Human rights group: BP discouraging crews from using respirators
BP's logic seems to be that if the oil cleanup doesn't look dangerous then it must not be. The oil company has told workers not to wear respirators because it's bad for public relations, according to one human rights group.
RFK Center President Kerry Kennedy traveled to the Gulf Coast to talk to cleanup workers and found that BP was trying to repress the use of safety equipment.
"In all three states that I've visited, fishermen said when they went out to work on the cleanup, that if they tried to bring respirators they were told it was unnecessary equipment and would only spread hysteria," Kennedy told Fox News Friday.
"When I went out with eleven people, we had respirators on and within half an hour, all of our eyes were burning and our throats were closing and we all had headaches," she explained.
Kennedy was also concerned that BP was refusing to release information about the contents of the dispersant being used.
"They're basic human rights issues. The right to access of information. BP still will not say what the chemical makeup of the dispersants are so health care officials and victims can know why they're sick and what's going on with them," Kennedy said.
And the health care options for workers who have fallen ill is a problem too.
"One of the things that we were told is that BP would not allow county health officials on to their campus. They finally allowed one nurse. They told workers that if they became sick, the nurse could only give them a Band-Aid or an aspirin. If they really felt sick they had to go to the BP doctors. So BP has completely control over the health care of those workers and what's happening," Kennedy told Fox host Eric Bolling.
"And no government health care down there at all?" asked Bolling.
Kennedy found that there was government health care but workers were reluctant to accept it. "The workers are concerned that this is the only job in town and if the go outside what BP tells them to do they might lose the only job they could get," she said.
That's ok as our posts got deleted anyway :p
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
They are made for different purposes and what is needed is one for Hazardous Organic compounds which contain carbon to absorb gasses such as benzene etc. Simple dust air filters are not designed for that purpose, are a waste of money and will not work. That is probably what Kennedy's group used and why they felt ill.
Filters must be replaced as often as necessary; If you smell gas change them; sooner is better than later.
Donaldd
Is; No matter how bad they have messed things up, if there is a dollar in it they are perfectly willing and able to mess things up for you to! It is the republican way.
BP doesn't want them to wear breathing protection because it would be admitting there is a toxic substance they have let escape and would make them even more at fault then they are already.
PERHAPS this tragedy will unite us.
This clip is from Fox News, but it could have been on MSNBC.
The tragedy in the Gulf eclipses the right-left divide, at least insofar as We The People are concerned.
I've thought all along it would take an invasion from outer space to unite the American Left and Right against a common enemy.
Perhaps BP has provided US with a way forward together.
Frank Rich lays out the case: Don’t Get Mad, Mr. President. Get Even.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
MountainMan23, that someone else is voicing a macro-level awareness of the probable outcome, if this catastrophe is as bad as BP doesn't want us to realize! We will continue to destroy our ecosystem at our own peril--it may already be too late to change the outcome.
This incident was yet another warning to live within our means and harmonize our outlandish needs with the Earth's finite resources--a fact that we can ignore at our peril.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
.
STORM SURGE...
I wonder how many more people will need resparators once the first Gulf hurricane blows through? How far will storm surges push OIL inland and how many people might be affected?
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
You better get one. I have mine (from mah painting days) with a couple of extra filters. I'm sure i can survive at least a week :p
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
regular ppl going about regular business cannot wear a resp. all day every day.
even if you do use them they are not perfect.
i used to spray paint and had a lot of experience with resp. and know that it is nearly impossible to get a perfect fit.
the cartridges wear out at dif. rates in dif. conditions. they might not be effective if overloaded...on and depressingly on.
the security this website has for registration is goofy.
The problem is the wind speeds. 100 mile per hour plus winds will toss that oil up into the clouds and it will rain down. It will sprinkle crude oil hundreds of miles inland.
Here in the Blue Ridge Mountains we frequently let deluges in the wake of hurricanes that come inland in the Gulf, then follow the Appalachians all the way up through the Canadain Maritimes.
Lord only knows what this summer will bring.
.. or next summer .. or the next ..
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
when i lived in central kentucky we joked about having hurricane weather. it would come gushing up from the gulf with all the moisture it picked up there and drowned our region for a while.
oy, we are so flucked.
BP, grr.
the security this website has for registration is goofy.
McChimpy told us we were all about to be gassed?
to the job site as well? Discourage THIS!!
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Guns don't kill people, respirators do!
