[http://www.nycosh.org/Update11_Oct-Dec_2001.html]
NYCOSH Update on Safety
and Health Archive
October -
December 2001
The
Update on Safety and Health is published every two weeks by NYCOSH.
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NYCOSH UPDATE
December 6, 2001
Cleaning up Indoor Dust and
Debris in the World Trade Center Area
Para
obtener esta hoja informativa en español, haga
click aqui.
Janitorial, building maintenance,
utility and construction workers (as well as office workers and
residents) are being asked to clean up and/or work around dust
and debris in buildings that are near the site of the World Trade
Center.
Workers who are cleaning or
disturbing dust and debris NEED TRAINING to perform the work
safely.
Workers doing clean-up may also
need PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT.
World trade center dust may
be hazardous!
- Most dust in the World Trade
Center area contains low concentrations of toxic substances,
including asbestos, silica, fiberglass and lead.
- Any fine dust, even dust
that does not contain toxic materials, can cause respiratory
irritation.
- The dust can trigger a chronic
illness such as asthma. It can also cause illness in people who
have no history of respiratory disease.
PLEASE NOTE:
- Most WTC dust is contaminated
with asbestos. It is dangerous for a person who does not have
an asbestos-handler license to clean it up.
- NYCOSH strongly recommends
that all asbestos-contaminated dust and untested dust be cleaned
up only by licensed asbestos handlers. If dust is more than 1
per cent asbestos, New York City law requires that it be cleaned
up by licensed asbestos handlers.
- For anyone who is not
a licensed asbestos handler, the safest course of action is to
leave any asbestos-contaminated dust and untested dust alone.
- Nevertheless, if anyone
chooses to clean up untested dust or asbestos-contaminated dust,
NYCOSH recommends the following precautions.
Click on any of the links
below for the complete text of WTC Factsheet 4 in English or
Spanish:
- HTML
- English
- PDF
- English
- HTML
Limpieza
Interior Del Polvo Y Escombros En El Área Del World Trade
Center
- PDF Limpieza Interior Del Polvo Y
Escombros En El Área Del World Trade Center
NYCOSH UPDATE
October 5, 2001
The Catastrophe, Week 4
Three weeks after the World Trade
Center catastrophe, thousands of workers are continuing the heroic
task of recovery and clean-up. Tens of thousands more have recently
returned or are preparing to return to workplaces that were damaged,
contaminated or made inaccessible by the events of September
11. Many thousands more are unemployed as a result of those events,
either because their workplaces have been destroyed or because
their employers have laid them off in response to the sharp downturn
that has effected the travel, entertainment and tourism industries.
There are also many thousands
of survivors of workers who were killed on September 11, who
are attempting to obtain emergency funds and long-term compensation.
In addition to all those workers
and their dependents, there are thousands of people who were
evacuated from residences in the immediate vicinity of the WTC,
who are now re-occupying or attempting to re-occupy their homes.
NYCOSH is providing information
and assistance to all of those groups of people. NYCOSH industrial
hygienists and safety and health specialists are providing consultation,
training and information to unions and workers who are participating
in the recovery and clean-up.
The NYCOSH staff is working intensively
helping to protect workers who are re-occupying work-sites that
have recently been reopened or are in the process of re-opening.
We are providing telephone assistance to workers and the dependents
of workers who have questions about workers’ compensation
and other benefit programs.
NYCOSH has just released its
third World Trade Center Catastrophe factsheet, Work-site
and Residence Re-occupancy: Back to Work or Home In the World
Trade Center Area. For a printer-friendly, Portable
Document Format version of the factsheet, click
here. Two earlier WTC factsheets are also available, WTC Compensation and WTC
Catastrophe.
For additional information about
safety and health in the aftermath of the catastrophe at the
World Trade Center, click
here.
--
From the October 5, 2001 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Will the WTC catastrophe victims be able to collect disaster
benefits?
Workers who are each eligible
for $10,530 in federal disaster relief as a result of the World
Trade Center catastrophe are at risk of being unable to collect
any of the money because they are unaware they must file their
applications by October 12. [After this article appeared, the
deadline was extended to November 16].
