Safety Second! (Patreon)

I was walking through an urban village the other day and came across this guy hooking up an air-con unit and well I got some footage of it and although Im used to seeing this sort of thing I still cringe when it comes to worker safety here.

Often in and around construction sites here in China you'll see large banners stating "安全第一“ which translates to Ānquán dì yī (Safety First) but in practice it seems that Safety usually comes last.

This guy was just balancing on a guard rail 20 feet above a busy highway with no safety rope attached... good thing he's wearing a hard hat...

Arc welders never use welding masks and like this guy usually just use a piece of cardboard or paper with holes cut out and plastic lens glasses... (isn't paper flammable?)

(Yes I know he's TIG welding, but arc welders do the same thing)

And yes, it's common practice, sometimes I see people welding with absolutely no protection at all, arc eyes must be a common ailment and actually when I asked my motorcycle mechanic friend about it he complained that it's hard to sleep at night but he's used to it...

Grinding metal without safety goggles is a great idea! 

Now I'm not trying to call China out on the lack lustre work safety practices but it also answers a question as to why China can get things done so quickly, shortcuts are taken in all aspects of life here and if you're not wasting time with safety protocols, training, procedures, costly safety gear etc, you can get your work done a lot faster and a lot cheaper.

I know how thankless this sort of work is having done a lot of this sort of thing myself so my heart goes out to these folk and I hope that safety standards can improve!

Thank you for all of your support and for making what I do a possibility! You're all so bloody Awesome!

- Stay Awesome

SerpentZA