An interesting passage in the lyrics deals with the tradeoffs workers (sometimes unknowingly) make around wages and heath. The long-term negative effects on workers’ health are largely caused by occupational exposures to hazardous substances.
There's overtime and bonus opportunities galoreLonger exposures (via overtime) may intensify the damage (which often takes years to manifest itself). Most of us are exposed to chemical substances at some point on our working lives.
The young men like their money and they all come back for more
But soon your knocking on and you look older than you should
For every bob made on the job, you pay with flesh and blood
The negative impact of such exposures highlights the importance of occupational exposure limits (OELs). The idea of an OEL is concentration of a substance (e.g., 3 parts per million) and length of exposure (e.g., over eight hours) that is deemed to not pose a hazard to “normal” employees.
There are about 800 OELs (varies by jurisdiction). Unfortunately, there are over 80,000 chemical substances across modern workplaces, thus most exposures have no known safe level of exposure. And, for the less than 1% of substances for which there are OELs, most are based on highly suspect “science”.
One of the most counter intuitive aspects of OELs is their tendency to go down over time. On the surface, revising OELs downwards suggests the system works: as new evidence comes available, we change the standards.
Yet, that the change is always downwards suggests a systemic pattern of under-regulation by governments. Basically, in the face of ambiguity, the default decision is to set OELs high. Which accords with research that suggests OELs are less about safe levels of exposure and more about level of exposure that employers can afford.
And its go boys go
They'll time your every breath
And every day in this place your two days near to death
But you go
Well a process man am I and I'm tellin' you no lie
I work and breathe among the fumes that tread across the sky
There's thunder all around me and there's poison in the air
There's a lousy smell that smacks of hell and dust all in me hair
[Chorus]
Well I've worked among the spitters and I breathe the oily smoke
I've shoveled up the gypsum and it neigh 'on makes you choke
I've stood knee-deep cyanide, got sick with a caustic burn
Been working rough, I've seen enough, to make your stomach turn
[Chorus]
There's overtime and bonus opportunities galore
The young men like their money and they all come back for more
But soon your knocking on and you look older than you should
For every bob made on the job, you pay with flesh and blood
[Chorus]
Well a process man am I and I'm telling you no lie
I work and breathe among the fumes that tread across the sky
There's thunder all around me and there's poison in the air
There's a lousy smell that smacks of hell and dust all in me hair
[Chorus 2x]
-- Bob Barnetson
There are about 800 OELs (varies by jurisdiction). Unfortunately, there are over 80,000 chemical substances across modern workplaces, thus most exposures have no known safe level of exposure. And, for the less than 1% of substances for which there are OELs, most are based on highly suspect “science”.
One of the most counter intuitive aspects of OELs is their tendency to go down over time. On the surface, revising OELs downwards suggests the system works: as new evidence comes available, we change the standards.
Yet, that the change is always downwards suggests a systemic pattern of under-regulation by governments. Basically, in the face of ambiguity, the default decision is to set OELs high. Which accords with research that suggests OELs are less about safe levels of exposure and more about level of exposure that employers can afford.
And its go boys go
They'll time your every breath
And every day in this place your two days near to death
But you go
Well a process man am I and I'm tellin' you no lie
I work and breathe among the fumes that tread across the sky
There's thunder all around me and there's poison in the air
There's a lousy smell that smacks of hell and dust all in me hair
[Chorus]
Well I've worked among the spitters and I breathe the oily smoke
I've shoveled up the gypsum and it neigh 'on makes you choke
I've stood knee-deep cyanide, got sick with a caustic burn
Been working rough, I've seen enough, to make your stomach turn
[Chorus]
There's overtime and bonus opportunities galore
The young men like their money and they all come back for more
But soon your knocking on and you look older than you should
For every bob made on the job, you pay with flesh and blood
[Chorus]
Well a process man am I and I'm telling you no lie
I work and breathe among the fumes that tread across the sky
There's thunder all around me and there's poison in the air
There's a lousy smell that smacks of hell and dust all in me hair
[Chorus 2x]
-- Bob Barnetson
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