as a means to avoid liability.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#30

Post by willcipriano »

jimbob45 wrote: post #3

Many went without masks. Some had water spurting from their machines, but others had nothing to tamp down the powder rising in the air. Does OSHA not require masks in these cases?

> 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...

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