• Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    You might be thinking that getting an x-ray every day is bad for the miners, but this is a ye-olde look through machine. Yes it’s bad for the miners, but the guy looking at it is putting his face and uppee body right in the beam here. And I’m guessing he does hundreds of these a day.

    Then again, old timey x-ray machines were pretty soft, so (edit) AND the miner is getting big dose of alpha and beta radiation too. And at least the technician isn’t breathing coal dust, so it’s probably a toss up who gets cancers first.

    • logicbomb@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Both people in this picture are being abused by the company. The difference is that the company also lets the white guy abuse the black guy, and for that reason, the white guy feels superior.

      This is one of those things you see in fascist governments. As long as people are able to abuse someone, they’ll accept a much worse station as well as a lot of abuse themselves.

    • zzzz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nah, the real contest is who gets the most cancer. Gotta catch 'em all!

    • livus@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      @Tar_alcaran … if the miners even lived long enough to get cancer.

      Diamond miners during Apartheid were working in unsafe conditions for ridiculously low wages, often coerced into being there, and at relatively high risk of tuberculosis.

    • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      but the guy looking at it is putting his face and uppee body right in the beam here

      Ah, but he’s wearing gloves, so he’ll be fine.

    • TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz
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      1 year ago

      X-ray tubes, old and new, use high energy electrons that impact a metal to create the beam. Alpha and beta emission is from radioactive decay which is an entirely different phenomenon. But yes bathing your body in X-rays is bad for you

      • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Sorry, I had a brainfart there. You’re completely right.

        The tube itself emits xrays, but soft xrays have a very high chance of being absorbed by Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen. And since that’s mostly what makes up a human, that’s kinda bad.

        Also he’s digging up diamonds, which is in rocks full of radioactive materials. Diamond mine tailings are famously radioactive (and interesting) due all the thorium and radium in them.