From our Bureau of Socialist Workplace Safety with some assistance from our Bureau of Socialist Social Justice
Another shocking surprise! As power plants continue to break down and blackouts intensify, Castro, Inc. provides no protective gear to workers at power plants who shovel highly toxic solid waste containing arsenic, chromium, lead, vanadium, and zinc, all of which can be lethal if regularly inhaled,
Yes, socialist social justice at work. Individual lives don’t matter at all. The only thing that matters is ensuring the survival of the eternal so-called “Revolution,” that is, keeping the military junta in power. Those four guys in the photo above can be easily replaced if they keel over and die. No problem.
Abridged and loosely translated from Diario de Cuba
Four photos published by Cuba’s state-owned Electric Union (UNE) on their official profile, showing several workers shoveling ashes inside a thermoelectric plant’s boiler without any protective gear, have raised alarm.
The post, made on Saturday, August 10, intended to highlight the entity’s efforts to address the wave of power outages that have increased on the island due to malfunctions in eight generating plants. However, it exposed the extreme risk conditions under which authorities are making their workers operate.
“Technical staff and workers from the Ernesto Guevara de la Serna Thermoelectric Plant in Santa Cruz del Norte are cleaning the boiler of unit number 2, slagging the furnace, and cleaning lubrication filters, which will soon facilitate the machine’s startup,” the post reads.
Jorge Piñón, director of the Energy Program for Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of Texas, after examining the photos, provided insight into the situation they reveal.
“The solid waste from industries using the combustion of heavy fuel oil for electricity production in thermal power plants produces a complex mixture of atmospheric pollutants, such as acidic gases, organic compounds, and solid residues like fly ash and bottom ash,” he explained to DIARIO DE CUBA.
“Bottom ash is a waste material continuously produced in thermal power plants. It consists of agglomerated ash particles, which are too large to be carried by combustion gases and fall through open grates into an ash hopper at the bottom of the furnace.”
“Due to the tiny size of the particles and the presence of toxic elements like arsenic, chromium, lead, vanadium, and zinc, this ash is considered highly dangerous for humans,” he warned.
Piñón noted that Cuban scientists and experts, such as C. M. Alonso Hernández, J. Bernal Castillo, Y. Bolaños Álvarez, M. Gómez Batista, and M. Díaz Asencio, all associated with the Environmental Studies Center of Cienfuegos, “have published important studies demonstrating the danger in handling boiler ashes.”
“Workers handling ashes need protective equipment like gloves, goggles, masks, and more. This equipment protects them from dust and other harmful materials. UNE should provide and train workers on the importance of this equipment and establish clear rules for its use. Without it, workers could suffer serious respiratory and skin problems,” he emphasized.
“Regulations on worker safety and protection in the European Union and the United States would consider this a criminal situation, clearly holding the company accountable for the potential negative impact on the health of its workers,” he concluded.
4o
Ordinary Cuban lives do NOT matter. Their purpose is to serve the state, and regardless of how well they serve it, once they’re no longer useful they might as well be dead. The prime directive is always in effect.