[http://www.nycosh.org/Update12_Jan-Mar_2002.html]
NYCOSH Update on Safety
and Health Archive
January -
March 2002
The
Update on Safety and Health is published every two weeks by NYCOSH.
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NYCOSH UPDATE March 21, 2002
Court Upholds Unions' Right
to See OSHA Illness and Injury Logs
The New York State Department
of Labor received a stunning rebuke from a 5-judge appellate
panel last week, when the court unanimously ordered the state
to comply with federal and state safety and health record-keeping
regulations.
The court ruling is expected
to put an end to a policy that DOL adopted more than three years
ago, under which it refused to provide workers and unions with
complete information about job-related injuries and illnesses.
The judges found that one of the DOL's explanations for refusing
to follow the rules was "nothing short of specious."
"This decision upholds basic
workers' rights and all public employees in New York State will
benefit," said Roger Benson, president of the New York State
Public Employees Federation (PEF), which brought the lawsuit
against the state Labor Department. PEF represents 55,000 employees
of New York State.
Benson called it "outrageous
for the Labor Department, which is responsible for enforcing
the state's Public Employee Safety and Health Act, to violate
its own employees' rights under that law."
"The court's ruling appears
to be definitive, which raises serious questions about why the
Labor Department's has ignored the law for more than three years,"
said NYCOSH Executive Director Joel Shufro. "The Labor Department
has not raised a single argument in defense of the way it is
interpreting the law that the courts have agreed with. It is
unacceptable for an agency to act with such arbitrary disregard
for the meaning of a law that it is supposed to be enforcing."
The court ruling comes on the
heels of a series of decisions by the federal Occupational Safety
and Health Administration that upheld more than a dozen union
complaints that charge the Labor Department with actions and
policies contrary to the federal regulations at the heart of
the agency's mission.
In the case decided last week,
PEF member Ron Goldstein, who is a member of the PEF-DOL Statewide
Joint Health and Safety Committee, requested the injury and illness
records for 17 DOL worksites, so they could be reviewed by the
committee.
"They wanted to see if any
patterns of job-related injuries or illness existed and if measures
could be taken to prevent them in the future," Benson said.
"That''s exactly why the state is required to keep the records
and that is just how they are meant to be used."
PEF sued the DOL after the state's
Industrial Board of Appeals upheld the Labor Department's right
to deny the union access to the full information provided in
the injury and illness logs.
In May 2001, a lower court judge
ruled in favor of PEF, saying, "In essence, the DOL, in
redacting the [employees' names, job titles, and worksites] from
the logs, is frustrating the underlying purpose for which the
logs are maintained, to wit, to protect the health and safety
interests of public employees, and renders access to such logs
practically meaningless."
In its decision, the Appellate
panel found DOL, "under the guise of exercising the discretionary
authority generally vested in an administrative agency to construe
and interpret its own statutes and regulations," was not
entitled to redact information otherwise available for inspection
under the law.
The appellate court further stated,
"There is nothing in the cited regulation or the enabling
legislation that authorizes the department to redact what it
unilaterally has deemed to be confidential information."
During the litigation, NYCOSH
submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in support of PEF's position,
as did the Communications Workers of America and the Transport
Workers of America.
--
From the March 21, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Last Chance to Help NYCOSH Honor Leading Figures in Safety and
Health
NYCOSH is honoring four distinguished
occupational safety and health activists and an activist organization
-- Tony Mazzocchi, Peg Seminario, Stuart Appelbaum, Eric Frumin
and the Professional Staff Congress -- on April 17.
The journal that is being published
to mark the occasion, with greetings to the honorees from other
activists and organizations, is nearing the final stages of its
production. Anyone wishing to take space in the journal saluting
the contributions of the honorees will need to contact NYCOSH
by March 27.
"This has been year of unprecedented
developments in the field of occupational and environmental safety
and health," said NYCOSH Assistant Director Susan O'Brien.
"Our movement has been called upon to respond to enormous
challenges, and we can attribute a significant part of our success
to the efforts of the people who will be receiving NYCOSH awards
next month. I hope that every safety and health activist and
supporter of NYCOSH will take a moment to consider taking this
opportunity to make a statement, and also to help NYCOSH financially.
No matter how successful we are as an organization, we never
have enough to pay for all the things that we need to do."
Individual greetings in the journal
can be reserved for as little as $40, with higher rates for display
ads. To place a greeting or an ad, or for more information, contact
nycosh at 212-627-3900 ext. 10
--
From the March 21, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
NYCOSH Seeks Information for Use in Workers' Memorial Day Ceremony
In preparation for the annual
commemoration of Workers' Memorial Day on April 28, NYCOSH, in
collaboration with the New York State AFL-CIO, is collecting
the names of workers in New York State who were killed or who
died as a result of occupational disease during 2001. Please
send names, or lists of names, with union affiliations (if any),
date of death and cause of death to the Workers' Memorial Day
Project, 275 7th Avenue, 8th floor, New York NY 10001. E-mail:
jbennett@nycosh.org.
For more information, call 212-627-3900 ext. 14.
--
From the March 21, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
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Commemorate the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, Friday, March 22
The 91st anniversary of the Triangle
Shirtwaist Fire will be marked at the site of the tragedy at
noon. Join hundreds of workers, students and community members
to mark the industrial catastrophe that killed 146 garment workers,
and to honor the hundreds of firefighters killed in the line
of duty in 2001. Sponsored by UNITE! and the New York City Central
Labor Council. Washington Place and Greene Street. Contact Ed
Vargas, 212-265-7000 ext. 231 for more information.
--
From the March 21, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Major Media Outlets Look to NYCOSH for Information About Safety
and Health
During the last two weeks, NYCOSH
has been cited as a source of information about occupational
and environmental safety and health at least nine times by major
media, including the New York Daily News, Associated Press, WNYC-Radio,
Newsweek Online, MSNBC, the Dow Jones Newswire and the Gannett
News Service.
Many of the articles can be read
on the NYCOSH website.
--
From the March 21, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Position Available: Occupational and Environmental Health and
Safety Consultant
Location: Managua and Leon, Nicaragua
Requirements: Significant experience in worker training and occupational
and environmental health issues, and fluency in Spanish.
