Ever hear of strip mines? Here in Montana, we don't get coal -- The Environmental Lounge

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Subject: Ever hear of strip mines? Here in Montana, we don't get coal

Author:
Curmudgeon
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Date Posted: 08:40:09 10/09/07 Tue
In reply to: Ex-bushy 's message, "Ever heard of coal miners' black lung?" on 14:21:06 09/30/07 Sun

with a pick and shovel -- we just take it from the surface with a few workers operating huge equipment.

>Can't be prevented by the kind of cheap mask that
>would protect cane workers from fibers. Can't
>remember the last time a cane field collapsed on top
>of its workers like happens with increased frequency
>since bush gutted the MSA. Sounds likes there's much
>more cause to close down the coal industry. You gonna
>speak up on that? Didn't think so.
>
>>it is way past time to look in to this fuel, also the
>>farming methods. but when your paying legal and
>>illegal workers $1.35 an hour. you can afford to pay
>>off family's.
>> >>href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&
>s
>>id=acy...Sk0Y&refer=exclusive">http://www.bloomberg.co
>m
>>/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=acy...Sk0Y&refer=exclusive
><
>>/a>
>>
>>Brazil Ethanol Boom Belied by Diseased Lungs Among
>>Cane Workers
>>Suddenly, he feels dizzy and has to stop. It's not the
>>first time this has happened. He's had headaches and
>>pains all over his body for a week and has already
>>been hospitalized once. Silva, who's 45 and started
>>cutting cane this year, says he's reluctant to stop
>>working. His pay and his job hinge on how much cane he
>>can cut in a day.
>>
>>The cane Silva slashes feeds an ethanol plant owned by
>>Cosan SA Industria & Comercio, Brazil's biggest
>>exporter of a fuel that politicians around the world
>>trumpet as a clean, renewable alternative to
>gasoline.
>>
>>Halfway through Silva's 10-hour shift, the slender,
>>5-foot- 2-inch-tall (1.6-meter-tall) worker collapses.
>>He takes shelter under a bus, where he trembles with
>>fever. That's where Sao Paulo state labor prosecutor
>>Mario Antonio Gomes finds him as he inspects the
>>plantation.
>>
>>Gomes orders Elton Rodrigo Franco, a driver for the
>>plantation, to take Silva to a hospital in Capivari,
>>about 50 miles (80 kilometers) away. The sick laborer
>>endures the one- hour trip in the only vehicle
>>available, a two-seat Ford Pampa pickup with no room
>>in which to lie down.
>>
>>A doctor at the hospital diagnoses Silva with lung
>>fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs that often afflicts
>>cane cutters, according to the labor inspector's
>>report. He may die if he keeps cutting cane, the
>>report says.

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