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
I would like to hear from a partisan democrat. Perhaps especially from a fed up, Blue America partisan democrat.
Why on earth is BP still in the picture, while Obama's Justice Department is currently investigating it for criminal malfeasance in the events leading up to this catastrophe?
I'm not piling on the rabbit (the rabbit being the president). It's a fair question.
I hear you, and don't disagree, but it is BP's mess. They should clean it up.
I don't know as I would go so far as Alan Grayson (@ about 1:15), and say there is nothing Obama can do-especially if US military personnel is serving BP- but they both are probably worried that strong action against BP would be political suicide.
Grayson is correct, we want accountability and justice.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
because the "representatives" we elected and put our faith and trust in failed in their jobs to protect us and our environment.
I blame what ever MORONS gave BP a permit to drill for oil a mile deep in the Gulf when BP clearly had no means to fix a gusher.
There is plenty of blame to go around and once we read the new Rolling Stone article, "The Spill, the Scandal and the President", I think we'll all understand this.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/173...
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
It is BP's mess, and a disaster for the rest of us. Even if the 'we' get stuck with the clean-up, or end up living with the toxic enivironment, it is BP's mess.
OK, we blame the Congresscritters for not passing emergency legislation ending all off-shore drilling, stomp on MMS because they issued at least 49 environmental exemptions since the BP well starting spewing, and then what?
There are 6,357 oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, what about those, and the people who work on them?
I personally would not lose any sleep if this whole fiasco sent BP to bankruptcy court, after they clean up THEIR mess.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
that such drilling should not be allowed.
if i am a plumber and can't assure you that your toilet is not going to start flowing upwards then i would not be a effing plumber would i?
damn these greedy idiots who have done this. from the deregulators to the arggghhhh!
i can't stand it!!!
the security this website has for registration is goofy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JSBhI_0at0&NR=1
Because a supervisor who refused to provide proper PPE would not pay a fine they would go to jail. Any video, cell phone camera or otherwise of anybody being denied or discouraged from wearing a respirator. As I pointed many many posts ago the wrong respirator is worse than none at all. You don't bring your own respirator to work.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Plus I bring back up filters. A variety for the different types of fumes I'm in. Most people don't know that filters are only good for about 8 hrs. Depending on the type of filter and the type of environment I'm in. But as a rule. At the most I give a filter is 8 hrs.
If I'm spraying something nasty and a lot of it, 3-4 hrs per pair of filters. After that, forget it, I'm outta there.
I can't count how many respirators I've gone through. dozens.
One of the most important issues with respirators is the right size.
Wrong size. Not good.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
Sometimes longer but you sure notice when a filter gets bad. Some older colleagues had to stop working because the fumes fecked them up pretty hard over all the time exposed to it.
It was a good reminder to always wear the mask.
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
The pre filters usually get clogged. I used to spray alot.
Not so much anymore. Just the super important finishes.
And those are usually in the "Room of Doom".
I see someone said it's better to have the wrong mask than none at all. I dunno about that. Either way, you're getting poisoned.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
I agree, using the wrong filters doesn't work at all. Using a dust filter for example doesn't work at all.
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
Rly? that's funny, i did when i worked as a painter. Are you implying that they (the workers) are incompetent idiots.
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
of hydrocarbon specific cartridges you need to have? Do you know what a Drager test is? If you've worn a respirator then you know that it's like sucking air through a straw and how your chest muscles hurt at the end of the day. It's amazing how many times I've seen people pull off their respirators and do a sniff test to determine they don't need a stinking respirator. Yea I've seen some dumb workers. The TLV for benzene can't be detected by the human nose. Nor can most other hydrocarbons in dangerous concentrations.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Lacquer, or some industrial enamel(oil based) They come like flies to shit. They just walk right in and take a big deep breath. Workers, Owners, Inspectors. You name it. They just show up. They'll see me covered from head to toe. The only thing exposed is my eyes. And they just waltz right in.
I yell at them, You're Breathing In PAINT!
Then they leave. Then I get a new batch of numbskulls.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
in that recent comment. I've seen some dumb supervisors and managers too.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
But still, you gotta protect yourself.
No one else will.
It's kinda funny. These new Green materials.
No one knows what it will do to people in the long run.
They'll look at the painters 20 years from now, to see what it's done. True. We're the guinea pigs.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
messing up your job. know what you mean, the white shirt crowd likes to look at 'real' work sometimes.
the security this website has for registration is goofy.
are spreading. You can't use the right filter if you don't know what chemicals are being used.