Global Health through Educational
Training (GHET) is a non-profit organization seeking an expert
in occupational and environmental health to train Nicaraguan
medical faculty and union leaders in occupational and environmental
health issues. The purpose of the consultancy will be to help
Nicaraguan health professionals, union leaders and community
groups develop courses and materials to train doctors, nurses
and workers in occupational and environmental health. The consultant
will travel to Nicaragua for initial planning meetings in May
and may be asked to spend extended time living and working in
Nicaragua as she or he develops locally appropriate occupational
and environmental health training curriculums and collaborates
with Nicaraguan partners to develop community outreach projects.
GHET provides for travel and
expenses.
For more information, please
contact:
Jessica Greenberg, Executive
Director
Global Health through Educational Training (GHET)
8 North Main Street
Attleboro MA 02703
U.S.A.
jessicafreya@yahoo.com
--
From the March 21, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
NYCOSH UPDATE March 1, 2002
OSHA Institutes Local Emphasis
Program Near Ground Zero; Says WTC Dust Must Be Presumed to Contain
Asbestos
Reacting to widespread criticism
that employers are exposing WTC-vicinity clean-up workers to
toxic dust and other hazards, OSHA adopted a new policy for targeting
lower Manhattan employers in late January.
All workplaces in the 30-block
area surrounding the World Trade Center site were put under the
jurisdiction of a Local Emphasis Program (LEP), which allows
OSHA officials to conduct a greater number of "planned"
or routine inspections. The LEP zone is bounded by Broadway,
Chambers Street, Rector Street and the Hudson River.
For work within the 16-acre site
of the World Trade Center, OSHA is acting in consultative role,
and not issuing any citations. In the area surrounding the site,
but outside the central 16 acres, where damaged buildings are
being repaired and cleaned, the agency has been conducting normal
enforcement inspections. Between September and the end of January,
OSHA conducted 62 formal inspections in the vicinity of the Trade
Center and issued at least 109 citations. All 109 citations are
for safety violations, including 45 for improper scaffolding
or lack of fall protection, 12 for electrical violations and
11 for lack of hardhats. None of the citations was for exposure
to asbestos or any other health hazard.
The failure of the agency to
issue any citations for a violation of the asbestos standard
in lower Manhattan since September has led some to question the
efficacy of the agency's enforcement and the adequacy of the
standard in protecting workers' health.
According to OSHA Area Director
Richard Mendelson in a interview with NYCOSH, "Dust that
was created at the time of the collapse is PACM, and the law
requires employers to treat it as such." "PACM"
is "presumed asbestos-containing material," which,
under the standard's requirements, can only be handled by workers
who are trained in the safe handling of asbestos. Mendelson told
NYCOSH that OSHA inspectors had been treating dust from the collapse
as asbestos-containing all along. When asked why OSHA had not
issued any citations for asbestos violations, Mendelson said:
"We did not see anything violative of the asbestos standard."
"We don't walk around with
OSHA inspectors, so we don't know exactly what they see,"
said NYCOSH industrial hygienist Carrie Loewenherz, "but
if OSHA considers WTC dust to be PACM by definition, it is really,
really hard to understand why they have not issued any asbestos
citations. Lower Manhattan, including the space in the interior
of hundreds of buildings, was engulfed in dust from the collapse.
It was being cleaned up everywhere by workers using methods and
equipment that are not permitted by the asbestos standard,"
said Loewenherz. "Were their compliance officers walking
around with blinders on?"
From the outset, OSHA made it
clear that workers on the World Trade Center site needed to wear
respirators. "It is important for workers involved in the
recovery and clean-up to wear protective equipment as potential
hazards and conditions are constantly changing at the site .
. . . Rescue and recovery crews working on the Trade Center site
should take steps to protect themselves from potential exposure
to contaminants by using respirators and washing stations as
recommended by EPA and OSHA," according to an official OSHA
statement issued on October 3, which is posted on the Internet
at http://www.osha.gov/media/oshnews/oct01/national-20011003.html
However, according to NYCOSH
executive director Joel Shufro, "OSHA never made an explicit
statement about the asbestos hazard to workers doing clean-up
off the site." The October 3 OSHA statement delivered a
very different message to workers and residents off the site:
"Residents and workers returning to buildings where dust
from the Trade Center has entered the building should follow
proper procedures in cleaning buildings."
"OSHA was clear in mandating
respiratory protection for workers on the World Trade Center
site, but for off-site clean-up workers the recommendation was
for ‘proper procedures' and ‘appropriate protection,'
without ever spelling out what that meant," said Shufro.
On January 31, OSHA for the first
time stated that "proper precautions" include compliance
with the asbestos standard wherever there is settled dust from
the collapse. The statement, signed by OSHA head John Henshaw,
was a response to a request for an interpretation of the applicable
rules from Local 78 of the Asbestos, Lead and Hazardous Waste
Laborers union. According to Henshaw, "In that the materials
containing asbestos were used in the construction of the Twin
Towers, the settled dust from their collapse must be presumed
to contain asbestos. Therefore [testing of the dust] is not necessary
in order to establish that the applicable provisions of the Construction
Asbestos standard apply during the demolition or salvage of affected
structures." For the complete text of the OSHA statement,
click
here.
OSHA did not make any announcement
of the January 31 letter, which only came to the public's attention
on February 23, when a copy was released by Rep. Jerrold Nadler,
whose district includes the World Trade Center site and the surrounding
buildings. Referring to the OSHA letter, Nadler said: "Now
we can see that the City Health Department's advice, telling
everyone to clean up Trade Center dust ‘carefully,' was
not only reckless and irresponsible, it was also illegal."
An OSHA spokesperson told NYCOSH
that OSHA had never previously made a formal statement about
the presumption that off-site dust was contaminated with asbestos,
but he suggested that OSHA had posted information on its website
that made the asbestos hazard clear. When asked for a specific
example of information on the website that made the off-site
asbestos hazard clear, he said that he could not provide one.
Other OSHA officials said that the January 31 letter only stated
in writing the policy which OSHA had been following since October.
NYCOSH published a fact
sheet on September 18 explaining that any dust from the collapse
was very likely to contain asbestos, and that anyone exposed
to the dust should wear a high-efficiency respirator.
