Anybody jacked because of, or have long term ailments

[robroy]

As the title…
I’ve had bad catarrh in the back of my throat for months, in fact since I had Covid way back in April ish.

An old long retired hand I know has chest problems, he blames it on breathing in fumes all day from old Gardeners he drove in the 70s and 80s.
I too used to drive old sh like that when I first started as a young boy, you started them up on a damp or frosty morning,.and it was like thick smog all around, if you were on a truck park with 20 more of them, you could not see your hand in front of your face, and the fumes filled the cab,.and you breathed crap in all day every day
I also bought an Iveco in 89 which always had the smell of exhaust fumes, my Mrs always told me she could smell fumes on my clothes when she washed them,.I had that motor for about 18 months,.so it can not have done me any good.

So…
…That and the fact that my non smoking Auntie developed lung cancer when she was my age now, prompted me to go and have a chest x ray fearing the worst, …
Thankfully it came back negative which was a kind if relief.
I was not TOO phased about it, but it was always in the back of my mind for years now,.and the catarrh made me check it out for certain.

My 28.year old lad is a automotive spray painter,.and a ■■■■ good one
He is at the top of his game, some of the stuff he turns out is amazing,.we all know there are after more bad automotive spray painters than good ones, I know I’m biased as he’s my boy, but he has an excellent reputation around my local area, in his last firm many specified that they wanted him alone to do their car.
Anyhoo he’s got this bee in his bonnet and preoccupation about breathing in dodgy fumes, and the potential long term effects in later life…like the old boy on the Gardner trucks.
He left his last co for that reason just recently, for a 45k job with a top firm, … who supposedly were going to be more stringent on h&s than his last co , but he’s found they aint much better, even though the masks they provide are full face helmet type, attached to an airline which you would think would do the trick.
None of the guys there can work with them as they all say they are not fit for purpose, so much so that the firm offers the guys exemption from using them,. BUT ONLY as long as they sign a disclaimer …which kinda says it all, …ie an arse cover excercise for when they attempt to claim in 20 years time.

So basically he’s getting out of a game where he excels, and he’s talking about an healthy outdoor type job as a green keeper or landscape gardener,.which is a shame.

Anyway enough of the ‘Dad boasting about his lad’ stuff.

So has anybody here got the effects now after a long time in this job, in terms of a condition or illness caused by the job which has made them pack it in, such as the usual trucker job related stuff,.bad chests …bad backs,.stomach problems…terminal farmer Giles
Just curious.

[carryfast]

Firstly I do know that I’m allergic to diesel after ending up in A and E and put on anti hystamine treatment after an ‘accident’ involving a step ladder and a jerry can full of diesel to get an empty fire truck started with very high fuel tank filling point.
I’d always thought it was nasty stuff with other bad effects on eyes and throat from it’s fumes.I also get the same effects from kerosene like aircraft jet engine exhausts.
I never let that stop me doing the job but I’d always have been happy to see diesel engines consigned to history sooner rather than later.
As you know I actually went out of the job on health grounds, in large part because of an employer who thought it was a good idea to replace pallets and forklifts with the drivers spine, with predictable results.
As for any chest problems they seem to be more the result of the ever increasing severity of ‘colds’ and ‘flu’ type illnesses ‘coincidentally’ since the bioengineering industry took off.
So while I don’t think that diesel is a killer I do think that handballing truckloads and manual handling in general is a sure way to wreck the spine sooner or later.

[dozy]

My auntie chain smokes & drinks nigh on a bottle of Sherry a day & is still going late 80,s , when I was in having a mri scan there was a young lad of 23 with throat cancer , his wife said he’d never smoked in his life , I spent a lot of time when in engineering welding , welding Helmet , welding helmet with air pack , the smoke / fumes was on another level , when I was diagnosed with diabetis I was asked by doc if it ran in family , according to sister loads have died of it , dad died in 50,s from cancer , brother died late 40,s from mnd
I’m a great believer when it’s your time , it’s your time , when I was diagnosed with cancer I spent many a day worrying about mrs / daughter , would I see many more sunrises
But 2 1/2 yrs later I’m still going , enjoy your time while your here rob , worrying ( cancer frightens you ) will do you know good , enjoy your time when here , you’ll be gone along time

[juddian]

Where to start.

Had the Gardner white smoke screen game for a few years, that didn’t bother me too much to be honest.
The worse vehicle for fumes was an Iveco ecotec, not mine as it happens but a colleague’s car transporter, if i was parked beside him and the wind was the right way i’d have to stop loading because the fumes would make me reach and hack to the extent i’d be at the point of passing out.

