OSHA Leaves Worker Safety in Hands of Industry

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

I posted this before. But it did not come thru too well. Above is a link

to a Senate Hearing that will be held Thursday, April 26. There is an audio

link for one to be able to hear the hearing.

_http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2007_04_26/2007_04_26.html_

(http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2007_04_26/2007_04_26.html)

I would advise listening if it is what I think it is going to be. If you

have never seen one of these hearings, this is a good way to be able to listen

to how they work.

I don't believe they will be discussing mold. But, I do believe they will

be discussing breakdowns within OSHA that have caused regulations to be

industry friendly at the expense of the workers of America.

Sharon

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/washington/25osha.html

April 25, 2007

OSHA Leaves Worker Safety in Hands of Industry

By STEPHEN LABATON

WASHINGTON, April 24 — Seven years ago, a Missouri doctor discovered a

troubling pattern at a microwave popcorn plant in the town of Jasper.

After an additive was modified to produce a more buttery taste, nine

workers came down with a rare, life-threatening disease that was

ravaging their lungs.

Puzzled Missouri health authorities turned to two federal agencies in

Washington. Scientists at the National Institute for Occupational

Safety and Health, which investigates the causes of workplace health

problems, moved quickly to examine patients, inspect factories and run

tests. Within months, they concluded that the workers became ill after

exposure to diacetyl, a food-flavoring agent.

But the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, charged with

overseeing workplace safety, reacted with far less urgency. It did not

step up plant inspections or mandate safety standards for businesses,

even as more workers became ill.

On Tuesday, the top official at the agency told lawmakers at a

Congressional hearing that it would prepare a safety bulletin and plan

to inspect a few dozen of the thousands of food plants that use the

additive.

That response reflects OSHA's practices under the Bush administration,

which vowed to limit new rules and roll back what it considered

cumbersome regulations that imposed unnecessary costs on businesses

and consumers. Across Washington, political appointees — often former

officials of the industries they now oversee — have eased regulations

or weakened enforcement of rules on issues like driving hours for

truckers, logging in forests and corporate mergers.

Since W. Bush became president, OSHA has issued the fewest

significant standards in its history, public health experts say. It

has imposed only one major safety rule. The only significant health

standard it issued was ordered by a federal court.

The agency has killed dozens of existing and proposed regulations and

delayed adopting others. For example, OSHA has repeatedly identified

silica dust, which can cause lung cancer, and construction site noise

as health hazards that warrant new safeguards for nearly three million

workers, but it has yet to require them.

" The people at OSHA have no interest in running a regulatory agency, "

said Dr. s, an occupational health expert at

Washington University who has written extensively about workplace

safety. " If they ever knew how to issue regulations, they've

forgotten. The concern about protecting workers has gone out the

window. "

Agency officials defend their performance, saying that workplace

deaths and injuries have declined during their tenure. They have been

considering new standards and revising outdated ones that were unduly

burdensome on businesses, they said, adding that they have moved

cautiously on new rules because those require extensive scientific and

economic analysis.

" By the time the Bush administration is done — we have a good record

already — we will have a better record, " said Edwin G. Foulke Jr., the

agency's head, in a recent interview.

On diacetyl, Mr. Foulke said " the science is murky " on whether the

additive causes bronchiolitis obliterans, the disease that has been

called " popcorn worker's lung. " That claim is echoed by some industry

officials, but a number of leading scientists and doctors agree with

scientists at the national occupational safety institute that there is

strong evidence linking the additive to the illness.

Without an OSHA standard, which would establish the permissible level

of exposure for workers, companies can set any limit of exposure they

want.

Instead of regulations, Mr. Foulke and top officials at other agencies

favor a " voluntary compliance strategy, " reaching agreements with

industry associations and companies to police themselves.

Administration officials say such programs are less costly, allowing

companies to hire more workers and keep consumer prices down. The

number of voluntary agreements has grown in recent years, but they

cover a fraction of the seven million work sites that OSHA oversees,

or less than 1 percent of the work force. Sixty-one food plants out of

the tens of thousands across the country participate; industry

representatives say other businesses are taking steps to protect

workers on their own.

Critics say the voluntary programs tend to have little focus on

specific hazards and no enforcement power. Because only companies with

strong safety records are eligible, they argue, the programs do not

force less-conscientious businesses to improve their workplaces. A

2004 study by the Government Accountability Office found some

promising results from such programs, but recommended against

expanding them until their effectiveness could be assessed.

" OSHA has been focusing on the best companies in their voluntary

protection program while doing nothing in the area of standard

setting, " said Peg Seminario, the director of occupational safety and

health at the A.F.L.-C.I.O. " They've simply gotten out of the

standard-setting business in favor of industry partnerships that have

no teeth. "

While labor organizations and public health experts argue that the

agency has been lax in recent years, some industries have applauded

its efforts. Construction companies, for example, are pleased that

OSHA recently decided to relax the standards for handling explosives.