"Before January 31 OSHA
never stated that all dust from the collapse must be presumed
to contain asbestos and that every employee cleaning up any dust
from the collapse must do so in compliance with the provisions
of the asbestos standard," said Shufro.
"An important component
of OSHA's mission is to prevent workplace injuries and occupational
disease," Shufro continued. "By not providing workers
and community residents with explicit information they needed
to make informed decisions, OSHA denied workers and residents
of lower Manhattan the opportunity to take necessary steps to
protect themselves."
"Yes," he added, "OSHA
is an enforcement agency, but it also has a public health mission.
If the work practices that were being followed to clean up the
PACM in lower Manhattan were not in violation of OSHA's standard,
it speaks to the total inadequacy of the standard – and
under these exceptional, unprecedented circumstances, the agency
had the responsibility to provide workers and the public with
as much information as possible."
"During the first three
months of the clean-up, anyone walking around the area surrounding
the World Trade Center could, with very little effort, see workers,
who were not wearing proper respiratory protection, handling
dust and debris," said Shufro. "Not only could you
see workers wearing ‘dust masks' or wet bandanas, which
don't filter out asbestos, there were pictures of them in the
newspapers and on television."
"If there is any question
that workers were being exposed to the dust, which OSHA now says
is presumed to contain asbestos, just look at what we find when
day laborers come to our medical monitoring unit for physical
examinations and training in respiratory protection," Shufro
added. "The doctors say that more than 99 percent of the
280 or so workers they have examined have symptoms of respiratory
distress. That doesn't prove they have been exposed to asbestos,
but it shows they have been exposed to dust, and now OSHA says
that WTC dust ‘must be presumed to contain asbestos.'"
--
From the March 1, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
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NYCOSH Testifies at EPA Ombudsman Hearing in Manhattan
The controversy about environmental
contamination in and around the World Trade Center site was the
subject of a February 23 hearing in New York City sponsored by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Ombudsman.
The hearing, which was open to
the public, heard testimony from scores of witnesses, including
residents of lower Manhattan and NYCOSH industrial hygienist
David Newman. Notably absent were representatives of the Environmental
Protection Agency's enforcement staff, whose activities in lower
Manhattan were the hearing's focus.
"We invited the leadership
of the EPA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S.
Geological Survey, the governor's office, state agencies, the
mayor's office and city agencies, but none came," said Hugh
Kaufman, the EPA ombudsman's chief investigator for the World
Trade Center Saturday. "This is the first time this has
happened in this type of hearing."
In his testimony, Newman told
the Ombudsman and his staff: "NYCOSH remains concerned that
the response of the Environmental Protection Agency to the events
of September 11 has not been adequately protective of environmental
quality or of public health and has not been consistent with
EPA's mission, with prior EPA emergency response operations,
or with prior EPA interventions and practices. Furthermore, EPA
has been the lead government agency responding to the aftermath
of 9/11, and as such, the nature of its response has to a great
degree shaped the nature of the response of other agencies at
all levels of government."
Newman offered a series of recommendations
from NYCOSH:
"We have recommended that
the appropriate government agency or agencies require:
- indoor environmental bulk and/or
air sampling of premises contaminated with visibly elevated levels
of dust
- professionally-conducted cleanups
appropriately designed to adequately remove contaminants identified
by environmental sampling, including asbestos abatements by qualified
and licensed asbestos abatement companies where asbestos has
been identified, with required forms filed with NYC DEP
- clearance air sampling utilizing
‘aggressive' methods as called for in the AHERA standard
- explicit criteria for reoccupancy
of buildings or areas.
"NYCOSH also recommends
the establishment of a uniform disaster response plan, elements
of which should include, in addition to those listed above:
- designation of a lead agency
to coordinate response and to ensure compliance with applicable
regulations
- coordination of federal, state
and local agencies
- clear delineation of the role
of each agency
- ability of each agency to act
quickly and with authority in its areas of expertise
- pro-active planning to ensure
adequate response in all sectors, including workplaces, residences,
and indoor and outdoor public spaces
- creation of a compendium of
applicable laws and regulations, including those pertaining to
occupational safety and health, environmental protection, and
worker and community right-to-know
- development of a best practices
guidebook based on previous incidents
- establishment of protocols for:
- emergency evacuation of impacted
buildings and areas
- environmental sampling and analysis,
including collection, centralization, and dissemination of results
- immediate and ongoing hazard
analysis utilizing all available data, including but not limited
to, results of environmental sampling, SARA Title III annual
reports, toxic release inventory release reports, etc.
- accumulation, storage, and emergency
distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE), including
respirators
- on-site, emergency, short duration
respirator training and fit-testing, followed as soon as possible
by full training
- ongoing communication between
response agencies and affected parties
- a central personnel registry
to track workers, volunteers, and exposed or otherwise affected
persons
- coordination and funding of
immediate and long-term medical response and surveillance by
government agencies and medical institutions."
For the complete text of the
NYCOSH testimony, please click
here.
--
From the March 1, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
NYCOSH Testifies at U.S. Senate Education and Labor Committee
Hearing in Washington
In a Senate hearing room crowded
with immigrant workers, senators heard about workers who have
fallen to their deaths, been exposed to toxic chemicals and toiled
on farms without access to drinking water or bathrooms. "We
are treated like garbage," said You Di Liao, in testimony
to Senate subcommittee on employment, safety and training.
"Disposable -- I can't tell
you how many times I've heard this sentiment expressed,"
Senator Paul Wellstone said. "This is truly unacceptable."
One of the day's witnesses was
Omar Henriquez, coordinator of NYCOSH's Youth and Immigrant Project,
who told the committee: "While it is an honor to have this
opportunity to testify, the conditions that bring me here are
nothing to be proud of. There is nothing honorable in immigrant
workers having to sacrifice their lives in record numbers while
they contribute to the economic well-being of this great nation.
Nor can we be proud of depriving this colossal work force of
the most basic safety and health protections granted to every
other worker in America."