What is wrong w Obomba? You take control in a disaster, not let the criminals run the show.
they can be a bit heavy when you wear them for a few hours.
to get a good seal you have to cinch it up pretty good too.
if you have the wrong mask, the wrong filters, don't change often enough...BP knows what is needed but doesn't want to pay for it plain and simple.
also to provide masks would be to admit that there are hazardous gases out there unleashed. we are not just talking worker but population safety here.
BP wants all to look the other way.
the security this website has for registration is goofy.
the proper equipment then they deserve every lawsuit they get. So far I have yet to see compelling evidence that this is so. It is the perfect excuse however to keep people away from areas polluted with high concentrations of light ends though. They could reasonably argue that the failure to keep people away would in itself constitute a tort.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
are you talking about a cartridge respirator or a fresh air mask. Most shop painters I know have their own fresh air mask but then they don't have to supply their own oil-less air compressor.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Fresh air masks supply air to somone in a paint booth, the air coming from the outside. The workers are cleaning up outside, so they need cartridge masks, beards cut or shaved for a tight enough fit, and the proper cartridges for the chemical VOCs being emitted. OSHA should be down on those beaches immediately.
they should be. And they should prepared to go after any supervisor not doing their job and equally prepared to fire any workers who fails to wear the proper PPE.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
They don't supply shit. They should. They're legally responsible too. But most don't.
We have to supply our own. Me? I just go out and buy whatever I need and charge it to the boss.
That being said, the people in the Gulf need to do the same thing. If they can't charge it to them. They need to keep all receipts, and submit them to the company.
Like that would work.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
you don't put people near this shit without proper equipment. Did you see the piece Stewart did last night on the Daily Show. A lovely sequence of shots of idiots scooping up oil with their hands as if benzene couldn't be absorbed through the skin.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
First, they'll need to be trained and educated on chemicals and what they
canwill do to the human body/brain. Then, they'll need to be issued all the proper protection from these chemicals. That alone will cost BP Millions of dollars. BP will try to get out of all of this. Any way they can.That's why they kept soaking everything with dispersants. Out of sight, is out of mind when it comes to paying fines and penalties. Then, there's the lawsuits. BP is on the hook for Billions. They're not thinking about people right now.
And I seriously doubt that they ever will.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
Cartridge/filter, halve mask. I did several foliage prop painting, airbrushing for amusement parks and and also a swimming pool.
Pretty fun job i might say.
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
Having been in all phases of the construction business in the past. There's nothing quite like needing a respirator and not having one.
Better than having the wrong one - or maybe one that's not as good as others, I guess. Right?
about dust masks here. We're talking about respirators with chemical filter cartridges which, as mudshark points out, require regular replacement depending on the concentrations present. Constant monitoring must be done to determine what is present and in what concentration.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
That no matter what kind you have, they just stop working.
Time to leave.
The most I've ever sprayed was 65 gallons in one day. Interior.
I don't do that anymore.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
There's also a date on when expired.
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
Hermetically sealed. If the seal is broken. Nope.
It must be pretty nasty out on the Gulf if people need respirators out there. One word. Benzene.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
No seal, just plastic, and also a date. Don't know if that might be a regulation thing.
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
around here. Frankly gentlemen I classify this story with the theory that BP wants the blowout to continue cause their making so much money off the oil they're collecting. I don't think this human rights group understood what questions to even ask. Every company I know has doctors to which they direct employees who may have been exposed to process specific chemicals because those doctors have equally specific training in what tests to conduct to check for exposure levels.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Of this thread. Yes, Respirators are awkward and cumbersome to wear. At first. Then, it's your best friend.
This disaster hasn't even come close to full impact. The residents of coastal areas affected will need respirators. When all that shit ends up on the beach and, after a hurricane, oh man.......
Sooner or later, that shit will find the beach. All of it.
Another thing most people don't know is, that the filters, when exposed to air, draw air through them. All by themselves. They're only good for a max of 8 hrs. If the seal is broken, don't buy them.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKZsGhi6bx4
Those workers are idiots because some stupid journalist picked up the oil. Yah, makes sense, right? As you do not even know what equipment they brought along.
They could have had some pro stuff, right?
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
excellent advice and have brought the right equipment. Who knows?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I don't, you don't. You are the one that said they had crap equipment.
