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Comment by corndoge | Hacker News Reader

Correct me if I'm wrong, but does a respirator not solve this problem? The article and many comments here seem to blame people wanting cheap countertops as either part or all of the issue, but if it's safe to cut them with a respirator or wet saw, the focus should be on making companies give their workers respirators/wet saws and enforce their use.

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We in Ukraine have really large number of people with this problem, but mostly from coal industry.

Actually, it is possible to transplant lung, but sure, this is not solution of real problem, people for some reason cannot fulfill safety considerations.

In reality, what I seen myself, in such cases, all adequate people work with respirator or gas mask, they are now extremely affordable.

And yes, I many times hear, they feel discomfort, it is usually really hot in coal mine, so people frequently take off mask, and for short moment of slight comfort, sacrifice their health.

Unfortunately, after covid I understand them. Yes, psychology don't like wear mask, even when it is not really limiting breath.

I few times have to just sit in mask for 2-4 hours, this was extremely hard.

But who is going to make the dangers known to potential and currently employed workers? Companies can sieve through people until they find someone desperate enough or oblivious to the danger and they could not even be aware they're throwing their lives away. And the respirators are going to be in a locker that you have to sign off on each time you want to use them and to do that you have to ask your superior who would try to put you down verbally. I witnessed this model myself while working intermittently at a refuse processing plant that services a pretty big city. The work entailed manually sorting through garbage on a conveyor belt and cutting open any sealed trash bags, taking any plastic, metal, paper and rot out of it manually and into the chutes.

According to a California advisory, respirators should only be used as a last resort.

https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/dosh_publications/Engineered-sto...

In New Jersey which also has lots of stone cutting, doesn’t allow dry cutting and has entirely different advice.

https://www.nj.gov/health/workplacehealthandsafety/documents...

There's not as much difference as you say. The NJ page says

> New Jersey law (N.J.S.A. 34:5-182) requires that employers provide workers with full-face air-purifying respirators when engineering controls cannot be used. Use of respirators should be part of a complete respiratory protection program.

While the CA page says

  Respirators should only be used:
   • As a last resort for
    protection when local
    exhaust ventilation or
    water controls are not
    feasible or do not
    adequately control
    employee airborne
    exposures.
  • Where exposures
    exceed the permissible
    exposure limit (50 μg/m3,
    8-hour TWA) while installing or implementing feasible
    engineering and work practice controls.
  • When the employee is in a regulated area.

I.e., both say that other measures must be applied first.

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