Engineered stone ban on the table, as workers and businesses weigh up the cost

A Beginner's Guide to Engineered Stone Countertops

Bob Vila
https://www.bobvila.com › articles › 13332-engineere...



Mar 18, 2022 — Some engineered stones are made to look like limestone or marble, enabling you to get the natural coloring and texture you want but with better ...

 

Try attending an autopsy after someone uses a high powered rifle to end their life. But regardless of that the victims of knife and blunt force trauma attacks still end up suffering the same types of trauma.

Your doing it again Bill . Deliberately including shooting incidents the law wasn't designed to deal with or meant to stop. And why? Because you know that if you don't do that your entire argument falls apart - and we can't have that now can we?? Even if what happens here doesn't translate over to the firearm environment in the US. Any indication that firearms regulation might actually work in specific instances somewhere else in the world has to be quashed. That idea's like a religious heresy for you isn't it?

 

Who is “Bob Vila”??

And why should I take his word over medical experts? Has he got a way to save the 700+ young people who have been given a horrible death sentence?

 

You said you were unsure about the situation in the US. I provided information. Bob Vila is a prominent home improvement advisor. Engineered stone is not a medical issue in the US.

 

Knife attacks don’t cause shock waves like high powered rifles do. It is the shock wave impact that causes the huge tissue deficits plus the delayed healing. I have also seen enough Contre Coup injuries to know how that impacts but the comparison is basically bruising (which in an of itself is massively impactful on internal organs) versus pulped mush

 

Yet

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2023/07/425871/deadly-dust-engineered-stone-making-california-workers-sick

Are you keeping the stats we do?

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2023/07/425871/deadly-dust-engineered-stone-making-california-workers-sick

Answer - probably not

 

Hmmm seems that the alarm bells are ringing there too

https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/severe-silicosis-outbreaks-among-engineered-stone-workers/

 

It remains an interior design issue, not a medical issue.

 

How can people dying from a preventable disease NOT be a medical issue???

Americns alternatively gobsmacked and puzzle me. See Aussies value life but you don’t seem to and I do emphasise don’t seem to.

Are you honestly contending that cheaper kitchen is worth someone’s life?

 

Not cheaper, more elegant.
I'm sure there will be some new workplace safety rules, eventually.
But I'm equally sure engineered stone isn't going away.

 

More evidence that even seat belt laws would not get passed in today's political climate. I'm surprised Texas hasn't repealed them yet.

 

And that is worth someone dying horribly?? When there are safer alternatives?? We are not talking 80 year olds here but young men (and women) often with young families to support

 

We have lots of dangerous jobs. And people compete to get them. As I said, there will probably be some new rules, but the jobs won't go away.
Top 25 most dangerous jobs in the United States

ISHN.com
https://www.ishn.com › articles › 112748-top-25-most...


Nov 5, 2020 — Roofers, power lineman, construction jobs are among the most dangerous jobs in the United States based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor ...

‎1. Logging Workers · ‎3. Derrick Operators In Oil... · ‎22. Police Officers

 

See we have much much much tougher workplace health and safety rules than you do

WE VALUE LIFE

 

Safety is always a compromise and in this country, appropriate safety is determined by courts.

You can guard a table saw to the point that it's 100% safe. But then it won't cut wood either.

You can make an automobile 100% safe, but then you couldn't get in it and it wouldn't go anywhere.

The question of what is the appropriate level of safety is left to juries to determine what a reasonable person would think.

As several people have mentioned, these injuries could have been avoided by wearing the appropriate PPE. If these folks had that available and chose not to wear it, the injuries are their fault, not the engineered stone manufacturers.

At least here in the reasonable US.

 

If there is one thing we excel at as Americans, it is washing our hands of our most idiotic, life-endangering public policies by telling ourselves and others it's someone else's responsibility and problem.

No one is talking about making anything "100% safe" here. Just taking some basic measures to stop preventable deaths. People can use other, safer materials for countertops, just as they don't need asbestos for insulation or lead for conducting drinking water.

 

True but I've seen the surgical, and deformities cause be severe knife injuries as well. Neither is what I'd call 'pretty' and both can pretty severe consequences both physically and psychologically for the victims for years afterwards - and I'm not suggesting it's a contest BTW.

 

Which is sensible

 

That doesn't mean an outright ban is required. There are hundreds of jobs that involve working with and around lethal materials that require the use of PPE. Are you going to ban them all? Asbestos did its damage in a different era, before strict use of PPE was the culture. If you fail to use PPE in a first world nation now, that is a you problem.

 

https://lyrics.lyricfind.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Sky_Mine

Yeah - Lyrics say it all really - this is just another “Blue Sky Mine”. Why should big corporations profit off the death of workers? Are THEY going to support the families when the parent has died? Are they going to pay the medical bills?

 

Let's just ban air, water and food. They seem to carry everything unhealthy.

 

Better yet let's ban businesses since they are the root of evil.

 

No problem. And while we're about it lets restore full 'democracy' to the world by bringing back asbestos, leaded petrol, removing catalytic converters from cars, all legislation on water and air purity, seat belts and air bags, smoke alarms, food safety standards, speed limits, random breath and drug tests.In short ALL the other rules that those big, nasty, dictatorial, governments impose on their, pioneering, free spirited citizens. Bring on the 18th century I say!

 

Hey! Why not! Don’t ever forget that Aus is waaaaaay more socialist than America and like most “socialist” countries is thriving with a high level of freedoms AND longer average life span


https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org...and healthcare spending per capita, 1980-2021

Bottom line - it costs the government MORE when its citizens - especially its workers are ill and dying. When the government picks up the tab that then is coming out of YOUR pocket.

 

I would suggest waiting until we see the specifics of what is proposed before debating the issue further. There may not yet be a complete/outright ban on all forms of PPE and if there is it may be phased on over a few years so that the industry can adapt. Point is we need to see the details of what is proposed first.