Tool Box Talk

In BCM 175 we had a toolbox talk. We were being introduced to personal protection equipment. Essentially, it was very boring. "This is a hardhat. These are gloves. These are earplugs...." Anyway, as he started talking about respirators, I couldn't help but think of one fellow laborer and what he said this past summer.

We were tearing out a room and throwing its contents out of a hole in the wall down into a dumptster. We were shoveling old plaster and grout, throwing lath, and various insulating materials. So basically, it was extremely dusty and we were naturally wearing dust masks.

As we paused to take a break, this fellow laborer pulled off his dust mask and took out a cigarette and lit it up. He walked toward the hole in the wall to the fresh air and took a drag on his cigarette. He looks back into the room with all the dust in the air. He looks at me and says, with cigarette in hand, "That's some nasty s&@+, you know it, Pat?"

All I could do was smile at the irony. He then took another drag on his cigarette.