[Powderworks] Continuing fallout
Kate Parker Adams
kate@dnki.net
Thu, 23 Jan 2003 22:00:49 -0500
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I'm primarily an environmental epidemiologist/policy wonk, but I have been
working and studying in occupational health and safety departments for many
years. So I have to put aside my precautionary policy research project
here for a moment and comment.
The story of the miner's wife may be new to the media, but it comes out of
everywhere that ever decided that what the workers were exposed to was so
safe or so unimportant that their clothing need not be changed before going
home. Even uranium miners in the United States, even after 1950 brought
death home with them in their clothing. Children of mechanics working with
brake linings made of asbestos have died of lung cancer. Lab techs
infected with Marburg Virus from green monkeys infected their wives. I
could go on and on and on.
And even when hazards are recognized and workers do change clothes and the
company sends the laundry out, death gets passed to a different caste of
workers ... like at the laundry for Fernald in Ohio where uranium is
enriched and made into nuclear fuel rods (with the help of electricity from
the dirtiest coal plant in the country I might add). Workers who washed
the clothing of the nuclear workers got a good solid secondary dose from
the dust. Lovely.
This is why you will hear Peter Garrett and others in the environmental
arena talk about precaution, alternatives assessment and fate. Technologic
hubris lulls us into believing that we have more control over the nasty
stuff we use than we truly do or are willing to expend resources to
exert. Even in the presence of adequate design controls, budgets get tight
and maintenance systems break down and miscommunication flourishes and you
get Bhopal. The bottom line is that if you don't use something nasty and
dangerous to begin with, you don't end up constantly cleaning up the damage
at every stop along its destructive path - including the family laundry
tub. Protecting workers and their families begins with primary controls
and elimination of hazards, not secondary mitigation and burden shifting at
the end of the pipe.
In greenness,
Kate
At 02:38 AM 1/23/03 -0500, GrnVillageGirl@aol.com wrote:
>This story came out of England...but I imagine that the wives of the
>miners in Australia may well have suffered similar fates. It reminded me
>that the topic(s) addressed in "Blue Sky Mine", lo those many years ago,
>continue to affect people in horrible ways today.
>
>Laundry kills wife of asbestos worker
>By Paul Stokes
>(Filed: 23/01/2003)
>
>A woman's death was caused by 40 years of washing the asbestos-impregnated
>overalls of her husband who is himself dying, an inquest was told.
>
>Dorothy Mundy, 66, breathed in fibres when laundering her husband Derek's
>jeans and overalls which led to a terminal cancer.
>
>Stanley Hooper, the coroner, told an inquest in Doncaster, South Yorks,
>that it was unusual to get the disease in this way.
>
>"Asbestos was thought to be a most useful and beneficial mineral but is
>now recognised as a material which has caused a considerable number of deaths.
>
>"I have no option but to bring in a special verdict that she died from
>mesothelioma as a consequence of being exposed to asbestos."
>
>The coroner was unable to record a verdict of death by a recognised
>industrial disease because Mrs Mundy did not technically work with asbestos.
>
>Mr Mundy, 65, a retired joiner, from Wheatley, Doncaster, said that at
>first doctors were baffled when they found asbestos in his wife's lungs,
>before making the connection with his work clothing.
>
>He said: "We hadn't the faintest idea she could catch a killer disease
>simply from washing some clothing. We had known for years that I had got
>it but Dorothy only started with a troublesome cough.
>
>"We didn't realise that my years working in hospitals, schools and
>buildings all over the area was killing us both."
>
><http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$E42LRDWU3KKXVQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2003/01/23/nasbes23.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/01/23/ixhome.html>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$E42LRDWU3KKXVQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2003/01/23/nasbes23.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/01/23/ixhome.html
>
>
>
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I'm primarily an environmental epidemiologist/policy wonk, but I have
been working and studying in occupational health and safety departments
for many years. So I have to put aside my precautionary policy
research project here for a moment and comment.<br>
<br>
The story of the miner's wife may be new to the media, but it comes out
of everywhere that ever decided that what the workers were exposed to was
so safe or so unimportant that their clothing need not be changed before
going home. Even uranium miners in the United States, even after
1950 brought death home with them in their clothing. Children of
mechanics working with brake linings made of asbestos have died of lung
cancer. Lab techs infected with Marburg Virus from green monkeys
infected their wives. I could go on and on and on.<br>
<br>
And even when hazards are recognized and workers do change clothes and
the company sends the laundry out, death gets passed to a different caste
of workers ... like at the laundry for Fernald in Ohio where uranium is
enriched and made into nuclear fuel rods (with the help of electricity
from the dirtiest coal plant in the country I might add). Workers
who washed the clothing of the nuclear workers got a good solid secondary
dose from the dust. Lovely.<br>
<br>
This is why you will hear Peter Garrett and others in the environmental
arena talk about precaution, alternatives assessment and fate.
Technologic hubris lulls us into believing that we have more control over
the nasty stuff we use than we truly do or are willing to expend
resources to exert. Even in the presence of adequate design
controls, budgets get tight and maintenance systems break down and
miscommunication flourishes and you get Bhopal. The bottom line is
that if you don't use something nasty and dangerous to begin with, you
don't end up constantly cleaning up the damage at every stop along its
destructive path - including the family laundry tub. Protecting
workers and their families begins with primary controls and elimination
of hazards, not secondary mitigation and burden shifting at the end of
the pipe.<br>
<br>
In greenness,<br>
Kate<br>
<br>
At 02:38 AM 1/23/03 -0500, GrnVillageGirl@aol.com wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><font size=2>This story came out of
England...but I imagine that the wives of the miners in Australia may
well have suffered similar fates. It reminded me that the topic(s)
addressed in "Blue Sky Mine", lo those many years ago, continue
to affect people in horrible ways today.<br>
<br>
<b>Laundry kills wife of asbestos worker</b><br>
By Paul Stokes<br>
<i>(Filed: 23/01/2003) </i><br>
<br>
A woman's death was caused by 40 years of washing the
asbestos-impregnated overalls of her husband who is himself dying, an
inquest was told.<br>
<br>
Dorothy Mundy, 66, breathed in fibres when laundering her husband Derek's
jeans and overalls which led to a terminal cancer.<br>
<br>
Stanley Hooper, the coroner, told an inquest in Doncaster, South Yorks,
that it was unusual to get the disease in this way.<br>
<br>
"Asbestos was thought to be a most useful and beneficial mineral but
is now recognised as a material which has caused a considerable number of
deaths.<br>
<br>
"I have no option but to bring in a special verdict that she died
from mesothelioma as a consequence of being exposed to
asbestos."<br>
<br>
The coroner was unable to record a verdict of death by a recognised
industrial disease because Mrs Mundy did not technically work with
asbestos.<br>
<br>
Mr Mundy, 65, a retired joiner, from Wheatley, Doncaster, said that at
first doctors were baffled when they found asbestos in his wife's lungs,
before making the connection with his work clothing.<br>
<br>
He said: "We hadn't the faintest idea she could catch a killer
disease simply from washing some clothing. We had known for years that I
had got it but Dorothy only started with a troublesome cough.<br>
<br>
"We didn't realise that my years working in hospitals, schools and
buildings all over the area was killing us both."<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$E42LRDWU3KKXVQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2003/01/23/nasbes23.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/01/23/ixhome.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$E42LRDWU3KKXVQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2003/01/23/nasbes23.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/01/23/ixhome.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</font></blockquote></html>
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