Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

news.yahoo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 469 posts

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#81

Post by lifeisstillgood »

This is why we have trades unions.

I just am astounded, horrified. The answer to abusive management is simply rebalance power. The answer to abusive markets is pay more (Edit: better supply chain ledgers)

Just horrified

re supply chains - the simple way to stop sales of any product is a shelf market like this: "The product X was manufactured by the small child who last month was mutilates by a factory accident. Nice picture. our product has the following verified supply chain. but it's more expensive. your choice of course"

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#82

Post by plagiarist »

pydry wrote: post #63
rafaelmn wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not agreeing/disagreeing with this you but I wonder how you feel about obesity tax ? Low physical fitness tax ? There's plenty of evidence that exercise and diet significantly impact health (especially on population level) - like you said there's an incentive to keep those people healthy contributors instead of chronic burdens on the system. Sounds like a logical extension but doesn't seem popular/implemented widely.

I feel great about slapping a tax on the profits of companies that sell highly processed, sugary, addictive foods so that the market selects for healthier alternatives. Maybe subsidies for selling fresh fruit and veg also. I guess you could tax their victims instead though... they don't have a lobby so theyre probably easier to take advantage of.

We are Calvinists down here, so bad people were always predestined to be bad and they deserve to be punished. Corporations making money must have be good because they are succeeding, so why would we hurt them?

I will never be punished for being over- or underweight since I am good. The universe would have to be broken for me to be taxed.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#83

Post by Tagbert »

ffgjgf1 wrote: post #50
hackernewds wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Why wouldn’t everyone pick plastic straws instead of paper ones coated with PFAS if given the choice?

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?

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#84

Post by throwaway8378 »

rafaelmn wrote: post #60
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…

Not agreeing/disagreeing with this you but I wonder how you feel about obesity tax ? Low physical fitness tax ? There's plenty of evidence that exercise and diet significantly impact health (especially on population level) - like you said there's an incentive to keep those people healthy contributors instead of chronic burdens on the system. Sounds like a logical extension but doesn't seem popular/implemented widely.

What about all the other harmful activities? Recent studies about alcohol usage shows that even small amounts can be much more harmful than previous estimates. In addition to the health issues, we also need to consider all the accidents and violence that is connected to drunkeness.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#85

Post by ImHereToVote »

echelon wrote: post #77
pydry wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel great about slapping a tax on the profits of companies that sell highly processed, sugary, addictive foods so that the market selects for healthier alternatives. Maybe subsidies for selling fresh fruit and veg also. I guess you could tax their victims instead though... they don't have a lobby so theyre probably easier to take advantage of.

> I guess you could tax their victims instead though... they don't have a lobby so theyre probably easier to take advantage of. Nobody is the victim of choosing to eat a cake.

When you live in poverty and have no prospects for the future. Some mass produced cake from the supermarket might be the only thing keeping you together. As soon as the work of the laptop class is automated by next generation agentic LLM's, you will probably understand.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#86

Post by blincoln »

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…

FWIW, I'm not a professional, but I've worn a full-face respirator while spending entire days working in extremely hot crawlspaces, demo'ing and removing heavy antique cast iron drain pipe, running a wet saw for large-format tile, etc.

I'm just one datapoint, but my assumption would be that if it's truly too much of a burden, their employer should be buying better respirators and/or filters.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#87

Post by mantas »

throwaway8378 wrote: post #84
rafaelmn wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not agreeing/disagreeing with this you but I wonder how you feel about obesity tax ? Low physical fitness tax ? There's plenty of evidence that exercise and diet significantly impact health (especially on population level) - like you said there's an incentive to keep those people healthy contributors instead of chronic burdens on the system. Sounds like a logical extension but doesn't seem popular/implemented widely.

What about all the other harmful activities? Recent studies about alcohol usage shows that even small amounts can be much more harmful than previous estimates. In addition to the health issues, we also need to consider all the accidents and violence that is connected to drunkeness.

Alcohol is usually taxed. Just like tobacco. Although sugar and other harmful substances should join the former.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#88

Post by jerzmacow »

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?

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#89

Post by kamilner »

Tao3300 wrote: post #80
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…

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

Canada doesn't let anyone in? Over a fifth of their population was born outside of Canada.

Edit: Actually over a quarter.

Re: Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

#90

Post by ChumpGPT »

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 force (not paying taxes) and using the health care system effectively means my taxes, everyone's taxes, are higher.

What evidence do you have that this is the case?

>In America, there's only the "because it's the right thing to do" reason, which is never enough for anyone to actually do anything.

Is this your opinion or is this the reality. I don't know if you have ever walked by a construction site in Toronto to see guys cutting cement or stone. None of them have masks. Sometimes they will have a wet saw when cutting cement on the street but that is to reduce dust for traffic and pedestrians and not so much for their health. The Canadian Postal Union fought the Federal Gov for years to provide an environment where paper dust was considered a health hazard and workers need to be protected. Many postal workers suffered from COPD because paper dust was too fine for the Lungs to filter. What about farmers and dust? I'm sure they suffer just as much as American farmers.

I've come to realize Canadians suffer from an inferiority complex and have to constantly try and make comparisons to make themselves feel better, it's a strange phenomena.

- Expat....

Post reply on HN