Location: Western NY State
Posting for my husband who is not on reddit
My husband is a machinist who works with brass. In 2018 he gave up an amazing job in another state in a meticulously maintained shop making parts for the aerospace and medical industries to move back to where he grew up and be closer to his family. The shop he works for is a small operation which has been bought out several times in the last 5 years, and now some distant investment firm owns it, along with a ton of other shops located across the US.
He had mentioned a while ago that his management slacked on changing the coolant (water based) for his machine (a lathe), and he was really upset about it as it can ruin the machine, the parts, and it’s obviously not healthy. The shop in general has slacked in any and all safety precautions; management there has no previous experience in any kind of shop or the maintenance thereof.
The coolant was changed a few weeks ago finally, but it had so many contaminants that the place that normally accepts it refused to accept it. Now they need to bring it to a different facility which processes environmentally hazardous materials, which they haven’t yet.
Multiple oversights have been brought to administration’s attention and they did end up installing large fans to start pulling out the particles in the air because it’s all hazardous. This was recent.
My husband’s hands are in this coolant quite a bit, when his parts come off the machine, he cleans them off with an air hose. No PPE is given or offered.
For the last 2 years, he had been feeling like he has lyme disease. He has been tested for lyme multiple times as well as immunodeficiency diseases and rheumatoid arthritis, you name it he’s had the test. Very sore and achy all the time but the aches moved. He began not being able to sleep which was highly unusual for him. He would fall asleep and wake up soon thereafter. He then began to have pain in his foot early this spring and was diagnosed with gout, which was surprising to us. He went to the doctor for his gout in the first question the doctor asked was if his kidneys were functioning properly. He responded that he believes they are… The blood work looked normal, which is what his primary care stated.
A few weeks ago, his lower back began to hurt. He mentioned that he thought it was his kidneys, and he requested the doctor to blood work. Everything seemed within somewhat normal ranges… There were a few high and a few low but the doctor said that was normal.
Last week ago he had told me about how the coolant couldn’t get returned to be recycled and I asked him what the contaminant was and he said it was lead. I immediately started looking up symptoms of lead poisoning, and he has several. He also works with several other machinists who display many of these symptoms.
He called the doctor the next morning and explained the situation requesting a lead blood level test. He got the results back yesterday and his results are more than twice the high end/adult range. The lab noted on the results that they did the test twice to make sure.
As we just found this out yesterday, we are still processing all of this information. We are relieved to know what his symptoms are from, knowing that he will speak with his doctor on Monday to discuss next steps.
Online from OSHA and from New York state, it says the first thing to be done is to inform the employer. This place has a history of firing people with unfounded reasons just because the chain of command is so convoluted but that it’s hard to prove anything. We are wondering from a legal standpoint, what the next step should be not only to protect the other employees who also work there, but also to protect ourselves. Obviously he can’t go back to that work environment…
In other states, you can sue an employer who’s neglecting to protect their employees from contaminants, but it doesn’t look like that’s the case in New York state. My husband has suffered exponentially from all of these health issues, all at the cost of his employer and it makes me sick to my stomach. If there is anyone familiar with the laws in New York state and can give us some solid advice, I greatly appreciate it!