Masks were generally required, and dust control measures like wetting down surfaces helped. Nor was water or even ventilation used to suppress dust from explosions.
But were the workers in any meaningful sense making a choice? The workers were not given any masks or breathing equipment to use while mining, although management wore such equipment during inspection visits.
In addition, five physicians also spoke in favor of the plaintiff, Raymond Johnson, including one who stated that 95 percent of the one hundred and seventy-five workers he had examined were suffering from acute silicosis.
Material poverty and lack of other employment opportunities drove migrant workers to live in rotting shacks or fields, waiting for the rare chance at a job. Miners lose their lives every day; it is the likelihood of the job they will chose.
Desperation was your reason unichip worked nevertheless greed is why they passed away. Rinehart and Dennis routinely used violence against the black though not the white workers. As a result of the exposure to silica dust, many workers developed silicosisa debilitating lung disease.
Silicosis also sets the lungs up for other fatal illnesses. Near the end of the trial, one witness changed his testimony: The companies had threatened and bribed him to swear the air in the tunnel had been clean, he said, but his conscience now made him speak out.
They said many deaths went unreported because the men who were sent away died quietly or were misdiagnosed. Then, after leaving office, Holt served as general counsel of Union Carbide. Fresh air, however, was the very problem.