DUA is a program that is triggered
by a presidential declaration of a disaster area. It provides
funds to workers who are unemployed as a result of the disaster,
but who are not eligible for regular Unemployment Insurance benefits.
Eligible workers can collect DUA in addition to workers' compensation.
The looming deadline has come
in for criticism from worker-advocacy organizations and the New
York State Trial Lawyers Association, which released a statement
on Oct. 3 highlighting the possibility that the deadline would
exclude many of those eligible. None of the publicity materials
about DUA distributed by the federal or state government or posted
on the Internet mention any filing deadline.
New York State Labor Department
officials have told NYCOSH that they are considering asking the
federal government to extend the deadline, but no application
for a deadline extension has been made.
When potential DUA recipients
try to apply for benefits, they face an application process that
would appear to be designed to discourage them from completing
the application, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) spokesman Don Maurer. Filing an application requires an
automated 15- minute telephone interview, which calls for the
applicant to supply the state Labor Department with extensive
information that has no bearing on eligibility for DUA.
When the discouraging quality
of the application process was described to FEMA spokesman Maurer,
he told NYCOSH, "We want people to apply and to receive
all the benefits they are eligible for, and I'm going to ask
people above me if we can straighten out this problem with the
system."
"It would seem to me that
there a lot of people that need DUA," commented Workers
Defense League Executive Director Jon Bloom, "and if these
roadblocks are present, they are going to prevent people who
are eligible from receiving it." Workers who believe they
are eligible for DUA should file applications at soon as possible,
even after the October 12 deadline. It is possible that the deadline
will be extended, or that late applications will be accepted
on the ground that there is a reasonable explanation for their
lateness.
Many more people who are out
of work as a result of the catastrophe, such as people who have
been laid off by the airlines as a result of the drastic reduction
in the number of air travelers, are completely excluded from
receiving DUA benefits, because "eligibility is restricted
to those affected only as a ‘direct result' of a disaster,"
according to National Unemployment Law Project Executive Director
Jim Williams. "The DUA program should be expanded to cover
secondary workers impacted by the subsequent economic effects
of the disaster," he told NYCOSH.
Williams is also critical of
the DUA program's exclusion of undocumented workers. "Hundreds,
if not thousands of undocumented workers were impacted,"
he said. "They paid taxes on their wages, and employers
made payroll tax payments on their wages, but they will not get
benefits under current rules."
Anyone who is seeking compensation
for an injury or fatality resulting from the events of September
11 should also note that employers must receive notice of such
an injury or fatality within 30 days of the incident. The deadline
to file a workers' compensation claim is two years, but it is
possible for an employer to challenge a claim if it has not received
"notice" of the incident. The New York State Trial
Lawyer's Association points out that issue of "notice"
is most likely to arise "if the deceased worker's place
of employment is not at the disaster site, although the worker
was at the site that day carrying out work-related activity."
For more information about Disaster
Unemployment Assistance or other issues concerning disaster compensation,
contact the Workers' Defense League at 212-627-1931; the National
Employment Law Project at 212-285-3025 (website: www.nelp.org);
or the New York State Trial Lawyers Association website: www.nystla.org.
--
From the October 5, 2001 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
NYCOSH postpones annual awards celebration
As a result of the enormous dislocation
resulting from the World Trade Center Catastrophe, the NYCOSH
Board of Directors has decided to postpone the annual awards
celebration, which had been scheduled for December 13.
"We are extremely sorry
to put if off," said NYCOSH Executive Director Joel Shufro,
"but the impact of this disaster is so profound that it's
hard to plan for an awards celebration. The NYCOSH staff and
our board members are doubly impacted," he added, "because
the aftermath of the catastrophe is putting enormous demands
on everyone in the safety and health
community. Unions and workers and employers are confronting new
potential safety and health hazards on a daily basis, and we
are running ragged trying to answer their questions and assess
the risks that workers are facing."
--
From the October 5, 2001 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
This page was last
updated on January 17, 2002.