Work.

 

           I wrote this little piece away back when I was first diagnosed with pleural plaques, the footprint of asbestos. As a young man in the shipyards, in later life I saw friends die from the horrible avoidable death of mesothelioma, lung cancer induced by asbestos. Asbestos might be banned but heading out to earn your crust of bread is still a dangerous activity. Accidents at work can and do cause death and serious injury and there is still a host of industrial diseases that plague the workers as they struggle for a decent living, this will not end until the workers control all of the means of production and distribution within the system we need to survive. Capitalism, in its necessity for profit will never eliminate these problems for the workers.

         We have come through the start of the industrial age and moved on to the hi-tec age, but every move into every industry comes with its on particular problems. Practically every industry is linked to an industrial disease. We have silicosis, lung disease prevalent among stone masons, potters grinders etc.. Then there is pneumoconiosis, mainly among coal miners, caused by breathing in fine coal dust and carbon dust. Arc-welders are at risk of manganism, manganese poisoning brought on by exposure to the toxic effects of the fumes from welding rods melting as the are used. Painters are at risk from neurological deficits from solvent‐exposure, which include impaired colour vision, cognitive defects, tremor and loss of vibration sensation. There are many more links with occupation and disease, but we are seldom told of these dangers when you apply for the job. Health and safety regulations go some way to protect workers from these dangers but usually these measures are re-active and only come after years of suffering and campaigning.
         As a young man starting my trade in the Clydeside shipyards in the 1950’s, I was ignorant of the dangers of asbestos, and as it was widely used, all of us were exposed to the horror of death from mesothelioma, an asbestos induced incurable cancer. It was not that the dangers of this substance wasn’t known, medical papers had been written about the danger from asbestos exposure as far back as the 30’s, but it continued to be used up to and including the 60’s. The employers didn’t abandon asbestos willingly, it took campaigning and legislation to finally attempt to get rid of this killer substance. That is the pattern in most of industries, its dangers are only restricted by campaigning and legislation. The profit motive drives industry, not the well being of the employee. Most industries can be made safe, but it usually requires investment in safety equipment and training and that costs money which in turn cuts into the profit. So safety in industries will always come lower down the ladder, and as times get harder, corners are cut in safety to prevent cuts in profit. The economic system we have at present does not lend itself to the welfare and well being of the workers, only when the workers control all the industries will their well being be at the fore front of production.

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.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Aberfan.

       In the morning of October 21st. 1966, darkness fell on a small village in Wales, on that day, half the children in Aberfan ended their short lives under a mountain of coal slurry. This was no unavoidable accident, nor some "weird act of god", this was death by industrial quest for profit, and gross neglect of its duty of care. Something that should never been allowed to happen and was avoidable.

 The following extract from Wikipedia:

         The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a collieryspoil tip in Wales on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural spring. A period of heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed Pantglas Junior School and other buildings. The tip was the responsibility of the National Coal Board (NCB), and the subsequent inquiry placed the blame for the disaster on the organisation and nine named employees.
        There were seven spoil tips on the slopes above Aberfan; Tip 7—the one that slipped onto the village—was begun in 1958 and, at the time of the disaster, was 111 feet (34 m) high. In contravention of the NCB's official procedures, the tip was partly based on ground from which water springs emerged. After three weeks of heavy rain the tip was saturated and approximately 140,000 cubic yards (110,000 m3) of spoil slipped down the side of the hill and onto the Pantglas area of the village. The main building hit was the local junior school, where lessons had just begun; five teachers and 109 children were killed in the school.
        An official inquiry was chaired by Lord JusticeEdmund Davies. The report placed the blame squarely on the NCB. The organisation's chairman, Lord Robens, was criticised for making misleading statements and for not providing clarity as to the NCB's knowledge of the presence of water springs on the hillside. Neither the NCB nor any of its employees were prosecuted and the organisation was not fined. 

         

 

          This of course was not the first or the last mass deaths from industrial drive for profit, nor will it ever be the last as long as profit is the driving force for industry.

        Sometimes these avoidable disasters hit suddenly and with mass deaths, Aberfan, Bhopal, but other times that same drive for profit kills much slower and over many many years, the asbestos disaster that is still with us today as people still die from the results of working with this slow killer. These deaths are nothing short of industrial murder.

         Avoidable industrial deaths will continue to blight the lives of millions of ordinary working people as long as industry is driven by the capitalist model of profit, with profit comes avoidable deaths. Not until we the ordinary workers take over the production of all goods will the health and welfare of the people be at the forefront of all working conditions.    

         Until that day we will have to live with more Abefans, Bhopals and Mesothelioma.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Asbestos Repeat.

