Worker safety... or lack of

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Chip00

Guest
I'm sure it is apparent to many the apparent lack of worker safety and this is even more so apparent to me given 15 years of experience in the construction industry.

However, I saw something today that really bothered me as I was driving down the road today in Santiago - some young guy in his 20's stick welding with out protective glasses. It's incredible that they don't provide protective glasses and/or teach these young kids that they can severly damage their eyes or go outright blind welding without protecting their eyes.

Because of this when I see some fellow doing this I typically stop and let them know that I'm an engineer and that they should use eye protection if they don't want to go blind and they usually take heed. So if you're in the mood to do a good deed if you see some guy doing this let them know.
 

FireGuy

Rest in peace Amigo!
Aug 21, 2002
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Earlier this month at a road construction site in Santiago, there was a young Haitian lad, maybe 12 or 14 carrying buckets of rock to two other workers who were using them in some fashion. He was barefoot, not even wearing sandals.

Not exactly what we're used to on a construction site in North America.

Gregg
 

sweetdbt

Bronze
Sep 17, 2004
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As a college student 30 years ago I participated in a missions team building a school in Haiti. I was amazed at the way the Haitian workers could walk across sharp stony ground barefoot, carrying a 5 gallon bucket of mud in each hand. It Hurt my feet just watching.
 
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Chip00

Guest
As a college student 30 years ago I participated in a missions team building a school in Haiti. I was amazed at the way the Haitian workers could walk across sharp stony ground barefoot, carrying a 5 gallon bucket of mud in each hand. It Hurt my feet just watching.

It's really not as bad as it looks - really. My wife grew up in the campo in Moca dirt poor and she used to run around barefoot on the gravel/rock roads just like all of the children. The bottom of her feet are still as tough as any pair of shoes! I remember playing baseball with the kids in the gravel street and most of them didn't have shoes and they would run and slide and it never caused them much damage. I coundn't take 10 steps on the gravel type of road without hurting my feet.
 

tunisia_x

New member
May 30, 2007
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RE:work safety

Hey friend I think the word "work safety" is a fancy term for western people. and this thing can only be found in western world. still there are hundreds of countries present in this world where the word work safety means, open eye and a hard hat. so there are much more thing need to be done in this field. But the main question is who will do that?
 

Mephs

New member
Sep 11, 2003
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I'm sure it is apparent to many the apparent lack of worker safety and this is even more so apparent to me given 15 years of experience in the construction industry.

However, I saw something today that really bothered me as I was driving down the road today in Santiago - some young guy in his 20's stick welding with out protective glasses. It's incredible that they don't provide protective glasses and/or teach these young kids that they can severly damage their eyes or go outright blind welding without protecting their eyes.

Because of this when I see some fellow doing this I typically stop and let them know that I'm an engineer and that they should use eye protection if they don't want to go blind and they usually take heed. So if you're in the mood to do a good deed if you see some guy doing this let them know.

I saw a similar sight a few years back in Moca. On top of that, the guy had two wooden poles with leads which he used to tap into the main power grid. He just hung them from the power cables above...

I'm not an engineer, so I just wished him the best of luck...
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
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I chuckle when I see some of the...err..."unique" scaffolding at construction sites...:cheeky: