2 more Hanford workers sick, up to 28 since March | KING5.com Seattle

OK here is the deal, over all I think that Washington River Protection Solutions and other contractors in this facility have the responsibility for keeping their workers safe and must take every precaution to do so, however one thing I noticed in this story is that Protection Solutions said that wearing respiratory protection at the majority of the areas at this sight is voluntary.

My first point here is if management of these contractors think the risk is bad enough that it be voluntary to wear breathing protection it is probably enough of a hazard that it should probably be mandatory that employees in this area wear respirators, and most likely OSHA is probably going to hit them hard in this area.

My second point here is safety is the primary responsibility of me, the employee and I know that if the company I work for tells me that a area may me hazardous enough that I can wear a respirator if I want and I care about my health and if I care about my family I'm sure the hell going to take the few extra minutes it takes to strap on that respirator and I know people complain that wearing a respirator can be annoying and uncomfortable but you know what I have a 8 year old son and I want to be around for him for a long time I'm going to deal with be annoyed and uncomfortable to guarantee that I will be.

Now don't get me wrong, even though I say you are overall responsible for your own safety federal and all states have laws on the books requiring that employers must provide up to date and complete warnings for every chemical that a company uses and believe it or not those laws are so in depth they even cover chemicals such as white out. Those same laws also require that the employer also provide training and proper equipment to ensure that all employees know how to protect themselves.

I think what we may find here is that some heads are going to roll because the decisions made to declare these voluntary respirator areas where wrong, management probably knew the areas should be mandatory and was probably officially recommended but up to the employee.      









2 more Hanford workers sick, up to 28 since March | KING5.com Seattle