“[We are treated] like ants… not humans. If I had known of the dangers and hazards of pneumatic drilling, I would never have done the work, no matter how poor I was,” said Wang Zhaogang, who now faces a slow, painful death thanks to pneumatic drilling work he did to help build Shenzhen into the tech metropolis it is today.
For five years from 2004 he worked without proper protection, breathing in stone dust which has destroyed his lungs and turned him into a terminal silicosis patient. Wang and more than 600 fellow drill workers from Hunan are now petitioning for justice.