I think this would probably be worse from a legal perspective compared to simply requiring them. They would be admitting that they know there is a risk to workers, but not doing anything. Then, when a worker got sick, they could sue saying that the company had known there was a risk but hadn’t had proper safety procedures.
All in cost for respirators would be approximately: $30/worker for half face masks, ~$70/worker/year for training and compliance ($30 for 1 hour worker time plus variable overhead, $40 for training course), $180/worker/year (monthly replacement of N95/nuisance vapor cartridges*).
However, one wrongful death lawsuit from a farm worker could cost a million dollars (or much more, if a manager or someone else with a higher salary dies).
If they do masks at all, they will want to do it right.
* I think you would want to give them nuisance vapor cartridges because they will get rid of the odor of mink manure which may increase compliance
I think this would probably be worse from a legal perspective compared to simply requiring them. They would be admitting that they know there is a risk to workers, but not doing anything. Then, when a worker got sick, they could sue saying that the company had known there was a risk but hadn’t had proper safety procedures.
Asymmetric justice in action. What a bonkers outcome. Thanks for sharing.
I think you would want to give them nuisance vapor cartridges because they will get rid of the odor of mink manure which may increase compliance
Would this give them a plausible cover story for why they’re handing them out, such that it would not need to be framed as a “health measure?”
>Asymmetric justice in action. What a bonkers outcome. Thanks for sharing.
So many problems in safety regulations and wrongful death case law. I could go on. Still, the US has a pretty good system compared to many other countries.
I think nuisance odor could be a plausible cover story. But how do you communicate that information to mink farm management without creating a heap of evidence that the mink farm owners know about H5N1? Perhaps something along the lines of “we want to stop H5N1, but we know this is a fringe conspiracy theory/not something you believe, so will give you free masks if you want to use them for nuisance odor reasons.”
I’ll add that the manufacturers say you need frequent cartridge replacements, so if they were doing it for OSHA/compliance reasons they would have to do those frequent changes. However, I have found that replacement schedule to be overkill unless you are in a really dusty environment. If donating masks, you could probably cut the replacement schedule in half (I’d want to do deeper research on this of course). That would bring the cost of the per-worker intervention to ~$30 + $90/year.
Another nice cover could be having everyone wear N95s for COVID reasons, although this might be culturally difficult depending on how much of the real reasoning management was able to convey to the workers themselves.
I think this would probably be worse from a legal perspective compared to simply requiring them. They would be admitting that they know there is a risk to workers, but not doing anything. Then, when a worker got sick, they could sue saying that the company had known there was a risk but hadn’t had proper safety procedures.
All in cost for respirators would be approximately: $30/worker for half face masks, ~$70/worker/year for training and compliance ($30 for 1 hour worker time plus variable overhead, $40 for training course), $180/worker/year (monthly replacement of N95/nuisance vapor cartridges*).
However, one wrongful death lawsuit from a farm worker could cost a million dollars (or much more, if a manager or someone else with a higher salary dies).
If they do masks at all, they will want to do it right.
* I think you would want to give them nuisance vapor cartridges because they will get rid of the odor of mink manure which may increase compliance
Asymmetric justice in action. What a bonkers outcome. Thanks for sharing.
Would this give them a plausible cover story for why they’re handing them out, such that it would not need to be framed as a “health measure?”
>Asymmetric justice in action. What a bonkers outcome. Thanks for sharing.
So many problems in safety regulations and wrongful death case law. I could go on. Still, the US has a pretty good system compared to many other countries.
I think nuisance odor could be a plausible cover story. But how do you communicate that information to mink farm management without creating a heap of evidence that the mink farm owners know about H5N1? Perhaps something along the lines of “we want to stop H5N1, but we know this is a fringe conspiracy theory/not something you believe, so will give you free masks if you want to use them for nuisance odor reasons.”
I’ll add that the manufacturers say you need frequent cartridge replacements, so if they were doing it for OSHA/compliance reasons they would have to do those frequent changes. However, I have found that replacement schedule to be overkill unless you are in a really dusty environment. If donating masks, you could probably cut the replacement schedule in half (I’d want to do deeper research on this of course). That would bring the cost of the per-worker intervention to ~$30 + $90/year.
Another nice cover could be having everyone wear N95s for COVID reasons, although this might be culturally difficult depending on how much of the real reasoning management was able to convey to the workers themselves.