At least you where implying it!
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
"When I went out with eleven people, we had respirators on and within half an hour, all of our eyes were burning and our throats were closing and we all had headaches," she explained.
It's been my experience, that when your eyes are burning. It's time to get the fuck outta there.
Oh man, within half an hr? That's bad.
Very Bad.
I'd like to go back to these dispersants. That's some helluva toxic stew they've made in the Gulf.
That stuff alone is super toxic. It's banned in Europe.
People won't be able to eat any fish from that part of the Gulf for decades.
And it's not like there's any fences out there either. Mexico will get affected too. People there will catch these toxic fish( the ones that survive) and they'll eat them. Then we'll see the cancer rates skyrocket in Mexico.
It's just a matter of time.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
it's probably not a good idea to fire up an internal combustion engine. Engine might go boom. Paddle as fast as you can.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Wearing a respirator. With all the right filters and bells and whistles!
What is your conceptual, continuity?
I said BP would be right to tell workers not to try to supply their own equipment for the simple reason that it might not be the right equipment. I stand by that. This is a case where you don't take chances. In no way does that imply that BP does not have a duty to supply exactly the right equipment and they have a legal duty to see that it is properly worn.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Most people don't know the difference between a pre filter and a charcoal filter. Let alone the fit.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
It would be a valid point if the BP crew wouldn't be such a fecking fail the last couple of months.
Hell, every time i hear about BP i hear the sound of the imperial march in my head. (or the jaws tune)
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
His ass off.
(Cheney)
What is your conceptual, continuity?
Bingo!
Congratulation, you win a red trolley.
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
I'd say the fact she reported her eyes were burning within half an hours is a good indication that her team either had the wrong equipment or it was not fitted properly.
Either way. It's nasty out there.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
I guess I'll go ask an expert.
"If they really felt sick they HAD to go to the BP doctors."
Can't you just smell the freedom now that we've gotten government off our backs?
And the Rethugs and their Judges will say, "Well you could have quit and found another job."
Yeah. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
OHSA need to get its ass in gear and start throwning restraining orders around at BP.
Plus temperatures are already in the low 90's and will rise as summer sets in. That will cook off volitle gasses even more.
What these people are experiencing is a bit like inhaling a year's worth of big city polution each day.
The Gov, needs to step in and protect these workers and put a political gun to BP's head.
i'm agreeing with FOX presenters' questions? i'm happy they had her on? they were even fair and didn't attack. what the heck?
the security this website has for registration is goofy.
this clip could have been from MSNBC, CNN, ABC ..
the situation is so bad that even Fox has to agree ..
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
that disoriented the FAUX crew.
Sounds like BP has too much control, especially when the clean up crews are at serious risk. ANd if the Kennedy group was wearing respirators and had bad reactions within 1/2 hour, then that means they are dealing with seriously toxic chemicals in the water and on the beaches.
Why is BP allowed this control? How about declaring this a national emergency and taking the appropriate powers, including taking over BP's north american operations.
"I hear you, and don't disagree, but it is BP's mess. They should clean it up".
For Christ's sake, you could not be more wrong.
This is not "BP's mess".
It is America's catastrophe. It is the world's catastrophe.
"They" should clean it up?
BP should have been placed in receivership within days of the rupture.
I'm stunned, but I shouldn't be. After all, it's a fair representation of the administration's line of thought. And the republican party's too, for that matter.
my question is...
what happens after B.P. is placed in recievership?
(let me guess)...the gov't sells all B.P.'s assets for pennies on the dollar to their friends in the military/energy industrial complex and...
Obama then hires hires Halliburton and Kellogg Brown and Root... ("no-bid-contracts" just like Iraq) ...to clean it up and they end up ripping off taxpayers for billions...(again)?
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
I notice Steve Doocy & the blonde were not
around WHICH WAS GREAT. Kennedy rips BP
better than even Maddow. Great reporting
and delivery. Hope upon hope that Kerry
Kennedy is NOT an exclusive Fox News
guest commentator.
If FN's keeps this up we can look
for CNN to be the second RNC network
while Fox News pretends to go centrist.
It will happen before 2012.
Kerry Kennedy does exclusives for them?
It's good to see the only news in town is news.
...the air is safe to breathe (like she did after 9/11) ..?
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
"What happens after BP is placed in receivership"?
Great question-- you're forlorn, don't matter a flying fuck, Corporations Uber Alles afterward aside.