"NYCOSH has a great deal
of direct experience with the lack of safety and health protections
for immigrant workers," said Henriquez, pointing out that
a great deal of the successful work by NYCOSH and other COSH
groups with immigrant workers had been funded by OSHA, through
the agency's Susan Harwood Training Grant program.
"As you know, the Susan
Harwood Training Grant program was put in place by Congress and
the U.S. Department of Labor to insure that sufficient resources
be devoted providing essential safety and health training to
workers who have an exceptionally great need for it, including
immigrant workers and other vulnerable workers. But in his latest
budget request for OSHA, President Bush has proposed reductions
in the very programs that have a proven record of educating and
training these vulnerable workers from $11.2 million to only
$4.0 million. The President's budget proposes to eliminate OSHA's
very successful Susan Harwood Training Grant program."
For the complete text of the
NYCOSH testimony, please click
here.
OSHA head John Henshaw testified
that immigrants and Hispanic workers account for a disproportionate
share of workplace fatalities. He said OSHA has been trying to
reach out to Spanish-speaking workers to cut down on deaths and
injuries. For Henshaw's complete testimony, click
here.
--
From the March 1, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
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Activists Prepare to Mark First Anniversary of the Killing of
the Ergonomics Standard
Last year on March 6 the Senate
voted to repeal OSHA's ergonomics standard. The House followed
suit, and President Bush nailed the coffin shut days later. Preventable
ergonomic hazards injure more than 1,600 workers every day in
the U.S. so badly that they lose time from work. Since the Congress
and the President killed the standard, some 600,000 workers have
sustained lost-time ergonomic injuries.
Last June Secretary of Labor
Elaine Chao acknowledged that there is an urgent need to take
action to protect workers from ergonomic hazards, and promised
to do so by September 2001, but the Bush administration has not
followed up with a program, or even the outline of a program.
In two weeks, on March 14, the
Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions committee will hold
hearings on the broken Labor Department's promise to take action
to stem the epidemic of ergonomic injuries.
In gearing up for the anniversary
and the hearings, Union of Needletrades Health and Safety Director
Eric Frumin told NYCOSH, "It's been a whole year, and Bush
has done nothing about ergonomics but tell workers to trust their
own bosses. Whether it's Enron or U.P.S., the Bush administration's
chumminess with employers is the same. We need to fight for safe
jobs every place we can, on the shop floor, at the bargaining
table and in the halls of Congress."
--
From the March 1, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
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United Nations Environment Programme Committee Proposes International
Asbestos Trade Controls
A UN committee of government-appointed
experts has concluded that all forms of asbestos should be added
to an international list of chemicals subject to trade controls.
If asbestos is added to the list, international asbestos trade
will remain legal, but it will be sharply restricted.
According to a statement released
by the UNEP Committee, "the review of asbestos was triggered
by bans in Australia, Chile and the European Union.
"The attractions of asbestos
include its high tensile strength, fibrous nature, resistance
to heat, and inert chemistry. Once widely used as insulation
for houses and specialized equipment, asbestos was eliminated
in many countries when it became understood that its tiny fibres
were being inhaled into the lungs of workers and residents and
causing cancer, other illnesses, and death. Asbestos is still
used in seals, gaskets, joints, brakes, armaments, and other
applications, although cost-effective substitutes are increasingly
available for most applications.
"‘This decision of
the Committee is another big step towards eliminating the risks
associated with asbestos and its products. Even in countries
like mine, where these products have been banned for a long time,
they remain a major problem when decontaminating buildings and
paying the huge costs of treating people with serious diseases
caused by asbestos,' said Interim Chemical Review Committee Chairman
Reiner Arndt of Germany."
--
From the March 1, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
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Workers' Compensation in New York State Conference, Friday, March
8
Next week NYCOSH, in cooperation
with the New York State AFL-CIO and Cornell University's Trade
Union Leadership Program, will present a half-day conference:
Workers' Compensation Benefits in New York State - Thirty Years
After the Report of the National Commission on State Workmens'
Compensation Laws.
In 1972, the National Commission
on State Workmen's Compensation Laws, created by the OSHA Law
of 1970, issued a report on the status of state workers' compensation
laws. The Commission, appointed by President Richard Nixon and
chaired by John Burton, who will be the keynote speaker at the
conference, issued a report -- which made more than 100 recommendations
-- 19 of which the commission considered to be "essential."
Thirty years later, these "essential"
recommendations are considered to be the benchmarks against which
states are measured.
In its report, the Commission
recommended that all states should index their benefits at 100%
of the state's average weekly wage by 1975. The Commission's
Report also called for states to index benefits at 200% of the
state's average weekly wage by 1981. For New York State –
one of six states in the country which does not index its benefits
-- the National Commission's report is of particular interest.
In fact, New York's maximum benefit, as a percentage of the state's
average weekly wage, is approximately 50% – the lowest of
any state in the country and lower than when the Commission issued
its report.
The conference fee is $20, which
includes morning coffee, bagels and conference materials. To
register, send check or money order payable to: NYCOSH, 275 Seventh
Ave., 8th Fl., NY, NY 10001 by Wednesday, March 6. For more information
call NYCOSH at 212-627-3900 ext. 10.
--
From the March 1, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Immigrant Labor at Risk Conference, Saturday, April 27
NYCOSH, in collaboration with
the New York Immigration Coalition, the Worker Employment Law
Program of the CUNY School of Law, the New York State AFL-CIO
and the New York City Central Labor Council, will present a full-day
conference: Immigrant Labor at Risk - Occupational Hazards: Old
Problems, New Possibilities.
Immigrant workers have a long
history of being forced to take the dirtiest, least desirable
and most dangerous jobs. Multiple recent fatalities in the New
York City area among immigrant construction workers, many of
whom have been undocumented, inspired a week-long investigative
series by Thomas Maier in Newsday last July: "Dreams Flourish
– Then Perish: Lured by Dollars, Many Immigrants Find Death
in Dangerous Jobs." Maier will be one of the conference
particpants.
For more information about the
conference, see the NYCOSH website at http://www.nycosh.org or
call NYCOSH at 212-627-3900 ext. 10.