The agency had long been the target of businesses that criticized its

rules as arbitrary, costly and confusing. Three of the biggest

industries regulated by OSHA — transportation, agribusiness and

construction — have given more than $630 million in political campaign

contributions since 2000, with nearly three-quarters of that money

going to Republicans. The Bush administration has promised to address

their concerns.

Change at OSHA

" We're also going to bring a transparency to the regulatory jungle

that is unprecedented in the federal government, " Labor Secretary

Elaine L. Chao told business owners in a speech on June 2002. " There

are more words in the Federal Register describing OSHA regulations

than there are words in the Bible. They're a lot less inspired to read

and a lot harder to understand. This is not fair. "

Until recently, Congress has provided no significant oversight of

OSHA. With Democrats now back in control, House and Senate committees

are holding hearings this week.

Among those who testified Tuesday was Peoples, a former worker at

the popcorn plant in Jasper, a small town 125 miles south of Kansas

City. Once healthy, the 35-year-old Mr. Peoples has been told by

doctors that he will need a double-lung transplant. Far from

Washington, he finds the debate over the calculus of regulation — the

costs to companies and consumers of upgrading workplaces versus the

possible health benefits to workers — baffling.

" I can't understand what it would take to get them to pass rules to

make it safer to handle this stuff, " Mr. Peoples said, referring to

diacetyl. " Something needs to be done. "

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was created under

President M. Nixon in 1970 after Congressional hearings

exposed dangerous workplace conditions. The agency was to set and

enforce safety standards as well as detect health hazards before they

could take a toll on workers. Since the agency's creation, deaths and

injuries on the job have steadily declined. Regulators have taken

credit for much of that trend, though experts also cite pressure from

insurers and lawsuits. Government records show that in 2005, more than

6,800 workplace-related deaths occurred, along with 4.2 million

injuries and illnesses. OSHA officials say that since 2001, the

fatality rate has declined by 7 percent and the injury rate by 19

percent.

Labor leaders and health experts say those numbers significantly

undercount the problem, in part because the Bush administration has

reduced the categories of recognized injuries and because many

dangerous jobs are now performed by undocumented workers who do not

report problems.

In one of his first acts in office, President Bush signed legislation

repealing one of OSHA's most-debated accomplishments during the

Clinton administration, an ergonomics standard intended to reduce

injuries to factory, construction and office workers from repetitive

motions and lifting. Business groups and manufacturers had lobbied

against the measure, saying it would cost $100 billion to carry out.

By the end of 2001, OSHA had withdrawn more than a dozen proposed

regulations. The agency, though, soon identified several safety

priorities: rules on the hazards posed by dust from silica, used as a

blasting agent, and noise from construction sites, which was causing a

growing number of workers to suffer hearing loss. The agency has yet

to produce either standard, though OSHA officials say they are working

on them.

Mr. Foulke, the OSHA chief, has a history of opposing regulations

produced by the agency he now leads. He has described himself as a

" true Reagan Republican " who " firmly believes in limited

government. " Before coming to Washington last year, Mr. Foulke, a

former Republican Party state chairman in South Carolina and top

political fund-raiser, worked in Greenville, S.C., for a law firm that

advises companies on how to avoid union organizing. Representing the

United States Chamber of Commerce, he had testified before Congress

several times to promote voluntary OSHA compliance programs. He also

opposed the ergonomics standards.

And as a member in the 1990s of an independent agency that reviews

OSHA citations, he led a successful effort to weaken the agency's

enforcement authority.

Early in his tenure at OSHA, Mr. Foulke delivered a speech called

" Adults Do the Darndest Things, " which attributed many injuries to

worker carelessness. Large posters of workers' making dangerous

errors, like erecting a tall ladder close to an overhead wire, were

displayed around him.

" Kids don't always know what their parents do all day at work, but

they instinctively understand the importance of them working safely, "

he told the audience, which included children who had won a

safety-poster contest. " In contrast, adults could stand to learn a

thing or two. Looking at the posters, I was reminded of a couple

examples of safety and health bloopers that are both humorous and

horrible. "

A Pattern of Illness

Soon after Peoples began working at the Jasper popcorn plant in

1997, he was thrilled to get a promotion: from the assembly line,

which paid $6 to $7 an hour, to the mixing room, where he got more

than $11 an hour to prepare ingredients.

Ten months later, Mr. Peoples recalled in a recent interview, he came

down with a fever and chills. Doctors first said that Mr. Peoples,

then 27, had pneumonia. When he did not improve, he saw a specialist

who treated him for asthma. Still suffering from breathing problems,

Mr. Peoples was hospitalized in St. Louis. After days of testing,

doctors diagnosed bronchiolitis obliterans.

" My lung capacity had dropped to 18 percent, " Mr. Peoples said. He was

told that there was no cure for the often-fatal disease and that he

would likely need a double lung transplant to survive.

Some of his co-workers had similar health problems. A local lawyer

whose mother had fallen ill showed the medical records of several

workers to Dr. Parmet, a former T.W.A. medical director who

specializes in occupational hazards.

