Dust To Dust...

Some things don't change. Today, The i Paper launched a campaign to end the poorly regulated working conditions of those directly involved in the process of producing those oh-so-fashionable engineered stone worktops favoured by those with 'trophy' kitchens. We seem to have come full-circle from the days of miner's Black Lung and slate quarrymen's 'The Dust' - the latter very much a problem straying into the latter part of the last century - to yet another unregulated and largely exploitative industry allowed liberal licence to flout safe-working directives by decades of laissez-faire government attitudes to the safety of workers. Silicosis is a well-known and documented disease of those who work without adequate breathing protection in any industry that involves the mining, breaking, or cutting and grinding of stone, coal or minerals; leaving their lungs compromised by inorganic particles which slowly and painfully disables the breathing of its victims to the point of death. Once afflicted, there is no escape, save the end. God knows, we've got evidence enough here in North Wales. These dangers have been known, by workers and employers alike, for centuries. The Labour movement that emerged from the Industrial Revolution sought to get suitable legislation enacted to protect unionised labour from the these vicissitudes of their employ, and succeeded in large part, only for the late twentieth century to see de-regulation and a weakening of workers' rights become the institutionalised norm once again. The new government needs to step up to the plate on this issue, and I for one welcome the attention given to the issue by The i Paper on it. Despite their change of ownership to a more right-wing stewardship, they still seem to be addressing the kinds of issues that the old 'Independent' was originally founded to voice. People shouldn't be exposed to these kinds of risks in the search for third-party profit, particularly to serve vanity industries, such as this one...