--
From the March 1, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
NYCOSH UPDATE February 7, 2002
OSHA's New Recordkeeping Rules:
‘A Mixed Bag'
Do you know where your employer's
OSHA 200 log is? You should, if your workplace has more than
10 employees and you are not in a low-hazard industry. You would
know where it is because your employer was required to post it
last week, on February 1, and leave it on the bulletin board
until March 1. The log is a summary of all work-related injuries
and illnesses that occurred in your workplace during 2001.
If you look at the OSHA 200 log
this month, it will probably be the last time you ever see it,
because OSHA has completely revised its recordkeeping
regulations. Next year the employer will post an OSHA 300
log, which contains more information than the OSHA 200 log.
By law, the information on either
log is supposed to be available for inspection by employees all
year long, but the employer is only required to display it in
public for one month. The 1-month posting requirement is one
of the rules that has been changed; next year, when your employer
posts the OSHA 300 log, the log will remain on the bulletin board
for three months instead of one.
"The new rules are an improvement,
but they still include major problems that prevent them from
being as protective as they ought to be," said AFL-CIO staff
member Bill Kojola. "The exemption for all workplaces in
‘low-hazard' industries is really inappropriate, because
there are plenty of high-hazard workplaces in low-hazard industries,
and it's not hard to identify them, but they remain exempt from
any requirement that they keep records of anything short of fatalities
and incidents that result in multiple hospitalizations."
"There are some aspects
of OSHA's new recordkeeping rule that we can applaud," said
Susan O'Brien, NYCOSH Assistant Director. "One of the big
improvements over the old rule is the posting requirement. Workers
can learn a lot from being able to examine the record of accidents
and illnesses in their workplace, and workers have a right to
examine those records at any time. But many workers are reluctant
to exercise that right, for fear of antagonizing their employer.
OSHA's requirement that the log be posted for a month was always
a useful reminder that employees have the right to see injury
and illness information, but the fact that the log was posted
for only a single month, and the shortest month of the year at
that, was also a reminder of the difficulty that employees have
in exercising those rights."
Employers were required to begin
recording work-related injuries and illnesses on the OSHA 300
log last month, on January 1. That information will be posted
for the first time in February 2003, but employees have the right
to examine their employer's OSHA 300 log at any reasonable time.
The new log, and the recordkeeping rules behind it, are different
in some significant ways from what existed last year.
"In some respects the new
rules are an improvement," said O'Brien, "but in other
ways they are a step backwards. So it's a mixed bag."
One example of a deterioration
in recordkeeping concerns work-related illnesses. Under the old
recordkeeping regulations, employers were required to record
every work-related illness. Under the new rules, employers will
not keep any record of the least serious illnesses, including
tens of thousands of cases of respiratory irritation and dermatitis.
"There is no excuse for
OSHA's having excluded ‘minor' illnesses from the recordkeeping
requirements," occupational physician Robin Herbert told
NYCOSH. "Here in New York City right now we are seeing hundreds
of people with a variety of symptoms, including coughs and rashes,
which result from occupational exposures in lower Manhattan.
If a worker at Ground Zero has that cough, it is definitely an
occupational illness, but it won't be recorded as such unless
it is bad enough to cause an employee to lose time from work
or take prescription medication. OSHA and the general public
are going to lose a lot of useful information about the medical
effects of unhealthful working conditions, by choosing to keep
no records of conditions that are very real, but not especially
serious." OSHA estimates that, under the new regulations,
employers will be able to omit each year up to 100,000 cases
of occupational illness that were recorded under the old regulations.
Two of the most glaring shortcomings
of the new recordkeeping requirements are the result of the Bush
administration's decision to delay, for at least a year, two
provisions of the rule as it was originally published during
the last week of the Clinton administration in January 2001.
As originally written, the rules
call for a section of the injury and illness log to include a
column where an employer is required to check a box if a worker
has sustained a work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WRMSD).
The Labor Department has ordered employers to leave the WRMSD
column blank, even in cases of WRMSDs.
"We are in the middle of
a huge epidemic of occupational MSDs," said United
Food and Commercial Workers Safety and Health Director Jackie
Nowell. "It took us years to convince OSHA to begin systematically
counting them so we could get a handle on the problem, and now
OSHA is saying, ‘no, don't count them.' That way they'll
be able to say the numbers are way down. I had a meeting with
[OSHA head John] Henshaw and I told him it was outrageous. All
he said was, ‘It's only for a year.' In ‘only
a year,' thousands of my members and hundreds of thousands
of other workers will have potentially disabling MSDs, and a
substantial number of them will be permanently disabled as a
result. But it's 'only' a year, so I guess we're supposed
to be okay with it."
Another section of the new regulations
that has been postponed for at least a year concerns the definition
of work-related hearing loss. Under OSHA noise-exposure regulations,
employers are required to test the hearing of employees who may
be exposed to noise levels that could cause permanent hearing
loss. The regulations require employers to take remedial action
to prevent any further injury whenever they discover an employee
with a "10-decibel threshold shift," that is, a 10-decibel
reduction in their ability to discern low-level sounds. For nearly
a decade there has been a disjunction between the requirement
that an employer take special action to protect an employee with
a 10-decibel shift, and the OSHA recordkeeping rules, which define
recordable hearing loss as a 25-decibel shift, which represents
more than twice the loss in hearing sensitivity. Under the new
recordkeeping rules as written, the definition of recordable
hearing loss was changed to match the noise-exposure regulations
themselves. Now OSHA has delayed enforcing the recordkeeping
change for at least a year.
"This is really dangerous
to workers' hearing," commented Ellen Kelly, a clinical
audiologist and Director of the Center
for Speech and Hearing Sciences in East Brunswick, NJ. "Once
you have that level of hearing loss you can't ever get it back.
OSHA recognizes that a 10-decibel shift is enough to require
the employer to do something to prevent further loss. But how
can OSHA make sure that employers are taking appropriate action
if OSHA doesn't require them to record significant hearing loss
on the log? OSHA has been saying ‘any time now' for years
when asked when it would bring the recordkeeping requirement
into line with the noise-exposure standard. Delaying the change
for another year makes no sense at all."
--
From the February 7, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Workers' Compensation in New York State Conference, Friday, March
8
Next month NYCOSH, in cooperation
with the New York State AFL-CIO
and Cornell University's Trade Union Leadership Program, will
present a half-day conference: Workers' Compensation Benefits
in New York State - Thirty Years After the Report of the "National
Commission on State Workmen's Compensation Laws."