Robert Reich wrote the following a few days ago, and his points make sense to me.
"Five reasons for taking such action:
We are not getting the truth from BP. BP has continuously and dramatically understated size of gusher. In the last few days, BP chief Tony Hayward has tried to refute reports from scientists that vast amounts of oil from the spill are spreading underwater. Hayward says BP's sampling shows "no evidence" oil is massing and spreading underwater across the Gulf. Yet scientists from the University of South Florida, University of Georgia, University of Southern Mississippi and other institutions say they've detected vast amounts of underwater oil, including an area roughly 50 miles from the spill site and as deep as 400 feet. Government must be clearly in charge of getting all the facts, not waiting for what BP decides to disclose and when.
We have no way to be sure BP is devoting enough resources to stopping the gusher. BP is now saying it has no immediate way to stop up the well until August, when a new "relief" well will reach the gushing well bore, enabling its engineers to install cement plugs. August? If government were in direct control of BP's north American assets, it would be able to devote whatever of those assets are necessary to stopping up the well right away.
BP's new strategy for stopping the gusher is highly risky. It wants to sever the leaking pipe cleanly from atop the failed blowout preventer, and then install a new cap so the escaping oil can be pumped up to a ship on the surface. But scientists say that could result in an even bigger volume of oil -- as much as 20 percent more -- gushing from the well. At least under government receivership, public officials would be directly accountable for weighing the advantages and disadvantages of such a strategy. As of now, company officials are doing the weighing. Which brings us to the fourth argument for temporary receivership.
Right now, the U.S. government has no authority to force BP to adopt a different strategy. Saturday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and his team of scientists essentially halted BP's attempt to cap the spewing well with a process known as "top kill," which injected drilling mud and other materials to try to counter the upward pressure of the oil. Apparently the Administration team was worried that the technique would worsen the leak. But under what authority did the Administration act? It has none. Asked Sunday whether U.S. officials told BP to stop the top-kill attempt, Carol Browner, the White House environmental advisor, said, "We told them of our very, very grave concerns" about the danger. Expressing grave concerns is not enough. The President needs legal authority to order BP to protect the United States.
The President is not legally in charge. As long as BP is not under the direct control of the government he has no direct line of authority, and responsibility is totally confused. For example, listen for the "we" and "they" pronouns that were used by Carol Browner in response to a question on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday (emphasis added): "We're now going to move into a situation where they're going to attempt to control the oil that's coming out, move it to a vessel, take it onshore ....We always knew that the relief well was the permanent way to close this .... Now we move to the third option, which is to contain it. If [the new cap on the relief well is] a snug fit, then there could be very, very little oil. If they're not able to get as snug a fit, then there could be more. We're going to hope for the best and prepare for the worst." When you get pronoun confusion like this, you can bet on confusion -- both inside the Administration and among the public. There is no good reason why "they" are in charge of an operation of which "we" are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst".
Let's see, they're running the "fix" of the gushers, and a splendid job they're doing. They're refusing access to the gulf seas around the gushers. They've closed the air space over it, so no pesky pictures of the ruin can issue from independent sources. They're denying reporters & journalists free access to investigate whatever the hell it is they're doing on shore. They refuse to disclose what or how much toxic shit they've poured into the gulf. They're refusing proper safety equipment to the desperate slaves they've bankrupted and hired for pennies. They're refusing proper medical care or access to it to the same people, forcing them into the facilities run by their own whore quacks, who will doubtless pronounce there's nothing wrong with them and hand them some of that aspirin. They're commanding these same slaves not to "talk" to anyone about anything.
And the Government of the People does nothing except hand over the Coast Guard to enforce BP's "rules", as this global catastrophe overtakes us all.
We've spent a trillion dollars fighting "terrorists" overseas, but the environmental terrorists are calling the shots here at home.
It's an OSHA issue. MSDS (material safety data sheets) are required to be available on job sites for every hazardous material at the site. Believe it or don't, they even have one for saline solution.
I'm guessing as this criminal act (not a 'disaster' to my mind) continues to worsen and the human, environmental and economic toll begins to rise exponentially, more people will begin to understand just how much control the global corporate cabal has over our lives.
First, we saw just how much control the central and international banks have over the various governmental entities, not just here, but around the globe. Now, we're getting a taste of exactly how much control the global oil and manufacturing conglomerates have.
If this ain't corporate fascism....??!
