BobL's worst nightmare.....adjacent to my back yard....

[FenceFurniture]

There's a construction going on at the back of my place, with huge masonry block retaining walls being laid. Happened to be out the back this morning and observed the labourer using a dry diamond saw to cut the blocks. There was a HEE-YUGE cloud of concrete dust billowing all around him.

As you might guess: no dust mask, no ear defenders, no gloves, and standing directly behind the cut of a 15" blade.

I missed the opportunity to get a pic because by the time I thought of it the block layer had obviously told him to "please would you mind awfully moving down wind of me if it's not too inconvenient?", or whatever language block layers may use....

Later he was bent over coughing his guts up. Prolly about 25-30 years old, but there's only one thing that will give this guy grey hair, and it won't be middle-age.

[Opelblues2]

That not very good at all, I do mean not good. as I do believe under the Australian OH&S laws it is a breach.

[Chesand]

I always look at those situations with some warped sense of satisfaction as it means that my daughter, an audiologist, will always have a job.

[FenceFurniture]

That not very good at all, I do mean not good. as I do believe under the Australian OH&S laws it is a breach.

I'd be quite sure of that, but really, the guy involved is just stupid for not taking preventative action. OH&S begins with the operator and common sense. He shouldn't need to know that concrete dust is really REALLY bad for him - surely it's just obscenely unpleasant.

[FenceFurniture]

I always look at those situations with some warped sense of satisfaction as it means that my daughter, an audiologist, will always have a job.

He'll need an Ear, Nose & Throat specialist (and for all three) before your daughter.

[NCArcher]

Most of these guys are labourers with no training or qualifications who get paid next to nothing. His supervisors should never have let him tackle that job without all the appropriate PPE. I spend a lot of time on building sites around Sydney and coming from the mines where it is massively over regulated I am continually shocked at what people will do.
And that is exactly how brickies talk by the way

[Evanism]

God this makes my blood boil. OH&S. Someone is sitting in a huge cloud of brick dust, breathing it in, coughing out their lungs, no ear protection, no eye protection - and ITS SOMEONE ELSES FAULT?

Really?

Really? This Darwinian failure can't get the FOUR neurons to engage in his paramecium size brain and say "This be bad for you hoss".

This isn't some 17th century Edwardian workhouse where he's forced to labour 18 hours a day for a thin gruel or else... This is a bloke who has grown up in one of the richest countries in world HISTORY, with some of the best education in HISTORY, with the best access to information in ALL OF MAN KIND, with the best governance socialism can provide... and he STILL acts like a total baked potato.

Let that blade do its job I'd argue.

If its not the saw, its going be something else that corrects the gene pool.

[Christos]

I find it disappointing that this can occur on a job site.

I don't mind what you do in your own home, it is after all own responsibility but on a work site who is responsible?

[Opelblues2]

4 building company's have been put on notice in Mackay for not providing/using dust control measures

http://www.comcare.gov.au/preventing..._the_workplace

Assessment of Health Risks Arising from the Use of Hazardous Substances in the Workplace.
• WSO 16 – 1991, Exposure Standards for Atmospheric Contaminants in the Occupational

An approved code of practice applies to anyone who has a duty of care in the circumstances described in the code. In most cases, following an approved code of practice would achieve compliance with the health and safety duties in the WHS Act, in relation to the subject matter of the code. Like regulations, codes of practice deal with particular issues and do not cover all hazards or risks which may arise. The health and safety duties require duty holders to consider all risks associated with work, not only those for which regulations and codes of practice exist.
Under a WHS Act in a jurisdiction, approved codes of practice are admissible in court proceedings. Courts may regard an approved code of practice as evidence of what is known about a hazard, risk or control and may rely on the code in determining what is reasonably practicable in the circumstances to which the code relates.

and why I said it was a breach, is because that is what the local law employee hit me with

[FenceFurniture]

Someone is sitting in a huge cloud of brick dust, breathing it in, coughing out their lungs, no ear protection, no eye protection - and ITS SOMEONE ELSES FAULT?

I'd be quite sure of that, but really, the guy involved is just stupid for not taking preventative action. OH&S begins with the operator and common sense. He shouldn't need to know that concrete dust is really REALLY bad for him - surely it's just obscenely unpleasant.

Indeed.

This is a bloke who has grown up in one of the richest countries in world HISTORY, with some of the best education in HISTORY, with the best access to information in ALL OF MAN KIND, with the best governance socialism can provide... and he STILL acts like a total baked potato.

Not quite Ev, his Chinese accent is still there (I've had previous dialogue with him) but I'd say he's been here for some time. Certainly long enough to have observed and been told (I guess he got "told" this morning by the block layer ).

I still go back to the first point quoted above - it would be hideously unpleasant in that cloud. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT THEN! Jobs like that (repetitive block etc cutting are a job for a wet saw on a table. Virtually nil dust (for the neighbours too) and probably quieter (this was a 2 stroke jobbie). This has been going on all day (on and off) for weeks so he must have taken in a disastrous amount of dust on this job alone.

This is the site that I've been getting materials from out of their scrap (with their permission, and help I might add) so I've had quite an exposure to the site. Their attention to OH&S is abysmal. Even when the Asbestos Removalists were on the job they were just hanging around while it fell out of the eaves to the ground 7-8 metres below (to shatter). Me? I was well and truly upwind 70-80 metres away.

[FenceFurniture]

I don't mind what you do in your own home, it is after all own responsibility

Yebbut anyone who is careless at home may well end up in the public health system in one way or another (respiratory, audio, et al) and guess whose tax dollars support that!