In 1972, the "National Commission
on State Workmen's Compensation Laws," created by the OSHA
Law of 1970, issued a report on the status of state workers'
compensation laws. The Commission, appointed by President Richard
Nixon and chaired by John Burton, who will be the keynote
speaker at the conference, issued a report -- which made more
than 100 recommendations -- 19 of which the commission considered
to be "essential."
Thirty years later, these "essential"
recommendations are considered to be the benchmarks against which
states are measured.
In its report, the Commission
recommended that all states should index their benefits at 100%
of the state's average weekly wage by 1975. The Commission's
Report also called for states to index benefits at 200% of the
state's average weekly wage by 1981. For New York State –
one of six states in the country that do not index workers' compensation
benefits -- the National Commission's report is of particular
interest. In fact, New York's maximum benefit, as a percentage
of the state's average weekly wage, is approximately 50% –
the lowest of any state in the country and lower than when the
Commission issued its report.
The conference will examine recommendations
of the Report of the "National Commission on State Workman's
Compensation Laws". In additions to fomer Commission chair
Burton, speakers will include: Marvin Anderman of the
law firm Fine, Olin and Anderman; Eric Frumin, Director
of Safety and Health, UNITE!; Omar Henriquez, Coordinator,
Immigrant and Youth Program, NYCOSH; Robin Herbert, M.D.,
Co-Director, Mount Sinai - Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational
& Environmental Medicine; Denis Hughes, President,
New York State AFL-CIO; Catherine Nolan, Chairperson,
New York State Assembly Labor Committee; Robert Snashall,
Chairman, New York State Workers' Compensation Board; Dom
Tuminaro of the law firm Brecher, Fishman, Pasternack, Popish,
Heller, Rubin & Reiff, and Art Wilcox, Director, Public
Employee Division, New York State AFL-CIO. The conference fee
is $20, which includes morning coffee, bagels and conference
materials.
The conference will be held at
Cornell University, New York State School of Industrial and Labor
Relations, 16 East 34th Street, 6th Floor, Manhattan, which is
handicap accessible. Public transportation: Subways B, D, F,
N, Q, R, V, or W to 34th Street, which is handicap accessible.
Subways 4, 5, 6 to 33rd Street, which is not handicap accessible.
Buses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 32, 34.
To register, send check or money
order payable to: NYCOSH, 275 Seventh Ave., 8th Fl., NY, NY 10001
by Wednesday, March 6. For more information call NYCOSH at 212-627-3900
ext. 10.
--
From the February 7, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Annual Awards April 17: NYCOSH to Honor Tony Mazzocchi in Addition
to Previously Announced Honorees Peg Seminario, Stuart Appelbaum,
Eric Frumin and the Professional Staff Congress
The NYCOSH Board of Directors
has decided to take the occasion of the NYCOSH Annual Awards
Celebration to give special recognition to Tony Mazzocchi for
his long and productive devotion to promoting worker safety and
health.
The award to Tony will be in
addition to those already announced, to Peg Seminario, Safety
and Health Director of the AFL-CIO, in special recognition of
her dedication to the promulgation of an ergonomics standard;
Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union and Chair, New York State AFL-CIO Health and Safety
Committee; Eric Frumin, Occupational Safety and Health Director,
Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, will
receive the NYCOSH Karen Silkwood Award, and the Professional
Staff Congress, NYSUT, AFT, will receive the NYCOSH Union Recognition
Award
The ceremony will take place
in Manhattan at the Cherkasky/Davis Conference Center of the
National Benefit Fund beginning at 6pm. For tickets and information,
contact Symona Johnson at 212-627-3900 ext. 10 or nycosh@nycosh.org.
(This event was originally scheduled to take place on December
13, but was postponed as a result of the World Trade Center catastrophe.)
--
From the February 7, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Immigrant Labor at Risk Conference, Saturday, April 27
NYCOSH, in collaboration with
New York Immigration Coalition, the Worker Employment Law Program
of the CUNY School of Law, the New York State AFL-CIO and the
New York City Central Labor Council will present a full-day conference:
Immigrant Labor at Risk - Occupational Hazards: Old Problems,
New Possibilities.
Immigrant workers have a long
history of being forced to take the dirtiest, least desirable
and most dangerous jobs. Multiple fatalities in the New York
City area among immigrant, often undocumented, construction workers
in the last several years inspired a week-long investigative
series in Newsday last July: "Dreams Flourish–Then
Perish: Lured by Dollars, Many Immigrants Find Death in Dangerous
Jobs."
Concern over the safety of immigrant
workers grew even more intense after the destruction of the World
Trade Center, when non-union day-laborers, many of them immigrants,
led the first wave of workers assigned to clean up the dust and
debris in the damaged, but undestroyed buildings in the World
Trade Center vicinity. Working with potentially toxic dust, most
of the workers received little or no training or equipment to
protect them. Since then, hundreds of workers have developed
symptoms that could be the result of their exposure to the dust.
The April 27 conference will
examine the recent experience of immigrant workers and pursue
policy proposals aimed at substantially improving their safety
and health conditions at work. It will take place at the CUNY
School of Law in Flushing, Queens. For more information call
NYCOSH at 212-627-3900 ext. 10.
--
From the February 7, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Job opening: Union Safety and Health Coordinator
Uniformed Firefighters Association
Local 94 seeks Occupational Safety and Health Coordinator with
a strong labor background. Responsibilities include: grant-writing
and administration; preparing vouchers and monthly reports; complete
facilitation of the grant project, which consists of providing
technical assistance and entering data, developing and producing
fact sheets and an annual newsletter, training union members
on- and off-site. Must be computer-literate. Good salary, excellent
benefits, 35-hour workweek in a busy unionized office. Hard-working
and motivated individuals are encouraged to send resumes to Jude
Gaddis Stevens, Uniformed Firefighters Association, 204 East
23rd St., 4th floor, New York, NY10010.
