Definitely the most interesting of all the readings we have had to do so far. Instead of focusing so much on the technological side like we did with Levy and Winner, Stranahan brings to the forefront the legal side of our informational society and some of the health consequences that have evolved due to being around theses inventions. Cancer is a very serious disease. My grandmother died of cancer and my dad had a tumor on his kidney, which was successfully removed. It can show up in people with no history in their family at any moment in time and should not be taken lightly, so the fact that these big companies, where workers deaths have statistically shown “an elevated rate in brain tumors” over the last ten years, are not helping to protect their workers is crazy, (Stranahan, 2002). These workers put together the semiconductors in “clean rooms” filled with carcinogens and other toxic and reproductive health altering mixtures. How is that considered clean? Workers basically go into work and slowly die every day by being around these chemicals and the large companies pay their lawyers to try to sweep the statistics about health under the rug in order to save money. They say we live in the greatest country, but as that video in class showed, big business is larger than the government. No longer are the people the most important aspect, the government helps who brings in and makes the most money. People’s health and safety should be seen about profit but its not and I don’t think it ever again will be.
Thankfully these workers are coming out after all these years and suing IBM and other owners of plants for their negligence of not protecting them. While I’m sure both these companies and the government will do all they can to not allow these to go to court, I hope all the victims get their dues and fair compensation.
Lastly, my other problem with big companies and the way they do business is their criteria for calculating on the job injuries. The semiconductors industry is the 6th lowest, but it only entails on the job injuries, not possible chronic diseases that evolved from working. It may be a “Herculean task” to prove that the specific chemicals lead to these diseases, but its reasonable to say they’ve played a part in these fatalities, (Stranahan, 2002). Without these chronic diseases added to on the job injury rates shows another way how big business and government are able to manipulate stats for their advantages. Hopefully someone figures out how to actually make these “clean rooms” clean.
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