Pittsburgh Tribune reported that inside US Steel''s Clairton Works, human scale gets lost. Workers measure weight in tonnes, temperature in thousands of degrees. They climb multi story ovens, feed fires hot enough to burn impurities from coal and fix 4 foot wide pipes full of unbreathable, explosive air. From their ovens comes the bedrock of industry, the spines of skyscrapers and rail networks.

When something goes wrong, such as last week''s explosion in B Battery, it bends steel and blows aside men and stone walls. Veterans tell rookies to get a good night''s sleep and to tell their kids they love them before walking out the door.

Mr Raymond Ross, a maintenance worker who has spent 15 years at Clairton Works, said that "The United States could give up this sweltering, perilous work if you want to give up your car and live in a cave. Police work is dangerous as well. Are we going to stop having them?"

Mr Charles Bradford, an industry analyst with Affiliated Research Group in New York, said that decades of economic decline eroded the presence of steelmaking in Western Pennsylvania. So called mini mills in the South and Midwest, and larger plants in China and elsewhere, replaced the giant mills that once lined the three rivers.

Mr Michael Wright, director of health, safety and environment for the United Steelworkers of America union said that the Occupational Safety & Health Administration cited the plant for violations five times in the past eight years, but minor violations like those bear no relation to major accidents such as Wednesday''s explosion.

He added that "Every plant has strains, sprains, trips and falls, but there is no correlation between those day to day accidents and real safety. Clearly, something failed in this case. It''s hard to measure the risk. It''s like trying to determine the risk of airplane crash by investigating injuries to baggage handlers."

(Source: Steel Guru)