work and worker safety

Labor problems center on the gap between how fast work hurts people and how slowly we measure it. Silica dust exposure is assessed by eight-hour filter samples whose results come back days later. Proximity warning systems on construction sites have false-alarm rates above 90 percent, so workers ignore them. Scaffolding kills workers every year because nothing monitors its load during construction. A smaller set covers who gets access to the tools of work at all, such as the widening gender gap in mobile money accounts.