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Dying from Work Posted by: Sue Shaw on November 19, 1998 at 16:03:40: The greenhorn Chemical Maker at our pulp mill inhaled ammonia from unruly hoses. He received minimum training. That inhalation started his health cascading downwards. As he weakened, his concentration faltered, and he wound up making a mistake that gassed 19 other workers with raw chlorine. So he went to the doc and found out he had cancer of the kidney. The specialist removed the kidney, but he got shifted back to the first position he held in the miil: the physically brutal finishing room. He went right back to 12-hour shifts, because the moron doctor (who thinks he is the only one who works hard) said he was OK. Within 2 days, he'd stretched his internal stitches 3" and now had a hernia. After a brief respite, the doc said he was OK to go back to work. A short time later, on graveyard shift, he suffered a mild heart attack and the good kidney was in trouble. The doc gave him some time off work and he came back on the mill's idead of light duty: carting fire extinguishers aroung the mill and re-filling them. A week later, he went back to the finishing room and 12-hour rotating shifts. He got squashed between 2 bales (450 lbs. each), on graveyard shift, of course. Now, the doc takes a real good look at him and realizes, "Hey! Maybe this guy isn't malingering after all!" He does some tests. Yeah. The cancer has spread. He goes to another specialist who discovers the spots in his lungs, which he says may have been the cause of the whole thing. This poor worker is now fighting for his life and the company is taking up a collection from the workers, but the company itself is providing nothing! I ranted and raved to WCB about the company's safety and return to work policies, but the three healthy, big brutes that are in charge of our area used to be loggers and know nothing about pulp mills. They don't see any problem with one death, when logging has so many! God, have mercy on us working souls! Follow Ups
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