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Posted by David Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Tuesday, December 28, 2010 at 18:19:48 :
In Reply to: Re: Nah, cancer has to go up if heart disease goes down. posted by Chewie [207.199.226.9] on Tuesday, December 28, 2010 at 14:40:55 :
I've known a lot of retired welders. Like roofing, logging, fishing, or any risky profession, a guy can take safety precautions or can take the "hell, it ain't gonna hurt me" attitude. It doesn't take a degree in environmental medicine to know that breathing clouds of vaporized metal and flux is bad for you. That's why God gave us fans.
One of the retired welders I knew was my old neighbor in Everett. He did die of cancer, but he was over 80 when he died, which isn't exactly premature. He had been a welder for Weyerhaeuser at the kraft mill all his life. He told me that in his day they had the regular welders like him, and they had the lead burners. Lead burning is the technique of welding lead using a small acetylene torch and a lead rod. If you look at an old car battery where the cells are connected together on top of the case with lead straps, or an old plumbing roof vent flange, those are "burned" lead joints. In the pulp mill, the pipes and digesters that held the acid liquor were all lined with lead so there was plenty of work for full-time lead burners. Frank told me that they were only good for about 10 years on the job before they had to retire early due to lead poisoning. To make up for it, Weyerhaeuser paid them considerably more than they paid the other welders, and it was considered a fair bargain on both sides.