Aches pains and damage are legion, mostly affecting me now in the right shoulder but increasingly in both wrists and thumb joints, both elbows damaged.
Knees are not getting any better, left knee from unassisted heavy clutches on Scammells and like, right knee had a good clout or three in my banger racing days which won’t have helped.
Years ago had a poor condition chain tensioner give way when i was applying full power on top of the steel load, went straight over the side landing on arms and legs, nothing broken amazingly…struggled to chain and sheet so moss put me on light duties for a couple of weeks, ie 6 wheeler rolonoff which still needed netting.
Then there’s previous years of ■■■■■■■ 21 ton loads off and sometimes on to flat trailers, plus the regular full roping and sheeting of loads, stil have the hard ridges on fingers and hands from the wet ropes.
Car transporter work was hard on the joints and you were always getting hurt one way or another.

What i’ve had is nothing that many working people havent suffered over the years, with many far worse.

Would i do it all again, yep, still enjoy the job and not packing it in yet, don’t let the enemy see your weaknesses

[punchy_dan]

I’ve had that unbreakable catarrh since I had covid it’s certain milks that set it off like greggs Latte or milkshakes the Mrs threatened me with the doctor so I’ve gone back to tea drinking and I’am ok .

[blue_estate]

Robroy , don’t over look the night heater as that dies the air out in the cab over night
Mine gets turned off at lights out and if I wake up hour before I need to I will turn it back on .
At home I’m no where near as bad

[robroy]

blue estate:
Robroy , don’t over look the night heater as that dies the air out in the cab over night
Mine gets turned off at lights out and if I wake up hour before I need to I will turn it back on .
At home I’m no where near as bad

Yeh you’re right.
If I have ut on all night with windows closed,.I wake up with something akin to a hangover,.so I’ m like you, but either put it on if I wake up freezing, and/or set the timer for 1 hour before my alarm goes off to take the chill off the cab.

Dan’s comment on lattes has me thinking, I drink far too much of the ■■■■ stuff.

[carryfast-yeti]

have to agree with my old mate Carryfast,manual handling can be a killer. i’ve been on this job with DHL for over 13 years now,and what was a nice steady job is a ball ache now,thanks to our Customer phasing out their store’s FLT’s…down to cost of constantly paying for staff to be trained on them,they said we’re also majoring on double deck trailers now,and the way they are loaded,due to the height of some of the pallet’s and cages,you may have to offload some of the 2nd store’s delivery at the 1st store,then reload the 2nd stores load back on…then there’s the ‘salvage’ we pick up…empty totes,pallets,bales of cardboard weighing a ton etc…bloody hard work now. so i’m going to pack it in this time next year,providing i pass my medical in June.
as for the Mighty Gardners…we had them at Carryfast,Sed Atki’s and ERF’s all 180’s in my time there…but i can remember when i used to go with my dad on a Saturday,his and about 20 other Atkinson tippers smoking away like billyo in the yard being warmed up

[blue_estate]

robroy:

blue estate:
Robroy , don’t over look the night heater as that dies the air out in the cab over night
Mine gets turned off at lights out and if I wake up hour before I need to I will turn it back on .
At home I’m no where near as bad

Yeh you’re right.
If I have ut on all night with windows closed,.I wake up with something akin to a hangover,.so I’ m like you, but either put it on if I wake up freezing, and/or set the timer for 1 hour before my alarm goes off to take the chill off the cab.

Dan’s comment on lattes has me thinking, I drink far too much of the [zb] stuff.

Lattes what are they ? Tea and Somersets finest sparkling apple juice for me
Though I’m surprised I haven got a head ache this morning after 6 cans of thatchers

[stu675]

carryfast-yeti:
,thanks to our Customer phasing out their store’s FLT’s…:

Would an electric pallet truck either on your lorry or at the store (is it supermarket DHL?) be a suitable replacement?

[driveress]

robroy:

blue estate:
Robroy , don’t over look the night heater as that dies the air out in the cab over night
Mine gets turned off at lights out and if I wake up hour before I need to I will turn it back on .
At home I’m no where near as bad

Yeh you’re right.
If I have ut on all night with windows closed,.I wake up with something akin to a hangover,.so I’ m like you, but either put it on if I wake up freezing, and/or set the timer for 1 hour before my alarm goes off to take the chill off the cab.

Dan’s comment on lattes has me thinking, I drink far too much of the [zb] stuff.

Try eliminating cow’s milk when you are out - ask for oat milk or soya milk instead. It really is all the rage robroy, you won’t sound like a ■■■■ asking for it, honestly. Try swapping to organic cow’s milk when at home. It might do the trick.