For additional job openings please
see "Safety and Health Employment Opportunities" in
the NYCOSH website at http://www.nycosh.org/joblistings.html
--
From the February 7, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
What's New in the NYCOSH Website
On the home
page:
Links to the latest news coverage in the local and national media
of the growing controversy over safety and health hazards in
lower Manhattan
In The
Clipping File
Links the recent safety and health-related news concerning asbestos
liability, radar-linked cancer and much more
Under Education,
schools and teachers health and safety links
Manual of Planning Standards for School Buildings (New York State
Education Department, Office of Facilities Planning)
--
From the February 7, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
NYCOSH UPDATE January 14, 2002
As the World Trade Center Clean-Up
Continues, Health Concerns Grow
Despite the passage of four months
since the World Trade Center attack, public expressions of concern
about potential health hazards resulting from the twin towers
collapse are on the increase.
In response to long articles
in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post listing examples
of unexplained sickness among workers and area residents, on
January 9 the Ombudsman of the Environmental Protection Agency
opened an investigation of how EPA had responded to questions
about air quality in the aftermath of the attack. "If the
allegations reported in the Washington Post are true, EPA has
done a disservice to the brave men and women working at 'ground
zero' and to the citizens who live in the area whose health and
environment we are required to protect," Ombudsman Robert
Martin wrote in his first statement concerning the investigation.
(For links to the complete text of news reports referred to
in this article, click
here.)
"The government agencies
that are responsible for protecting the workers on and near the
World Trade Center site, and everyone else who works, lives or
studies in the vicinity, have all adopted the attitude that the
hazards are either negligible or under control," said NYCOSH
Executive Director Joel Shufro. "But there is a great deal
of evidence to the contrary. There is no such thing as ‘negligible'
exposure to carcinogens such as asbestos, for which there is
no safe level of exposure, a point that we have made repeatedly
ever since September 11. It is obvious that workers and residents
are being exposed to potential hazards that haven't even all
been identified, let alone quantified. Those exposures may have
grave adverse public health consequences, but we will not know
exactly what those consequences are for decades."
One sign that EPA monitoring
missed dangerous environmental hazards came when it was reported
that five police officers and a maintenance worker who were assigned
to the area of the World Trade Center site were reassigned as
a precaution because tests show that they have elevated levels
of mercury in their blood. There is no definite information about
the source of the workers' mercury exposure, but it is known
that the rubble of the towers contains mercury, which can be
inhaled or absorbed through the skin.
EPA and city health department
officials have said monitoring has not disclosed the presence
of mercury at hazardous levels, but observers were critical of
the thoroughness of the official measurements. Don Carson, an
official of the International Union of Operating Engineers, which
represents hundreds of the workers engaged in the ground zero
clean-up, said that the official air monitoring is "kind
of helter-skelter right now."
A spokesman for the Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey, which employs the six workers with
elevated mercury levels, said "We can't say with any certainty
that they were exposed during their work at Ground Zero, but
it certainly is a reasonable possibility," he said. "As
a precaution, we decided to take them out of that environment."
A likely source of mercury contamination
at the site of the collapse is the tens of thousands of pulverized
flourescent light bulbs, according to NYCOSH industrial hygienist
Dave Newman, who points our that each bulb contained a "minuscule
quantity of mercury. In a structure the size of the World Trade
Center, you multiply that by many hundreds of thousands of light
bulbs, and you have potentially a significant source," he
said.
Asbestos is another potential
hazard that public health officials have consistently downplayed
since the attack. Asbestos is not known to cause immediate health
effects, but it is present in more than half of the dust samples
taken in the month after the attack, so any air that is contaminated
with World Trade Center dust is likely to contain some asbestos.
After the attack EPA and the
City Department of Health repeatedly stated that short-term exposure
to asbestos is not a health concern. "As far as we know,"
said Shufro, "there is absolutely no scientific basis to
distinguish the health effect of a high, short-term exposure
to asbestos from a low, long-term exposure that results in the
same total inhalation of asbestos. The fact is that small exposures
are safer than large exposures, but there is no known asbestos-exposure
threshold below which it's possible to say there is no chance
of any adverse health effect."
Reassuring official statements
about the low risk of asbestos exposure was sharply criticized
in a front-page St. Louis Post-Dispatch article January 13 headlined:
"Asbestos Risks Near Ground Zero May Be Far Greater Than
Government Reports," which reported "Federal and state
officials in New York have grossly underestimated or played down
the number of people in lower Manhattan who are at risk of being
sickened or killed from exposure to asbestos released in the
collapse of the World Trade Center. Evaluations of analyses done
by teams of leading asbestos researchers show the increased risk
of death to people who live, work or study in homes or offices
that have not been properly decontaminated could be as high as
one additional cancer death for every 10 people exposed."
NYCOSH, in collaboration with
the Latin American Workers Project and the Center for the Biology
of Natural Systems of Queens College is initiating the WTC Medical
Monitoring for Building Clean-Up Workers/Pruebas de Salud para
Trabajadores de Limpienza de WTC. The project will operate a
mobile medical monitoring unit on Broadway, near the World Trade
Center site, for three weeks beginning on January 14.
The unit will provide medical
examinations for building clean-up workers in the vicinity of
the collapsed World Trade Center towers. Medical testing will
focus on respiratory problems and other targeted health problems,
as well as general physical exams.
The project was initiated in
response to concerns about non-unionized day laborers and other
workers performing clean-up tasks. Clean-up workers are particularly
vulnerable to hazards arising from contact with toxic substances
in the debris at Ground Zero, according to NYCOSH Director Shufro.
"Many day laborers are Spanish-speaking immigrants with
little health and safety training," he said. "The medical
unit goes straight to the problem area, offering the basic medical
and educational resources the clean-up crews need."
"We are aiming to help the
most neglected, least protected workers, who might otherwise
receive no medical care for occupational health problems. As
they cleaned, they stirred up and inhaled injurious dusts. We
want to identify their illnesses and provide them with properly
fitting respirators to protect themselves in the future,"
said Steven Markowitz, MD, an occupational medicine physician
who is directing the medical team from the City University of
New York.
The unit will be open on weekdays
between 8 am and 8 pm from January 14 to February 1, 2002, serving
eligible participants by appointment. In addition to a free physical
exam, medical and occupational histories, breathing test, urinalysis,
complete blood count and blood chemistry panel, participants
will also receive education, respirator fit-testing and a free
half-mask respirator with HEPA filters.
