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There are a lot of workers in different industries that are at risk of silicosis and don't know it. The mentality of "it's just dust, don't be afraid to get a little dirty" will end up killing people.

The answer here is simple- regulations with teeth.

Every saw uses water. Every worker wears a mask. Random inspections.

Inspector sees one person without a mask? $1000 fine. One machine with no water hooked up? $5000 fine. 10 people with no masks and 3 machines with no water hooked up? $25,000 fine. Make it clear that there is no fucking around here.

Job site like described in the article? Shut down until problems fixed.

The fucked up part of this is how preventable it is. Very few folks will take to wearing a mask though, when that's all they need.

I have had countertops put in two different times. The first time the crew had a water saw and masks. The second time I was horrified to see the guys cutting the stuff raw without even a paper mask on.

I worked for a few spray-foam insulation companies in my early 20's. I'm just waiting to hear the same thing from spray foam. Half the guys I worked with didn't wear masks most of the time and were just covered in foam all day breathing in the off gassing of fire retardents and blowing agents and other nasty chemicals. I quit because I saw the writing on the wall and my boss hated me for quitting before training my replacement. I told him it wasn't worth my health.

I absolutely love the enthusiasm for required regulations in this thread but everyone is missing one critical aspect... illegal workers are probably a huge part of those impacted by this. Many of these "companies" who cut counters work through subcontractors and I bet the majority of these are just a guy with an LLC. I would love to see more numbers on the type of worker/businesses being hit with this illness.

I did construction very briefly ("briefly" because the company owner quit paying me after a while); companies cut corners every possible place they can, because any safety measures cost time or productivity. Even doing things properly costs time and money that they don't want to spend. Construction is competitive, so they're bidding as low as possible, and promising unrealistic delivery times, and then turning around and expecting their workers to make those deadlines and costs.

You can't fix this without stringent oversight, and criminal prosecution for the owners that are refusing to give workers the correct tools, and follow safety protocols.

Oh dear God I remember being warned about this in a chem lab because we were using some silica.

Dust/particulates are always bad for the lungs. I don't think there's any exception. Masks with a fitness test need to be provided and specified as PPE for this kind of work, at the very least. The company is unlikely to do so themselves unless legally pressured to.

Edit from my double comment: employers are required to provide functioning, proper PPE to employees per OSHA, and also train them on properly using it. If masks and water hoses aren't already considered required, we need to make sure that gets updated. Force the companies to comply or be sued.

I very recently watched a safety module thing about this for work actually as part of the training requirement.

So much victim blaming in this thread.

We hear about machines replacing jobs all the time. Why can't they replace cutting fucking countertops so people don't die in their fucking 20s?

I've been to a place that does this. Everything was covered in water. It prevents any dust getting in the air. The slab and blades have water spraying over it. I don't think a mask was even necessary. But without water I assume it would be awful.

to debilitate young workers, largely Latino immigrants

in an industry where immigrant workers typically labor in small shops and are often paid in cash

made their rounds at the parking lot of the Home Depot in San Fernando, where laborers in long-sleeve shirts waited for people to drive up and offer them work.

In the effort to be politically correct and not say "illegal immigrants", they prevent the reader from knowing the true extent of the problem.

When an employer is willing to break employment laws related to immigration, they may also be more likely to break other laws, like workplace safety laws. When the employees are illegal immigrants, they're not as able to complain to authorities when their employers are breaking safety laws.

If these workers were actual legal immigrants, they could blow the whistle on their employers. If they were unionized their union could shut down the business until their bosses took their safety seriously. But, because they're illegal immigrants an unethical employer can treat them as disposable -- and, pretty much by definition, anybody who is hiring illegal immigrants is an unethical employer.

The people affected here are largely stone workers. Stone workers used to be extremely powerful. The Freemason fraternal organization started as stone workers who held the secrets of the profession, supervised stoneworker qualifications, controlled their interactions with clients, regulated their interactions with the state, etc. Now, because of the widespread acceptance of illegal immigration, not only are stoneworkers not powerful, they're disposable.

Ironically the virus scare made N95s unobtanium or very expensive for several years there. Gonna guess that didn't help with safety compliance amongst the mostly low-income people doing this kind of work.