" It took me about 15 or 20 minutes to see there was a pattern, " said

Dr. Parmet, who in his previous two decades in medicine had seen only

three other cases of bronchiolitis obliterans. He contacted the

Missouri Department of Health, which then notified the agencies in

Washington.

The Missouri officials noted that in addition to nine sick workers

identified by Dr. Parmet, 20 to 30 current and retired workers had

similar symptoms. All had been exposed to vapors from diacetyl, a

compound found naturally in cheese, butter, milk and other foods. It

is added for the buttery taste in microwave popcorn and widely used as

a flavoring agent in other foods, like snacks and pastries.

Although Dr. Parmet's letter was the first that Washington learned of

a possible problem with diacetyl, some companies had been aware of the

health hazards. In late 1996, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers

Association heard from a company that a flavoring plant employee had

developed bronchiolitis obliterans. Three years earlier, BASF, the

German chemical maker, had found in animal studies that diacetyl

caused severe respiratory problems.

After scientists from the national occupational safety institute

visited the Jasper factory and examined the injured workers, the

agency issued a bulletin in September 2001 saying " a work-related

cause of lung disease " had occurred there. In December 2003, the

agency issued an alert to more than 4,000 businesses, with tens of

thousands of workers, that suggested safeguards.

OSHA's response was more limited. The agency sent an inspector to the

Jasper plant, but he did not test the air, saying the company's

insurers had done an environmental sampling four years earlier. He

concluded that the plant was in compliance with existing rules and

closed the case.

Sixteen months later, a lawyer for ill workers filed a complaint with

the agency. OSHA conducted a 40-minute inspection, but said it could

do nothing more because there was no safety standard that established

what level of diacetyl was acceptable. Since the first outbreak, OSHA

has inspected three food and flavoring plants for links to popcorn

worker's lung, and issued one citation, according to records provided

to public health experts at Washington University and the

United Food and Commercial Workers International Union under the

Freedom of Information Act.

Other workers have developed symptoms of the lung disease.

had worked at a Conagra microwave popcorn factory in n,

Ohio, for two years when he got sick. He was then 44, but his doctors

told him he had the lung capacity of an 80-year-old, Mr. said

in an interview. He has extreme difficulty breathing, particularly in

cold weather. " It's affected my entire life, " he said.

B. McClain, a lawyer at the Missouri firm that has represented

Mr. Peoples and Mr. , said he had tried or settled more than

100 cases involving diacetyl and other flavorings and that more than

500 were still awaiting resolution in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,

land, Missouri and Ohio.

At a two-week trial in March 2004, lawyers for the makers of diacetyl

products — International Flavors and Fragrances and its subsidiary,

Bush Boake — maintained that the additive did not cause Mr.

Peoples's illness and that, in any event, the popcorn company had

mishandled the substance. Jurors awarded Mr. Peoples $20 million. His

case, like Mr. 's, was later settled for an undisclosed

amount.

I. Sachs, a spokeswoman at International Flavors and

Fragrances, based in New York, declined to comment on the cases.

According to its latest annual report, the company has been sued by

more than 150 workers in four states.

Health experts have not raised alarms about diacetyl vapors that are

released when consumers make microwave popcorn. But they note that

there is little science on the issue, and the Environmental Protection

Agency has declined to make public the results of its studies.

There are no estimates of the costs of upgrading all plants that use

the food additive to protect workers better. Some microwave popcorn

companies, including the Gilster- Lee Corporation plant in Jasper,

have spent millions of dollars on better ventilation, respirators and

other equipment.

The Official Response

Two industry groups — the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association

and the Popcorn Board — have also become involved in resolving

workplace problems, particularly as the lawsuits have mounted. The

association has not expressed opposition to an OSHA standard; its

officials say it is working with California regulators to develop one

there.

But Hallagan, the association's general counsel, says the group

is working with OSHA to reach a voluntary compliance agreement.

" OSHA is doing the right things in addressing flavor-related health

and safety issues, " Mr. Hallagan said in a recent e-mail message.

He said the agency had met with industry and health officials and had

posted on a Web site possible health hazards associated with some

flavorings.

In September 2002, OSHA's Kansas City office entered into an alliance

with the Popcorn Board, which represents popcorn processors, to try to

address safety problems. But that arrangement soon ended.

Last July, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters petitioned OSHA for an

emergency temporary standard for diacetyl. Urging action, 42 doctors

and scientists from institutions including Harvard, Yale, the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology and s Hopkins, wrote to Ms.

Chao, who oversees OSHA.

The agency responded by saying it was preparing a safety bulletin and

would be monitoring diacetyl hazards at a few dozen popcorn plants,

but not at the thousands of other food factories that use the

additive. That has frustrated public health experts like Dr. s,

the Washington University epidemiologist.

" Here you have one federal agency, Niosh, doing a great job exploring

the science behind a problem and a second agency, OSHA, which is

supposed to be moving forward with enforcement and standard setting,

and they are not, " he said.

Ron Nixon contributed reporting.

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[Guest guest]

If the below tests out

Flu/message/6918

a new OSHA rule on workplace ventilation might be useful since we may

have a pandemic in the wings.