For additional information about
safety and health in the aftermath of the catastrophe at the
World Trade Center, including dozens of safety and health fact
sheets (two in Spanish) and reports and links to more than a
hundred news reports, click
here.
--
From the January 14, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Occupational
Injury and Illness Rates Improve Slightly Overall, But Also Show
Areas of Significant Deterioration
The occupational
injury and illness rate among private-sector workers declined
by 3 percent in the year 2000, according to statistics published
last month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It was
the eighth consecutive year of reduced injuries and illnesses,
which resulted in a record-low 6.1 injuries and illnesses per
100 full-time workers, a 45 percent reduction since 1973, when
the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect.
In contrast to
the steady and continuing reduction in the overall injury and
illness rate, the rate of the most serious injuries and illnesses,
those that result in time away from work or restricted work activities
(known as lost-workday cases), did not change between 1999 and
2000. The unchanged pace of lost-workday cases last year reflects
the rate's long-term resistence to change. Since 1973 the lost-workday
injury and illness rate has been reduced by only12 percent.
One portion of
the lost-workday cases are illnesses resulting from repeated
trauma, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. The number of repeated
trauma-related cases fell by 2 percent between 1999 and 2000,
but in some industries the number of repeated trauma cases went
sharply up. Workers in the service, finance, insurance, and real
estate industries experienced a 12 percent increase in the number
of illnesses associated with repeated trauma.
"The contrast
between the continuing long-term improvement in the overall illness
and injury rate and the stagnation of the lost-workday rate is
striking," according to Eric Frumin, who is the director
of the Unite! health and safety department and also chairs the
Labor Advisory Committee of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "We
don't have data on the causes of all lost-workday cases, but
we have complete information about three-fifths of the lost-workday
cases, which makes it clear that the intensity of work, including
increasing workloads and overtime are major causes of lost-workday
cases. Employers are demanding faster work over longer hours,
and that is causing serious and disabling injuries."
"Employers
can do much to improve safety and health conditions, and some
employers take the initiative to do so," said Susan O'Brien,
assistant director of the New York Committee for Occupational
Safety and Health (NYCOSH). "But when the same employers
choose to increase production by increasing the pace of work
and overtime, safety is compromised in ways that cannot easily
be corrected. The declining presence of unions in U.S. workplaces
and cutbacks in safety and health enforcement gives employers
a free hand to use workers in ways that are unsafe and unhealthful.
As long as the union presence continues to fall and OSHA enforcement
is reduced, we can expect that the lost-workday rate will remain
fairly steady or even get worse."
For additional
information about occupational safety and health injury, illness
and fatality statistics, including links to the most recent Bureau
of Labor Statistics reports, click here.
--
From the January 14, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Safety And Health Activists, Environmentalists And Unions Win
Ban on Plastic Pipe in New York State
Occupational safety and health
activists, labor unions, environmental activists and others won
a significant victory in Albany last month, when Gov. George
Pataki signed a bill that outlaws the use of plastic pipe for
most construction in New York State. The bill, sponsored by state
Senator Nicholas Spano and Assemblymember Catherine Nolan, passed
unanimously in the Senate and by 141-6 in the Assembly, despite
fierce opposition from the plastics industry, contractors' groups
and building owners.
Plastic pipe is widely opposed
because its installation creates a deadly hazard for construction
workers, and it ignites at low temperatures in a building fire.
When plastic pipe burns it gives off large quantities of suffocating
gases, including hydrochloric acid, creating an enormous hazard
for building residents and emergency responders. In addition,
the production and degradation of plastic pipe creates large
quantities of pollutants that do not break down under normal
environmental conditions.
State AFL-CIO president Denis
Hughes said that plastic pipes "jeopardize the lives and
well-being of those workers who must install and maintain these
pipes, as well as the firefighters who could be caught in a fire
and become susceptible both to the low ignition temperature of
the pipes and the highly toxic gases emitted under fire conditions."
"PVC pipes kill," New
York State Pipe Trades Association member James Hart said. "Whether
you're working near them or you are caught in a fire and they
emit their invisible gases, New Yorkers must be protected."
The law signed by the governor
will expire after three years unless the legislature enacts a
permanent ban on plastic pipe. In addition, the law allows the
use of plastic pipe in 1- and 2-family homes. New York is the
only state in the U.S. that limits most uses of plastic pipe,
but many European jurisdictions outlaw plastic pipe because of
the public safety hazard it represents.
--
From the January 14, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Bush Administration Takes the Axe to Safety and Health Regulations
The U.S. Department of Labor's
regulatory agenda for 2002 does not include any action on a new
ergonomics regulation and withdraws or halts action on 16 pending
Occupational Safety and Health Administration and 13 pending
Mine Safety and Health Administration safety actions. The agenda,
released in December, outlines the department's priorities and
plans for the coming year. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said
the agenda "shows a deliberative step backward by the Department
of Labor and the Secretary on issues central to worker health
and safety." Last year, the Bush administration orchestrated
the congressional action that overturned the nation's first ergonomics
standard designed to prevent work-related musculoskeletal injuries.
Since that action, more than 1.25 million workers have suffered
ergonomics-related injuries.
--
From the January 14, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Comings and Goings: Deborah Nagin, Mario Scarsaletta
Long-time occupational safety
and health activist Deborah Nagin has been appointed Director
of the Lead Poisoning Prevention Program of the New York City
Department of Public Health. In that position she heads the largest
municipal program of its kind in the world, with a staff of 160
people engaged in research, surveillance, environmental enforcement,
abatement safety, medical care coordination, outreach, education
and the operation of lead-free safe houses. Previous to her city
position, Nagin had been the Director of Policy and Prevention
at the Mt. Sinai - Irving J. Selikoff Occupational Medicine Clinic.
After serving for one year, Mario
Scarselletta has resigned from the New York State Department
of Labor's five-member Hazard Abatement Board. Gov. George Pataki
has the responsibility of naming someone to fill the vacant seat.
--
From the January 14, 2002 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health
http://www.nycosh.org
This page last updated
on April 10, 2002.