 

       As a young apprentice I worked in the shipyards, when the use of asbestos was wide and lavish. Its effects are still being felt today. To me, to a degree, the asbestos scandal mirrors the coronavirus pandemic, but to a slower degree. There was medical papers written and advice given on the dangers of asbestos as far back as the 20's, but the governments of the world ignored all that and it wasn't until around 1970, that a ban was started to be imposed. This was after countless deaths from the incurable lung disease of mesothelioma, the reason for its continued use, against 50 years of medical advice and lobbying from trade unions, was that it was an excellent insulator and very cheap, in monitory terms, but expensive in human suffering and deaths, to ban it would obviously hurt the economy. Today thousands of people still die from asbestos related illnesses.

      More than 39,000 American lives are lost to asbestos-related disease every year. Asbestos facts and statistics summarize the devastating impact the toxic mineral has had in the U.S. and around the world.

      The same factors are still driving the governments policy today on the coronavirus, it is hurting the economy, so we must get people back to work. So some will die, to the capitalist that is a risk worth taking. Just as deaths from asbestos killed thousands but the economy must be saved, now it is covid19 that is killing thousands, but the economy must be saved.

       It is estimated that an average of 13 people a day in the UK die from conditions caused by previous exposure to asbestos – more than double the number of people who die on the roads.

      The first health fears associated with asbestos were raised at the end of the 19th century. Asbestosis, an inflammatory condition affecting the lungs that causes shortness of breath, severe coughing and other damage to the lung was described in medical writing in the 1920s.

       For how long and how many more times will we tolerate the economy being put before the health and well-being of the ordinary people? Why should we tolerate the price of shares and the profits for millionaires/billionaires to be placed ahead of the life of ordinary people?  Refuse to go anywhere near your employers profit making machine until your are completely satisfied that it is 110% safe for you to do so. My belief is, that safety guarantee will never materialise under the capitalist economic system. Change the system if you wish a safe working environment, that's the only answer worth considering. Generations of ill health and deaths from working conditions must surely by now, have convinced you of that fact.

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.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk    

The Crime Of Asbestos.

       Throughout capitalism there has been a constant trait and it still persists. That trait has been as mining and manufacture of materials developed, dangers to workers health became apparent. In most of these cases the pattern was/is the same, first the employers try to conceal the dangers, then trash any results proving the danger, as well as trashing the reputation of those bring forward the evidence of health dangers. In most cases they can fall back on the state legislators to be on their side, as they drag their feet in introducing any meaningful legislation to try and control that danger.

        Probably one of the most brutal and callous cases of this festering marriage between employers and state in safeguarding profits at the expense of workers health has been asbestos. The dangers to workers and the public's health from asbestos was being raised in the 1800's, but the substances was still being used here in the UK well into the 20th. century. We all know now that asbestos is a killer, it is the cause of the incurable disease of mesothelioma. However it was know for years and the companies mining it and manufacturing it continued to deny any such danger, and went into the arena of dirty tricks to conceal the facts.

        One of the worlds largest manufacturers of asbestos products was Turner and Newall and they pulled out all the stops to have the reputations trashed of anyone involved in revealing the dangers of asbestos. The even called on the disgraced MP Cyril Smith to rubbish the claims at a Commons Select Committee, there was more stings to this vipers tongue that most people ever suspected. 

         From its first entry into our lives, it is impossible to put an accurate figure on the number of people who died a horrible death from asbestos mesothelioma, and the deaths still continue to this day. The crime is that the manufacturers were well aware of those dangers and with money and power, attempted to conceal the facts for generations. Our legislators, the state, are complicit in this vicious and brutal crime.

        As the West began to be forced to legislate against asbestos and around the 60's, there were calls to ban asbestos in countries like the UK, America and Australia, you would imagine that as these bans came into force, the mining of this killer would start to fall off. On the contrary, from the 60's on, mining of asbestos started to rocket. The callous reasoning behind this strange fact is that the asbestos industry realised that they were losing a vast market, so they went into overdrive in marketing their filthy product to the third world, Africa and China. Thus with one aim, increasing their profits, they spread the death dealing disease of mesothelioma to new generations of workers.

       People today are still dying from this profit driven disease, mesothelioma, as asbestos found its way into all aspects of our lives, industry, homes, cars etc. and it has not yet been all cleaned up, this killer still lurks in corners of our society, waiting to be disturbed and do its deadly deed. All thanks to the drive for profit from unscrupulous and greedy corporations.

From the Independent:

          Turner and Newall archives reveals that executives had sent a staff member to an asbestos campaign meeting posing as a member of the public, who then sent back a three-page report detailing everything that was said. 

