Many workers ‘asbestos ignorant’

BBC News is reporting that just 12% of the 400 tradespeople they interviewed were aware of the dangers of asbestos dust.

Most tradespeople are unaware of the health risks linked to asbestos, a survey suggests.

The British Lung Foundation said just 12% of the 400 it questioned knew exposure could lead to them developing the incurable lung cancer mesothelioma..

Three-quarters had not had any training on dealing with asbestos and just over 25% thought some levels were safe.

The report states that deaths from mesothelioma are continuing to rise each year, with as many as 20 deaths per week in the UK. It goes on to say that most of the workers felt pressure to continue to work if they suspected asbestos was present at the work site and that many believed all asbestos had been removed from Britain.

A spokesman for the Federation of Master Builders agreed there was too little knowledge about the risks.

He said: “The problem is that there is a general misconception, particularly amongst tradesmen and home owners, that asbestos is a thing of the past so there is no need to worry about it.

“Tradesmen need to understand that this is a serious threat that could be present in any job that they go to, and that they need to understand how to identify asbestos, and what to do when they find it.”

Hopefully someone is doing a similar study in the U.S. Considering the almost certainty that tradespeople will develop lung cancer if they don’t use safety measures, I wonder how high our own numbers really are.

Our Elderly Are Left To Flounder

Steve’s grandfather died recently. Right before New Years, to be exact. His wife, who is his second, was left a good amount of money after his passing. However, because he was on medicare, she was forced to re-mortgage the house. A lot of people have this idea that older folks have some kind medicare advantage when it comes to their health insurance, but that’s not right. Grandmother had to pay back all the money used by Grandfather while he was in the nursing home. Then she had to pay back all the money he used prior to that. Luckily, he also had some sort of other insurance, which helped pay the medical bills, or Grandmother would literally be destitute right now. Her children (her “estate”) would also be paying more bills when she passes. When she dies, the bank will sell the home in which she raised all 5 of her children.

There’s a lot of talk right now about reforming the health insurance industry. One on side are the Conservatives who don’t want to give “handouts” to people with government money. On the other are the Liberals who want to make all insurance available through the government. There are problems with both sides of that argument- especially when dealing with the older generations.

For one, it wouldn’t be a “handout” to help them with their medical care in their waning years. They’ve earned their way (the majority) by working and supporting the younger generations. Someone had to be responsible for our health and well-being while we were children. That would have been the older generation. Because of that it’s important that we make sure they don’t fall between the cracks and suffer even more their last years.

On the other side of that, the government doesn’t do that good of a job now. Medicare is, unfortunately, failing many older people. Like Grandmother. It looks easy to those of us who aren’t right there counting out the pennies for the medicine or mortgaging a house that’s been paid off for 30 years. There’s the bureaucracy behind it all that can’t be ignored. The government will do what it’s doing now on a much grander scale.

Of course, one could blame the recent administration’s penchant for cutting any kind of services to the poor. But it’s more than that. Society has a responsibility to take care of their elderly. We’ll all be old some day and then what? We’ll have policies in place that will effectively put us out in the cold too. Sure we can invest and save. But there are risks there too. Many people who were getting pensions from companies that went belly up. Their pensions went belly up too. Their savings went up in smoke- almost literally. And that leaves them with nothing but people harping on them that they should have saved!

“You knew you were going to retire. Why didn’t you save?”

Except they did. And it was gone in a flash. The safety nets that we think are there for our golden years aren’t always there when the golden years arrive.

Because Grandmother was Grandfather’s second wife, she doesn’t get his death benefits. Nor does she continue to receive his pension. Her monthly income was cut by 75% when he died. Now she may face losing the home she’s lived in for over 30 years. Because neither private industry nor government bureaucracy left her any safe guards.

Think about that at the voting booth.

EC Strips “Obscene” Ads

I have been not-so secretly reading some EntreCard blogs (blogs that are listed in EC, in case you didn’t know). I don’t have this blog over there, because, well, I’ve already got one (or two) and I just don’t feel like dropping for one more blog. Recently there have been quite a few ads featuring women in fine lingerie or tacky lingerie, as the case may be. Most of these ads pointed to blogs about making money blogging. HUH? What does making money blogging at home in your dirty underwear have to do with sexy women in sexy underwear?

Well, Graham took action and banned to offending ads from EC. I think this was a wise move. It’s one thing to show a scantily clad lady on your card if your site is all about lingerie (with which I have no problem, owning a few pieces myself), but it’s quite another to try to trick some horny internet surfers to click your boring site.

At any rate, it caused a slight stir with some internet marketers. These are the ones who have no qualms about doing whatever it takes. They didn’t think that their ads should have been censored. The problem was, though, that as soon as one guy put up a sexy woman then 10 more did the same (a bunch of independent thinkers there). I imagine that they did get some clicks, but nothing that would ever cause visitors to come back.

Imagine if you’re looking for something nice to wear on Valentine’s Day and thought “Wow! That site looks like it might be the ticket!” and then you end up reading about how to optimize your page for StumbeUpon users. *Yawn* I imagine that would really increase someone’s “bounce rate” and I really can’t imagine that the visitors looking for the sexy women are going to click on the ads on the make money online blog. Really?

I think I’m becoming burnt out on surfing anyway. I spend too much time reading (and rolling my eyes) than being productive. I think I do much better without online social interaction. I get a lot more done.