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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

#231

Post by jwiz »

rightbyte wrote: post #212
Tagbert wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or why pick any straws unless you have a medical condition that prevents you from just drinking. We typically order water to drink in restaurants and when it gets to the table, the servers almost always toss some straws on the table. If we say we don’t want them or if we mention when ordering that we don’t want straws, we get looks like we must be some weirdos. Why automatically push straws for everyone?

Only time I want straws is when the drink is too thick to drink by tipping the glass. Like chocolate with quite alot of cream as decoration or some smoothies. Soda with too much ice crush ... just have too much ice. I find it quite strange for adults to drink with straws. It is a child thing in my world.

Drive through soda is a lot easier to drink with a lid and a straw.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#232

Post by mbostleman »

Having been involved in commercial construction in the late 90s, OSHA had a lot of regulation and focus on masons - especially cutting concrete block. It’s surprising that 25 years later that understanding of the problem didn’t translate to the other trades.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#233

Post by Gibbon1 »

WirelessGigabit wrote: post #29
wcunning wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What should happen is if someone sees it they call 911 and the cops show up. Followed by the county permit inspector. And then the owner gets arrested and the job site shut down for 6-12 months. Seriously that's what happened at friends workplace when an electrician got fried working on a live 440 volt panel. Don't see why a counter top shop should be treated any different.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#234

Post by pydry »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #213
pydry wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The consequence of this would be that the subsidized food gets exported to a country that doesn't tax it, at which point you're subsidizing some other country's food. If theyre smart they won't take this shit either. Nice of you to let Americans sacrifice their health on $othercountry's behalf though.

> If theyre smart they won't take this shit either. What do you suppose the chances are of 100% of other countries imposing a similar tax on this type of food? > Nice of you to let Americans sacrifice their health on $othercountry's behalf though. Stop subsidizing it and you don't have to tax the subsidy back out.

>What do you suppose the chances are of 100% of other countries imposing a similar tax

Quite high. Agricultural dumping is typically frowned upon even more than regular dumping. Half of the reason for the WTO's existence was to get countries to stop being so trigger happy about doing this.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#235

Post by staz »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #152
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…

Today the leading cause of death is heart disease. In that era it was infectious disease. You could have a cushy job doing numbers work in a city and still die of tuberculosis from being in close quarters. People were fine with it because everything was terrible. In the century between the 1850s and 1950s we went from not even having radio communications or the germ theory of disease to building nuclear submarines an…

People were definitely not fine with it but whenever they tried to do something about it the owner class sent the army and massacred them

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#236

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

haldujai wrote: post #208
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Note that public health system in Canada is not “free”. I'm enough of a pedant to annoy the fuck out of most anybody who knows me, but really? Look, there is no "free" health care anywhere, but it's a term that has (perhaps unfortunately) become widely used as a synonym for, depending on your sensibilities "no charge at the point of service" and/or "socialized health insurance and health care coverage". And Canada…

I think you may be “annoying the fuck” out of yourself here. Your reply is full of strawman arguments. The comment I replied to asserts that the government incentive to reduce healthcare expenditures improves workplace safety, and consequently in the context of this article would have prevented silicosis/PMF in these patients. I highly doubt most HN commenters are aware of whether undocumented migrants are covered in…

All good, but you still had to get in the jibe about '"free" healthcare' for reasons that have nothing to do with either TFA or the GP's point.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#237

Post by dghlsakjg »

michaelt wrote: post #209
Kirby64 wrote: post #42

This seems largely similar to worker protections for welding... the proper protection is essentially heavy shop ventilation and full respirators (which, good ones cost something like $1500). I suspect the problem is that welding related disease/problems show up quite quickly in most cases, and welding tends to be a higher paid industry. More room for margin on PPE and workers have higher demands.

Also might help that welders have a culture of PPE use; ain't nobody welding without a mask, gloves and sensible clothes.

I’ve known plenty of welders that are happy to weld with less than adequate safety equipment.

The “safety squint” is still a thing.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#238

Post by dghlsakjg »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #68
eropple wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a wood shop, I wear a respirator constantly unless I've got the doors open and the fans on and I'm not going to be doing more than a one-off cut that afternoon. A properly fitted 3M 6800-series full-face respirator is pretty comfortable even for long periods and while wearing glasses. A 6200-series half-mask is even more comfortable, though a little awkward with glasses. The only problem is that a 6800-series…

Wearing a respirator mask is substantially more pleasant when you're just farting around your hobby shop (and only when the temperature is pleasant or cool), than it is when you're actually working at a productivity level expected of laborers, with heavy stone, in an industrial workshop, no matter the temperature and humidity. Try spending an hour in your shop constantly lugging heavy tools and wood around wearing th…

Used to work full days in a shipyard in the tropics with a respirator.

The respirator was actually not an issue.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#239

Post by mabbo »

dang wrote: post #181
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…

Please don't take HN threads on generic nationalistic flamewar tangents. I'm sure you didn't intend it, but that's what this leads to, in the statistical case. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Edit: we've had to ask you not to do this on HN more than once before. Please avoid it in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34492512 (Jan 2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34073107 (Dec 2…

Sorry Dang. I hadn't realized it was coming off that way, but I'll be my best to check myself in the future.

I can see how what I said would be construed that way.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#240

Post by AnthonyMouse »

smogcutter wrote: post #219
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today the leading cause of death is heart disease. In that era it was infectious disease. You could have a cushy job doing numbers work in a city and still die of tuberculosis from being in close quarters. People were fine with it because everything was terrible. In the century between the 1850s and 1950s we went from not even having radio communications or the germ theory of disease to building nuclear submarines an…

No Pinkertons here! Just the invisible hand of the market.

Are you saying you would accept a 19th century mining job over your current one?
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