[Evanism]

FF, my mind absolutely boggles.

We have paralysing levels of bureaucracy, as shown by poor Opelblues2, codes of management so Byzantine, infinitesimally detailed to the closest minutiae, all hugely argued over by a cloud of lawyers, council reps, union leaches, insurance bodies, industry interest groups and sundry other blood suckers....

How could it even occur? What is so fabulously sickening is reading about the asbestos cloud!!! Jesus H Christ!

In Canberra, they just spend a BILLION dollars to buy 1000 houses at fantastic markups, all because they might-maybe-someday-perhaps-present-a-smidgen-of-a-risk----maybe-sortof.

There, these clowns are dropping it to the ground.

No OH&S can save morons like this.

[Toymaker Len]

[QUOTE=Evanism;1863238]God this makes my blood boil. OH&S. Someone is sitting in a huge cloud of brick dust, breathing it in, coughing out their lungs, no ear protection, no eye protection - and ITS SOMEONE ELSES FAULT?
.
Not really someone elses' fault just a failure of everybody involved to pay due care to OHS. The guy probably thinks he is tough and he is getting on with the job with no fuss and no delay. But the long term damage is not just to him but to the whole community. The cost of the right gear (gloves, glasses, hearing protection) is a tiny fraction of the health care costs that this will eventually cause. Not to mention extending the guys working life by ten years or so or his quality of life in the interim. The builder should be aware of the need for the right gear, and the subcontractor, and the labourer. Which one of these three do you think may be the least intelligent, least educated, least responsible and has the most to lose?

[FenceFurniture]

Which one of these three do you think may be the least intelligent, least educated, least responsible and has the most to lose?

Well certainly not the block layer - you've read his eloquent language

At the end of the day, the builder is there all the time and is the top cocky, so it's up to him to pull people into line. The developer is in and out, perhaps 2-3 times per week, and although he would no doubt be the one to be sued, it's not really his fault. However, I guess it's up to him to issue the mantra to the builder: "make sure they comply or YOU'LL be sacked too". From there it's the builder's responsibility for compliance, as I see it.

Re the asbestos falling: it wasn't a big visible cloud (but i was a long way away), but why take the risk? They were all issued <=P2 masks for the day (special day ) but only a couple had the brains to put the fairly ineffectual things on (you know, the standard quite useless "paper" facemask which leaves lovely gaps around the nose and edges). Even the specailists were only wearing these and removing them as soon as the current eave had been taken out. There'd still be plenty floating around in the air.

The specialist's procedure was:

1. get the board out, with or without a hammer (which was what caused chunks to break off)
2. take off mask
3. use hand to flick out dust from hair (no hat or hair net)
4. move scaffold to next piece
5. rinse and repeat (actually, no rinsing at all)

Not to mention all the pigeon and possum dust sitting on top of said eaves.
"In eave? Is no possible" (mimics flying and oinking)
"Not pig - pigeon, like your English"
(who knows where that's from? )

I tell ya, it was HORRENDOUS to watch! Bunch of cowboys (the specialists).

Ah, I remember now, it was NRL Grand Final day last year. Or maybe the Final (Canterbury was in it). Important detail One of the specialists was still able to speak and asked me if I was going to watch it. "Nah mate"

[BobL]

Been there and done all that.

During Uni holidays and on many weekends I worked as a builders labourer on high rise reinforced concrete structures
I worked mainly on stripping out - disassembling form work and sweeping up - bathed in concrete dust all day long, never saw a mask the whole time I was there.

Trying to make a good impression with the bosses my first efforts with a pneumatic jack hammer were considered promising so I was declared Mr Stuff Up. This meant I had to fix the concrete formwork stuff ups.
For example all the window openings in the then Perth Sheraton Hotel from the 6th to the 14th floor were too small for the already built ally window frames so I got to enlarge the opening all along the top edge by 1" using a 25kg pneumatic jack hammer.

The process was as follows.
Carry one Acrow prop into the room and afix it floor to ceiling about 3m from the window opening.
Carry jack hammer and lengths of air line up to room.
Carry 2 44 gallon drums and a 3m long length of scaffold planking into the room and set up in front of window opening.
Tie 3/4" diameter rope around my waist back to Acrow prop. Same fof the jack hammer.
Down at ground level where all the stuff was going to spill out into I had to place 2 witches hats and a sign saying "Danger falling concrete"
Start diesel powered compress and tie wet hanky around my face.

Stand on top of plank across the two 44 gallon drums and chip away 1" of concrete from the top of the window opening.
Pray you don't hit any reo, which just about took my shoulder out every time I hit some.,
Pneumatic hammer is operating at about ear level. TOC - TOC - TOC - TOC dust flying everywhere
Occasionally the hammer tip would break through the concrete and the whole jack hammer would go sailing out the window - restrained from going too far by the rope and the hose.
Meanwhile down below there was a constant rain of blue metal and concrete.
Once the rope broke but the hose held it
Fortunately I never went out the window.
No Muffs, no mask, but I did have a Helmet and steel caps.
Repeat for all windows from the 6th to the 14th floor.
Lots of walking up and down stairs, teasing, bullying, stories. I learned a lot from the form work carpenters. Hardly fine woodworking but lots of basic skills. Those guys (mainly Italians) were fast. Learned a lot about laying concrete, etc.

At the end of each day I was knackered, deaf and I looked like one of those mud men from New Guinea. from the mix of sweat and concrete dust.

There are heaps of other stories I could relate about the conditions.
Some people despise Unions but this sort of thing was an example that no-one should have been expected to tolerate..