I was a H&S Rep for a steel processing plant years ago...we had training and I took as much of it as they would allow (level II of III). We didn't handle things involved with level III so there was no need to go further...
However, during my tenure as a Rep I discovered the paint we were using to coat the steel used in mining and other applications was highly toxic (MSDS sheets were "hidden" by management) and we were not using proper safety equipment. The MSDS called for complete hazmat suits, appropriate masks, and barrier cream to prevent exposed skin from allowing absorption.
When I brought this up it was, at first, laughed at by management. After I insisted and threatened to shut down the paint bay they complied...that resulted in an eventual closing of the paint bay because there was no way we could prevent exposure to the paint without some fairly expensive safety equipment and training...or simply change the type of paint we were using. Not so simple.
I didn't think something like this could actually have happened in Canada. The paint can cause some really severe diseases including cancer, nerve damage, hearing loss (which I ended up with), and sterility (which doesn't matter too much to me).
Since then, a number of the men I was working with have died from cancer. They were exposed to the paint (as well as many other things like lifestyle hazards and radiation) for a number of years and we even had at least 3 people go off the deep end and end up in psych wards (could have been the drinking and other factors but...)...one ended up in prison for beating up his girlfriend.
I know there is a lot of "overkill" in health and safety, but there is also quite a bit of good...or was...before they shipped all the dangerous jobs overseas so we wouldn't be affected by them...
Sometimes it's better to starve to death because you can't find a decent job than to be exposed to potentially lethal hazards...or something like that...
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