Document mBoxnZxpxxRLEXZVRN3Gr6q1g

1967 National Safety Congress This Is particularly dramatized by the ex marked enough to prevent further employ perience of the cement masons, whore labels ment At this point cause-effect relationships ore often so vague os to make It impossible are obscure. No single event can be held re for them to determine whether the surfacing sponsible, and the work force has a few less material they are expected to apply on a craftsmen. If by some chance tho illness is particular fob is a dermatitis-causing epoxy, recognized as work-induced, the last em a bronebospasm-causing urethane, or a rela ployer may be held responsible for the entire tively safe polyester. cost of compensation. This is no solution. The noise and label problems ore straight For examplo, earth mover operators have forward. They follow the textbook closely. long suspected that somehow spinal prob Others may not be so simple because of the lems are connected with their jobs. This may mobile nature of construction work. Solu or may not be so; there ore no statistics. It is, tions to these will require imagination and hardly possiblo that all equipment operators money. Ideas from the space program ore ore bom with bad backs. It is most likely, sure to be useful and wo expect to see ex however, that the vibration and bouncing on ploitation of tho controlled individual onvi-' "some types of seats on some types of equip ronment in the form of air-supplied suits for ment ore causing spindl damage. Unless It is plasterers, oement masons, and welders; and known, first, whether or not operators are air-conditioned, noise-and dust-tight capsules truly suffering spinal problems and second, for heavy equipment operators. Standards, exactly which machines and what conditions once set, can make theso easily accessible at are responsible for the problems, prevention mass-produced costs. of "back trouble" will be impossible. The logical approach is to accept the re sponsibility and begin to develop some Standards that can be put into contracts and equipment purchaso orders; otherwise tho industry faced attrition of skilled manpower, higher compensation costs, hazard pay, and if the problem gets bad enough, the inevita ble application of tho ill-fitting industrial cookbook to these construction jobs. A fourth conclusion--records and statistics must be kept I rtpeat, health information on working men is scarce. This is particularly so in the construction industry because even the infor mation thatJs obvious in a factory is clouded by the nature of construction work. A factory is a relatively permanent envi' ronment. Jobs acquire reputations: they smell; old timers get lung disease; this or that chemical will make you sick if you In hale it. This is epidemiology in its most primitive form, done without the help of the professionals or the government Neverthe less, it Is very effective in discovering dis eases and developing control methods. With computers now available, it -is feasi ble to record the pertinent details of every job, every illness, and every death for every man working in tho construction industry. This should bo done by every croft union; with the cost shared by tho employer. Routlno computer, output will then tell us whether pointers , die young, or equipment operators get silicosis, or plasterers get em physema, and whether the lung cancer that has been found in asbestos insulators - is being controlled or not controlled. A fifth conclusion--uniform, reasonable regulation must be insisted on. Competition is very real in construction. In fact, it appears to be so fierce that it often is cited as die justification for poor health and bad safety practices. For instance, the question as to why water is not being used to control dust on a given haul road very often will bring the reply that this is highly commendable; however, "it was not included in the job estimate because the competition never includes such things, and in order to bid the job successfully.it was necessary to dispense with the water wagons". Contrast this with a construction job. Tho This is a standard answer for many prob office is often a house trailer and a singlo lems. Its effect is to penalize die legitimate craft is not likely to be on a given job for contractors and to moke the natural growth more than a year. Who now Is going to do of healthy working conditions next to impos the epidemiology? Work-induced health sible. This fanatic interest in cost-reduction damage suffered by a craft during the course seems to be eroding the few existing health of, a single project very easily passes without standards accepted by the industry. notice. It Is not until a series of such projects For example, everyone knows that a sand --and years-have pissed that disability is blaster should wear an airsupplied helmet.