Sometimes it didn’t even make sense. I had a project Engineer (job lead) stay overnight with the night shift mechanics who were fixing a weld on our VDL (elevator for car bodies). He said that it was so he could make sure they lined it up correctly and test it. He could have done that when we came in the morning, there was a day shift mechanical crew if we had any issues.
I used to be an automotive controls engineer. 100hr work weeks were not unusual onsite, the norm was 80hrs. And you can end up onsite for anywhere from 2-10 months depending on the job. The 100hr weeks were usually only for a few weeks when production starts up again. But it’s the whole culture, there is a lot of pressure from the customer to get production back up. And most of the industry veterans I worked with loved bragging about the 36hr days they had worked in the past to “get the job done”. It’s like a cult, they get into the mindset of “well I did it so everyone else has to too”.
I mean the people affected by lead are still around. There was lead in everything, the lead in gasoline was found in roadside dirt from the exhaust. Not to mention all the new chemicals we have started using in the last 100years. There is definitely going to be side effects from the plastics. Heck they have proof that obesity and diabetes in pregnant women increases the chances of babies being born with Autism. Apparently the mother’s blood sugar swinging around during critical brain development stage isn’t good for the developing brain. But they aren’t going to tell people that because they want to sell their unhealthy food.