Your LCD TV Wall Mount, Made [unsafely] in China

LCD TV Wall Mount Bracket, probably Made in China. It's cheap at $21US from Amazon.

Some day I will buy a flat panel LCD TV and will need a wall mount. The wall mount will probably be made in China. I do care about the safety of the employees that make my purchases, wherever they may me. They are just like the rest of us, working to squirrel away enough cash to put their kids to school. Particularly galling are safety conditions in China’s factories. The fact of the matter is that the lives of people in a far off land are not front and centre for us. While we give the proper lip service to be socially acceptable, they work in unsafe conditions so we can buy products at a cheaper price. We should care about how the products we buy affect workers in China.

This particular LCD TV wall mount from Amazon is only an example. I don’t know if it is made in China, but while shopping for electronics goods it is hard to find products NOT made in China. I note that on most product descriptions of such wall mounts, country of origin is always missing.

This Chinese worker is stamping out tv brackets with a 5 ton press. He wears no protective equipment such as eye and ear protection. There are no safety guards protecting his hands from amputation. Does he look happy?

This factory worker in his spiffy blue overalls dutifully stamps our parts for LCD TV Wall mounts. His machine, a 5 ton press, is dangerous and loud, yet I see no personal protective equipment such as eye or ear protection. There is also no safety guard on his machine that would prevent him from amputating his hand or arm if he has a small lapse of concentration.

Would you send your son or daughter into this factory to work this machine? Not on your life, at least not in Canada. We have laws against this type of unsafe environment that protect employees. If an employee gets hurt the factory would have to compensate the employee. This worker protection makes fabricating similar products in Canada more expensive. As the price of products rises, orders diminish, as buyers move to countries like China, where they can get their product without the costs of protecting their workers.

This young worker is spray painting rods for automotive use. His personal protective equipment consists of a cotton gauze mask and gloves. The spray area is confined. This is unsafe.

This young worker looks spiffy in his black and yellow bee shirt. He does not even have overalls. He is spray painting some metal rods to be used in an automotive application. His personal protective equipment consists of a cotton gauze mask, gloves, and a baseball hat turned backwards. He works in a restricted space. Surely someone in charge of this factory would know that this is extremely unsafe.

Here in Canada we would not do this even in our private garages. We buy N95 ventilation masks to protect the fine particulate from entering into and damaging our lungs. We also use eye protection. In professional applications they spray in a negative pressure room that exchanges the air quite quickly. No such luck for this guy. I wish him a long life, as he will need it.

This young worker is grinding down metal on a lathe. No ear, eye or other protection. This is unsafe.

This young worker is grinding metal down in a lathe. He uses no ear, eye or other protection, risking both life and limb for his job. Sparks from the metal can catch fire. Lathe bits sometimes break, sending hot and sharp metal in all directions at high speed. You never know when an incident will happen, so you should protect yourself. At least he is not putting his fingers or face close to the grinding wheel. With no ear protection he should be deaf in short order.

Maybe complaining about unsafe factory conditions in China is a useless exercise. Is there nothing we can do? As consumption in the West continues to accelerate, should we not think about who is making these products and the subsequent human costs that we do not pay? Today there is no way of guaranteeing that a product was made in a safe factory. Still, I wish there was some way to know.

P.S. Here is an interesting factory tour by Alex Hofford, a HK based photographer. He talks about how this factory tried to implement safety standards but were rebuffed by employees.

And now an article on Worker safety by China Daily, Copied verbatim by People’s Daily.