Dusty Death

I notice it all the time: a construction worker with a jackhammer or a diamond saw, cutting through concrete in a cloud of dust illuminated by the morning sun and looking like an ad for OshKosh or McDonalds.  Very seldom any breathing protection.  And then I start remembering…

Back in ‘79 I landed a pastoral internship at a small church in Western North Carolina.  One of the duties of a pastor is to visit the sick.  I remember one fellow - a former construction worker - to whom I took communion every week.  Even with an oxygen mask he wore the pallor of suffocation.  He was dying a millimeter at a time, his lungs destroyed by silicosis.  He could not speak but his eyes conveyed a continually panicked expression as he struggled for every breath.  I wondered if I was evil for wishing that his end would come sooner.  A year later, he was still going as I left the area.

Watching construction workers breathing that stuff is a helpless feeling.  Apparently I’m not alone in that observation, as Christina Morgan at The Pump Handle asks; ”Everyday construction hazards; why can’t we do better?”

Posted by George on 04/06/08 at 09:38 AM
Science & Technology • Safety & Health • (2) Comments • Link
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