“[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.<br />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.