[robroy]

driveress:

robroy:

blue estate:
Robroy , don’t over look the night heater as that dies the air out in the cab over night
Mine gets turned off at lights out and if I wake up hour before I need to I will turn it back on .
At home I’m no where near as bad

Yeh you’re right.
If I have ut on all night with windows closed,.I wake up with something akin to a hangover,.so I’ m like you, but either put it on if I wake up freezing, and/or set the timer for 1 hour before my alarm goes off to take the chill off the cab.

Dan’s comment on lattes has me thinking, I drink far too much of the [zb] stuff.

Try eliminating cow’s milk when you are out - ask for oat milk or soya milk instead. It really is all the rage robroy, you won’t sound like a [zb] asking for it, honestly. Try swapping to organic cow’s milk when at home. It might do the trick.

So are you saying that it could be right that it is cow’s milk that is causing the problem?
Tell you what I’ve been using at home lately that ‘Bob’ brand milk.
No fat but tastes just like creamy milk…better for me or worse?

[carryfast-yeti]

stu675:

carryfast-yeti:
,thanks to our Customer phasing out their store’s FLT’s…:

Would an electric pallet truck either on your lorry or at the store (is it supermarket DHL?) be a suitable replacement?

that has been mooted,by our driver rep…but was quickly shot down,as their isn’t the space in the warehouse to charge them all up. a very few of the stores have them,but the staff don’t seem to like them…but i will bring this up again with the rep.

[blue_estate]

On the drinks side I’ve cut out normal milk as it was bloating me ,I now have lactose free milk and feel much better .

[carryfast]

carryfast-yeti:

stu675:

carryfast-yeti:
,thanks to our Customer phasing out their store’s FLT’s…:

Would an electric pallet truck either on your lorry or at the store (is it supermarket DHL?) be a suitable replacement?

that has been mooted,by our driver rep…but was quickly shot down,as their isn’t the space in the warehouse to charge them all up. a very few of the stores have them,but the staff don’t seem to like them…but i will bring this up again with the rep.

Our problem was the total removal of pallets from the system all loose loaded hand stacked in the trailers floor to ceiling.Generally moved around the warehouse and to/from trailers on conveyors.
Many of our old warehouse staff walked away with extreme prejudice so they lumbered the drivers with it.

[robroy]

blue estate:
On the drinks side I’ve cut out normal milk as it was bloating me ,I now have lactose free milk and feel much better .

If anybody’s interested, this is the stuff I’m on about, that I’ve been using.
Fat free but tastes like ‘blue top’ milk.
arlafoods.co.uk/brands/arla … compromise.

[driveress]

robroy:

driveress:

robroy:

blue estate:
Robroy , don’t over look the night heater as that dies the air out in the cab over night
Mine gets turned off at lights out and if I wake up hour before I need to I will turn it back on .
At home I’m no where near as bad

Yeh you’re right.
If I have ut on all night with windows closed,.I wake up with something akin to a hangover,.so I’ m like you, but either put it on if I wake up freezing, and/or set the timer for 1 hour before my alarm goes off to take the chill off the cab.

Dan’s comment on lattes has me thinking, I drink far too much of the [zb] stuff.

Try eliminating cow’s milk when you are out - ask for oat milk or soya milk instead. It really is all the rage robroy, you won’t sound like a [zb] asking for it, honestly. Try swapping to organic cow’s milk when at home. It might do the trick.

So are you saying that it could be right that it is cow’s milk that is causing the problem?
Tell you what I’ve been using at home lately that ‘Bob’ brand milk.
No fat but tastes just like creamy milk…better for me or worse?

Yes, I am. Probably very unscientific and I don’t have any links to back it up only anecdotal evidence from friends and acquaintances, but have you ever noticed how dairy cows are very drooly and given the opportunity they munch on the unsprayed grass in the hedgerows? That’s why I suggested going organic first - obviously cafes don’t offer organic milk so you can’t go organic when you are out. It could be the ferlilisers on the grass (try organic) it could be the lactose (replace the cow’s milk). Re: Bob brand I would say that it’s not the fat content of milk that’s causing your issue - that will only help keep your waistline trim. Do you consume a lot of any other dairy products (like cheese) that could be contributing to the catarrh?

[driveress]

Also, how much water do you drink? If the answer is not much or none, you could be dehydrated and could try increasing how much water you drink along side the coffee to see if that helps. An unfortunate side effect is needing to pee more which is not great for drivers.

[winseer]

Having the vehicle fan on all the time - contributes to “Dehyrdration”.
At this time of the year, keeping “windows closed” doesn’t help neither.

Police busting more people “At the wheel drinking a can of coke” than “smoking in their cabs” - also doesn’t help.