Categories
Antiwork

I work in a rubber manufacturing plant, one of the biggest in the U.S. and my boss won’t let me wear a voluntary respirator

Title. According to OSHA rules this falls under “voluntary respirator use”. Their basis is that it’s not needed, our HVAC systems replace all warehouse air about every hour. It’s 10% better than quality standards. But that’s the general air, I have to operate at arms length from casted rubber that is visibly fuming. Every 5-6 minutes I perform my task and hold my breath. So when other workers complain it’s “our standards are fine and it is safe” coming from execs that only walk around machines and never have to operate. To their defense, they have to update the qualified procedure to include respirators which would require inspection and health checks on the users. A co-worker showed me the sickness/incident log and they’re 80% respiratory. I have asthma and really want to work for the company but these health issues are outweighing the (amazing) corporate benefits. Is this a failure…


Title. According to OSHA rules this falls under “voluntary respirator use”. Their basis is that it’s not needed, our HVAC systems replace all warehouse air about every hour. It’s 10% better than quality standards.
But that’s the general air, I have to operate at arms length from casted rubber that is visibly fuming. Every 5-6 minutes I perform my task and hold my breath.

So when other workers complain it’s “our standards are fine and it is safe” coming from execs that only walk around machines and never have to operate.
To their defense, they have to update the qualified procedure to include respirators which would require inspection and health checks on the users.
A co-worker showed me the sickness/incident log and they’re 80% respiratory. I have asthma and really want to work for the company but these health issues are outweighing the (amazing) corporate benefits.
Is this a failure of regulation or my company?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *