Is your work killing
you? In all probability the answer is yes. Every year across the
country people are killed just trying to earn their bread.
“Accidents” at work usually happen because of attempts to save
time and/or money, health and safety is circumvented with disastrous
results. Last year in this country almost 200 people were killed at
work and it is across the full spectrum of occupations. In
agriculture 34 workers were killed, in construction, 50,
manufacturing, 27, service industry, 47, and waste & re-cycling,
the number was 9, on top of that, 68 members of the public were
killed in work related accidents.
These tragic
figures are those that happen in the work place and are easily
identified, but a far more insidious form of death from earning your
bread and a far higher number of workers deaths come later in life.
These deaths are related to what materials you work with and where
you work.
Take one disease that
we are all familiar with, cancer, it is difficult to find a material
that if we are exposed to it, will not translate into cancer. This
list is from the
UK, Health and Safety Executive:
Leukaemia (other
than chronic lymphatic leukaemia) or cancer of the bone, female
breast, testis or thyroid due to exposure to electromagnetic
radiation or ionising particles (disease number A1)
Acute
non-lymphatic leukaemia due to exposure to benzene (C7).
Skin cancer due to
exposure to arsenic, arsenic compounds, tar, pitch, bitumen, mineral
oil (including paraffin) or soot (C21).
Sinonasal cancer
due to exposure to nickel compounds (C22a) or due to exposure to
wood, leather and fibre board dust (D6).
Lung cancer due to
exposure to nickel compounds (C22b) or due to work as a tin miner,
exposure to bis(chloromethyl) ether, or to zinc, calcium or
strontium chromates (D10) or due to silica exposure (D11).
Bladder cancer due
to exposure various compounds during chemical manufacturing or
processing, including 1-naphthylamine, 2-naphthylamine, benzidine,
auramine, magenta, 4-aminobiphenyl, MbOCA, orthotoluidine,
4-chloro-2-methylaniline, and coal tar pitch volatiles produced in
aluminium smelting (C23).
Angiosarcoma of
the Liver due to exposure to vinyl chloride monomer (C24).
Mesothelioma (D3).
Asbestos related lung cancer (lung cancer
with asbestosis (D8) or lung cancer with evidence of at least
5-years asbestos exposure before 1975 in certain jobs (D8A))
All this
information is known but how often are people at work, and the public,
exposed to one or a combination of several of these substances
unnecessarily? In this society, health and safety of workers moves much slower than
the information is made public, health and safety cost companies
money and that is not on their agenda. The dangers from asbestos were
known back in the 30's, medical papers had been written detailing the
effects, but as a young man working in the Clyde shipbuilding
industry in the 50's, I worked in conditions where asbestos was
widely used and liberally thrown about. The powers that be had the
information, we the workers didn't, asbestos was cheap and efficient,
workers can always be replaced, so its use was continued. To this
day, the workers of this country are still reaping the disastrous
result in deaths from mesothelioma. In the UK approximately 12,000 deaths a year are work related.
As
long as production is for profit and not for needs, the health and
safety of the workers will be a secondary matter. No person should
be expected to risk their life just to earn their daily bread, no
person should suffer a slow linger death because of being employed by
someone who wanted to make a fortune at other people's expense.
Sadly that is the way we live today, it is called capitalism, profit for the few at the expense of the
many, profit is God, workers are cheap.
WHEN THE TIME-BOMB GOES OFF.
The bike just sits there,
dust covering its lovely sheen,
puffing up the Fintry Hills
well, it’s no longer my scene.
Y’see, as a Clydeside apprentice
I proudly learnt the tradesman’s skill,
little did I know then
the price, asbestos lungs that kill.
Now I just sit here through the painful day
gasping each mouthful of air, wondering
how can I make the bastards pay.
They new it was a killer
a time-bomb in our lungs
but, because it was so quick and cheap
they firmly held their tongues.
So what, if it cost the workman’s life,
there’s always a couple of new workers
in the care of the worker’s wife.
Please try to understand my anger
as I and others bear their cost,
a slow death from asbestos lungs,
a vibrant life lost.
Anguish for family and friends,
all in the name of profit;
now that really does offend.
Our anger without direction
is a blind archer behind the bow,
we have to use our anger
to smash the status-quo.
ann arky's home.
