1  2  Next

Happened less than ten minutes ago as I write this. No details but there is video.

http://wjhl.com/2017/10/04/breaking-eme ... t-eastman/

   

If Tennessee is anything like Texas then the best guess is that proper maintenance and regular state inspections have been next to non-existent because it interferes with the profit margin too much. Terrorism? Maybe. More likely though it's complacency and just not giving a damn if there's money to be made.

   

Americans are a bigger threat to the safety and well being of other Americans than any Islamic conspiracy.

   

The short-sightedness of this kind of capitalism is appalling. For the sake of preventative maintenance and not sandbagging inspectors, both of which don't cost all that much if the plant's operations are on the level, they'd rather risk massively destructive industrial incidents that cost billions and billions of dollars for what? Spite? Hatred for the floor workers and not giving a damn if they get killed? Showing the government that Free Market Man doesn't have time for their petty interference? All the money budgeted for the yearly bolt-tightening crews got diverted to the golf tourney or for the fourth trophy wife's new fake tits? Seriously, why?

And eliminate the word "accident" from these kinds of moments. If ownership and management find it beneath them to do the bare minimum to prevent catastrophic destruction of their own facility then that's not accidental in the slightest. It's deliberate and it makes the worst-case scenario inevitable.

   

Damn radical chemicals!

   

@ Thanos & Shep:

Isn't it a little early to jump to conclusions?

   

Most likely scenario given past incidents that were chalked up to the negligence only greed can cause.

   

Negligence is also caused by stupidity, ignorance, and laziness.

   

These things usually walk hand-in-hand in an unsafe facility, and typically flow from the top on down.

   

I agree.

But to be blunt: a truly greedy chemical plant owner would run a safe, efficient plant because his workman's compensation insurance, legal liability exposure, and his physical plant insurance would be lower and he'd put more money to the bottom line over the long haul.

   

They’re saying the blast occurred exactly 57 years to the day of a deadly blast at the same site, which killed 15 people on October 4 1960.

   

Well it looks like a few of you need to come down from your ivory tower, pick up a broom and start cleaning up your own back yard. As facts would have it: Canada has a HIGHER fatal injury rate at work than the U.S.
https://sites.google.com/site/ryoichiho ... _by_county

Heres one talking about how Canada is near the bottom of a group of 29 OECD countries when it comes to workplace fatalities. Only five were worse. Among those five are such workers paradises like Turkey and Mexico.
http://www.safethink.ca/resources/pdf/C ... 0Facts.pdf
Check out the section where they break it down by Province/ Territory. Alberta has a rate of 8.0 deaths per 100,000 workers. Tennessee has a rate of 3.7, less than half of Alberta. Texas had a rate of 4.5, far less than 8.0. It looks like someone is partaking of the B.C. bud on the job in B.C. with a rate of 8.9. Lets take a stroll back to that other list of countries to see what company one be keeping in the 8's and 9's. Ah that bastion of labor rights that is Singapore. Don't spit on the sidewalk. Azerbaijan, Estonia, Russia, India for gods sake!!!! Apparently there is no government oversight whatsoever in the territories with a rate of 27.4. Seriously? 27.4? Only Namibia comes in higher. Third world shitholes that are in the middle of a war have safer work places than the Territories. Places like Vietnam and Cambodia have a better record. Your work is cut out for you. Tennessee with their 3.7 rate is something you should be aspiring to, not ridiculing.

   

Worker injuries and deaths are tragic but you're using them as a red herring. Canada hasn't had an entire facility blown to pieces due to negligent/incompetent operations in a very long time. The US certainly can't say that, not after Deepwater Horizon, that fertilizer plant in Texas several years ago, and now (presumably) this newest one in Tennessee.

   

Lets look at the numbers shall we? Deepwater Horizon was a BRITISH company drilling for oil in American waters. They can take the blame for that. How many deaths? 11 total. Fertilizer plant in Texas. That was American. You can lay that on our doorstep. How many deaths? 15. More than 160 injured. ATF has stated that the fire was intentionally set. An act of terrorism, kind of like this dickhead in Las Vegas a few days ago. Yes the company was negligent and had been fined for offenses, but even the most diligent company on the planet would be in the same predicament if an arsonist set the fire like ATF is saying. Todays blast in Tennessee, how many dead? 0 How many wounded? 0 How many went to the hospital? 0. Not one injury. The building did NOT get blown to pieces. Some smoke came out of the building, thats all. A foreign company cutting corners, an arsonist/terrorist, and a fact of life that some substances are hazardous to handle caused some smoke with no fatalities, and no visits to the hospital. Thats what you got? Did you even look at the links I posted? You have "supposedly modern" Provinces where the workers are dropping like flies at rates that most third world countries would be embarresed of. Those are not my opinions. Those are facts. Those are numbers that you should be ashamed of. Don't try to spin it off. Some smoke coming out of a building with no deaths and no visits to the hospital in no way equals a workers fatality rate that is equal to a third world country where women get raped defecating outside because they have no indoor toilets. Thats no red herring. Thats a systemetic failure on a grand scale on your part.

I used to think that the First Nation needed to quit whining, and move on. After seeing these numbers today, I have to rethink my position. Only Namibia has a higher worker fatality rate than Canada's territories. As big and fucked up as the world is and only ONE third world shithole ( a country where AIDS is the leading killer since 1996) has a higher worker fatality rate than Canada's territories. But hey we have some smoke coming out of a plant in Tennessee. Look over there! Nothing to see here! Yeah! Smoke and mirrors would be more like it. The fact that those statistics exist at all should be enough to have someone (hopefully many people) to lose their job, maybe do some time in prison. Its a total fucking disgrace!!! Thats the nicest way to put it. I notice that New Brunswick which has a lot of people working in dangerous outdoors jobs like fishing, farming, logging, etc., only has a workers fatalities rate of 3.4. The second best in Canada. Why such a HUGE disparity between them and the Territories?

   

Because when you turn statistics into a per-capita figure based on frequency per 100,000 people, you automatically turn any incident in the Territories into 3 incidents, because around 30,000 people live in each one. New Brunswick is also one of the least populated Provinces, and is not heavily industrilaized.

Sorry, I checked your links, but couldn't see the stats you were talking about, but I did find that Alberta one you mention. Did you notice that those stats also include injuries and deaths that occur on Farms? (see #7 in the bibliography) The same Farms that people freaked out about when the NDP gave Farm workers the same protections as workers in the rest of Canada, that weren't in place when that report was created?

And just the other day, at the UCP debate, each candidate said they would repeal those protections for Farm workers.

Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

   

1  2  Next