        The executives also revealed they had ordered a “very confidential report” to be made on researchers involved in a Yorkshire TV documentary, Alice: A Fight for Life, which told the story of 47-year-old former asbestos worker Alice Jefferson, who was dying from malignant pleural mesothelioma. The film, directed by award-winning film maker John Willis, explicitly linked asbestos to cancer and attacked the Government’s perceived complacency in limiting the manufacture of asbestos in Britain.

         At the time of the film, asbestos as a health hazard was not widely known to the public, and mesothelioma, the cancer caused by asbestos, was even less wellknown. The Government and leading doctors told people that asbestos was a vital industry and that its manufacture was safe.-------

And:

Asbestos: The slow clean-up

• 1898 Factory inspectors express concern about the “evil effects” of asbestos dust.
• 1911 The first cases of asbestos deaths in factories are confirmed and recommendations made for improved ventilation.
• 1924 The death of a textile worker in Rochdale is the first published case of asbestosis. The firm pays no compensation to the bereaved family.
• 1931 Asbestos industry regulations introduced. Home Office survey finds widespread asbestos disease in the UK.
• 1967 The asbestos register is established. Safety limits are proposed the following year. 
• 1972 The first personal injury claim succeeds.
• 1983 Asbestos licensing regulations are introduced.
• 1985 Regulations introduce a ban on crocidolite (blue) asbestos and amosite (brown) asbestos.
• 1987 Control of asbestos at work regulations introduced to protect workers from fibre exposure.
• 1992 Laws are amended to ban rarer forms of amphibole asbestos. Later followed by a ban on chrysotile asbestos.
• 1995 A report shows that asbestos deaths are increasing at an alarming rate. A quarter are away from asbestos manufacturing industries.
• 1996 A report claims asbestos protection is vastly inferior to the claims stated by its manufacturers.
• 1999 Asbestos regulations introduce a final, comprehensive ban on asbestos.
• 2002 New regulations mean businesses have to start identifying and managing asbestos in their properties.
• 2006 Previous regulations are brought together in the new Control of Asbestos Regulations.

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 a 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.

Perhaps making my dying public

might provoke righteous indignation

at a system that puts profit

before the health of a nation.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

Death From Greed.

     May 18th. a personal anniversary for me. It was ten years ago on May 18th 2003 that I lost a dear friend and comrade John Stewart Simpson, Ian to his friends, destroyed by that vicious killer mesothelioma, (asbestos related lung cancer). A fit 66 year old swimmer and cyclist, in a very short time went from being treated for a bad cough to being diagnosed with with mesothelioma and died six months later. It still hurts.

     This rapid vicious killer is no unfortunate event, no unavoidable accident. The health problems from asbestos were known to the powers that be and being written about in the 30's but UK industry continued to use it up until the 60's. 

Wealth From Asbestos.

Why no righteous anger from the crowd?

Why no public cry for justice?

Can't they hear those shallow gasps?

Can't they see their brother's pain?

Lungs that measured to the task

strength that made the Clydeside name.

Men who by willing force and skill

built the nations wealth

never knowing the final bill

was destruction of their health.

Now dumped on life's ladder's lowest rung

strewn like wreck across this city:

vibrant lives by asbestos stung

deserve more than passing pity.

Why no righteous anger from the crowd?

Why no public cry for justice?

 

     It was continuous lobbying and forced legislation that eventually put a stop to this killer substance being used in UK industry. At no time were the bosses of industry concerned about the health and well-being of the workers. The United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of mesothelioma in the world, largely because asbestos use continued in the UK long after it was banned in other parts of the world. Because of its wide use in shipbuilding, those in shipbuilding are among the people most affected by mesothelioma, and the shipbuilding industry played a large role in the industrial history of the United Kingdom.

The Waiting Game.

Don't tell them it's a killer,

as they work with it to earn their keep.

It's a time-bomb in their lungs,

but, so efficient, so very cheap.

It takes so long to kill

they'll never know who to blame,

They'll probably all be dead

before the couts hear their claim.

It's a time-bomb, it's a killer,

and they knew, ASBESTOS.

       Though banned in the UK in the 60's, asbestos continues to kill, in 2008 in the UK, there were 2,249 deaths from mesothemiola and on average, the UK has more than 2,000 deaths each year from this greed driven killer, mesothelioma. Though deaths from this disease are beginning to decline in younger men, overall deaths are expected to increase by 10-20% over the next 5-10 years. Her we are in 2013 and the unbridled greed of past industries is still killing our people. It's the system friends.

 

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.

MY WORK IS KILLING ME!!!

           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.