[OpenSights]

My Master is 58 and about dead. I’m 40 and am the muscle. By the time I get to my jobs dragging the 6200 back up the stairs.........

I hurt every day. Knees throb even after two days off. Ribs are still hurting and I don’t know why....

And we charge too much!

No male in my father’s side has ever lived past 58-59. My kid is 10, so I should see him graduate.

 

[Tango]

I hear glucosamine works wonders for joints. Do you have a knee board, I always have one and I can't kneel without it. My knees are fine and pain free....

I do have to sleep with gloves and cut off thick socks on my wrists since I was 24 years old or else my hands get numb, carpel tunnel. I'm fine in the summer but in winter like now they get numb on occasion. I think I got it from drilling too many drop in anchors and chipping concrete when I was an apprentice.

 

[OpenSights]

Thankfully nothing in the wrists or hands. Back and neck are good for the most part. Learned that from my dad. Most of my knee issues come from the Corps. Not sure what’s up with my ribs... have had problems in the past.....

I’m pretty much covered 100% medically... but there are veterans out there that deserve treatment before me from the VA. I tend to pay the big bucks for ready care.

 

[skoronesa]

I dont think amy of it is a crock. I think that anything can be harnful its just a matter of how harmful. I get the argument that you should work safely no matter how long it takes because yourjob shouldnt affect your personal life. But for many of us our job is our personal life. Our polish guy said to me, in europe they work to live, in america they live to work. And its true. When you meet people at a gathering they ask your name and what you do for a living. They dont ask right offthe bat who are you as a person. If your hobby is leatherworking they dont see you as a leather worker, they see you as a plumber. Even if you only do plumbing for money and couldnt care less about it when you clock out.

That said I am fine with sacrificing a couple years of my life expectancy if it means the time I have now is more enjoyable. I will breath in concrete dust if it means I dont have to deal with a stupid mask. I used to work with electronics. The flux gave me upper respiratory issues. I am fine with a constant nasal drip down my throat if it means I spent hundreds of hours in peace instead of listening to a suction hood.

I believe quality of life is more important that quantity.


.

 

[GAN]

I think the adage "work smarter not harder" is also about keeping healthy. Medical expanses can ruin families. Staying alive & healthy is also about family not just yourself (unless your single). Chemical exposures that can kill you are no joke. Now just being old and decrepit is different. Myself one full knee replacement, one "reverse" shoulder replacement, another rebuilt shoulder and most recently the other knee repaired is fine, lesson learned.

Dying before you time caused by bad practices at work is crazy. I think we all had the "superman syndrome" when we were young. Hopefully we get over it. My last few years ion the filed I jumped the apprentices about not taking precautions against these types of potential hazards.

 

[Tommy plumber]

That's because you are young, it catches up with you in the 50's and 60's. Dead by 67 years old.

Did you know the average mortality age for a plumber is 67. The plumber who got me in the trade was exactly 67 when he died last year. He was healthy and boom lung cancer and dead a few months later. I remember him eating his sandwich and depositing it on the table with literally deep and sharp black imprints of master's metallic pipe dope(lead pipe dope) of his fingers. He ate it all up!!! His hands were always black full of dope.

Did this plumber that died smoke? That gives people the Big C.






Years ago I worked with a plumber who did new construction. He did a lot of ground-roughs. Bare hands of course {I use gloves when using the solvent cements and primers}.


At the end of the day, he used clear cleaner {purple primer was not yet our code, we used clear cleaner for PVC DWV.} to clean all the glue off of his hands. Well, when he went to the doctor, the doctor told him that he needed to stop drinking. He told the doctor that he didn't drink! My guess, probably the solvents had been soaking into his skin for years and went to the liver.

 

[Tango]

Did this plumber that died smoke? That gives people the Big C.
.

Yes he smoked, that didn't help. The doctors diagnosed him with asbestos disease. To be able to claim he had to pinpoint where he got it from! From the company to the specific job. An impossible task as we moved from company to company 4-7 times a year for decades. He had the local union hall write up all the companies he worked for. It's impossible to remember all the places you worked in your life. I doubt he got any money out of it.

 

[PLUMB TIME]

And how many of us are certified for lead abatement in renovation? PAINT.



Anything larger than 10x10,give or take, must be contained?


When is the last time you saw a 50 year old house, under renovation, wrapped in plastic because of lead paint.


Who can afford,in a small market,lead abatement?



Silica?

 

[ShtRnsdownhill]

I dont think amy of it is a crock. I think that anything can be harnful its just a matter of how harmful. I get the argument that you should work safely no matter how long it takes because yourjob shouldnt affect your personal life. But for many of us our job is our personal life. Our polish guy said to me, in europe they work to live, in america they live to work. And its true. When you meet people at a gathering they ask your name and what you do for a living. They dont ask right offthe bat who are you as a person. If your hobby is leatherworking they dont see you as a leather worker, they see you as a plumber. Even if you only do plumbing for money and couldnt care less about it when you clock out.

That said I am fine with sacrificing a couple years of my life expectancy if it means the time I have now is more enjoyable. I will breath in concrete dust if it means I dont have to deal with a stupid mask. I used to work with electronics. The flux gave me upper respiratory issues. I am fine with a constant nasal drip down my throat if it means I spent hundreds of hours in peace instead of listening to a suction hood.

I believe quality of life is more important that quantity.


.

if it was a quick death then ill agree to an enjoyable shorter life than a longer one you spend most of the time trying to be healthy, but many of the times the bad habits cause much pain and suffering before you croak...

 

[skoronesa]

if it was a quick death then ill agree to an enjoyable shorter life than a longer one you spend most of the time trying to be healthy, but many of the times the bad habits cause much pain and suffering before you croak...

I am over the weight limit for most ladders. I am shooting for a heart attack.

 

[ShtRnsdownhill]

I am over the weight limit for most ladders. I am shooting for a heart attack.

if your lucky you wont stroke out and then need someone to change your diaper when you become bed ridden and cant feed yourself....I watched my dad go from someone that could do anything to bed ridden and needed what I stated till hospice " eased him into passing"and that was all self inflicted by not moving from infront of his computer for 10+ years, im sure my moms constant nagging helped him escape to that room and stay there, but it was hard to watch and the last years was not any fun for him, so a quick fast death would be much better, but sometimes it doesnt work that way and then you cant even finish it off because your physically unable to do so...you can change your destiny if you wish or spend another 4 hours on the all you can eat buffet...by nature plumbers over the years breath in lots of bad things..pvc glue and primer, soldering fumes, chimney dust, cement dust plus having all the chemicals from sealants on our hands and ingested through the skin...