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Ah, moderator. You're no fun.
Natural sources of benzene include volcanoes and forest fires. Benzene is also a natural part of crude oil, gasoline, and cigarette smoke.
Immediate signs and symptoms of exposure to benzene
People who breathe in high levels of benzene may develop the following signs and symptoms within minutes to several hours:
o Drowsiness
o Dizziness
o Rapid or irregular heartbeat
o Headaches
o Tremors
o Confusion
o Unconsciousness
o Death (at very high levels)
Direct exposure of the eyes, skin, or lungs to benzene can cause tissue injury and irritation.
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined that benzene causes cancer in humans. Long-term exposure to high levels of benzene in the air can cause leukemia, cancer of the blood-forming organs.
What is the difference between what is happening and complete totalitarianism...?
DO WHAT WE SAY
DO NOT SPEAK
LIVE AND DIE ON OUR TERMS
and the shiney packaging and pretty lights are much, much more distracting than your typical run-of-the-mill totalitarianism! I mean, this stuff is highly polished, filtered and mass produced for our "full enjoyment." It *is* Totalitarianism Inc. we're talking about, after all... Not some two-bit wannabe totalitarian state like, say, North Korea. This shit is the big time... circus maximus spectacles that dizzy the sentence. What else should we expect any less from the inventors of Hollywood?
From its beginnings, AmeriKKKa has always known how to force slavery upon its people (and the world). The trick is to sell tyranny with a smile and a warm handshake. Trade Bibles and the "good word"/gospel for cheap labor. There's a sucker born every.... =P
The government should step in, take over the cleanup and FEDERALIZE ALL THESE WORKERS...
and do it at BP's expense.
like a workers comp issue to me.
You as an individual have no rights, workers comp is only there to limit the liability of the employer.
This sounds exactly like whats happening here, they're running under those laws.
had any experience with workmans comp? In Ct. (I can't speak for any other state). The owners liability starts with enormous premiums that don't get smaller when somebody has a brain fart and gets hurt. This I do know because I've spent 30+ years as a tool and diemaker. Both on the bench and as a foreman, so I've had my share of those brain farts that lead to trips to the emergency room, 3 times to date. I don't know how the employers liability gets limited, because if some kind of negligence by the employer can be proven, trust me he'll get sued.
I work for a company that has 35 employees, we've had 3 people get cut bad enough for stitches and our wc insurance is now north of $55,000 that may not seem like a big number to some but when a company like the one I work for that pays a good wage with pretty much an average 45-50 hour work week with OT after 8 hrs. And has a generous profit sharing plan at the end of the fiscal year. You don't want to explain to your co-workers why their profit sharing checks are lighter because you got cut.
I can't speak to the situation in the gulf except for my previous statement that hangings to good for the BP board of directors. And it would seem that not providing the clean-up workers with protection is just asking for trouble, unless they don't plan on being around long enough to cover the damages, which certainly seems possible. And if that's the case that's when the fed's need to step in, whether or not the Obama administration has the stomach for that remains to be seen.
as an injured worker, a third party involved in negligence other than your employer, you're ok (if its a permanent injury), otherwise forget it. You'll get half assed treatment and a boot in the ass to boot if its your employer that's the only party involved.
Lots of dead and dying rescue workers there too. Same thing...it's safe, you don't need them.
hangings to good for them.
They are there to treat Companies not patients and the Supreme Court has ruled that they have first and last say in health issues of employees. These Quacks should go the way of Company Ambulances that while bring a dead worker to a hospital claim they didn't die at the work location but midway while in transport and were DOA (Dead On Arrival).
There is no law that prevents people from going to a regular hospital or be treated by a different Dr. They are or should be covered by Workmans Comp.
Donaldd
is in the dispersant , it has been BANNED in England for the past 10 years!
The manufacturer's safety data sheet states "No toxicity studies have been conducted on this product," and later concludes "The potential human hazard is: Low."
According to the Alaska Community Action on Toxics, the use of Corexit during the Exxon Valdez oil spill caused "respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders" in people. According to the EPA, Corexit is more toxic than dispersants made by several competitors and less effective in handling southern Louisiana crude.
Reportedly Corexit is toxic to marine life and helps keep spilled oil submerged. The quantities used in the Gulf will create 'unprecedented underwater damage to organisms.' 9527A is also hazardous for humans: 'May cause injury to red blood cells (hemolysis), kidney or the liver'.
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