Title: CHAIR’S MESSAGE

Author:

Section/SPIG: Occupational Health and Safety

Issue Date:

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Michael Silverstein, MD
Clinical Professor
University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Campus Box 357234
Seattle, WA 98195-7234
masilver@u.washington.edu
Ph: (206) 897-1652 Fax: (206) 616-0477


As I am writing this column my desk is full of public health news demonstrating the challenge we face in trying to protect worker health. Asbestos bailout legislation is moving ahead in the U.S. Senate (more on that below), MSHA has announced an indefinite delay in rulemaking on crystalline silica, OSHA has almost abandoned rulemaking altogether, British Petroleum is blaming and firing workers for the Texas City refinery explosion that killed 15 people, and the AFL-CIO is dismantling its occupational safety and health department. And probably worst of all, abuse of science for low political purposes is running rampant at the highest levels of our federal government. Most recently it became front-page news that Phillip Cooney, a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute who was working at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, rewrote key parts of a scientific report on climate change despite the fact that he had no scientific background and obvious partisan bias. While Cooney resigned in the wake of this story, the Bush administration continues to defend his political interference as proper. Thank goodness there are organizations like the Union of Concerned Scientists tracking these abuses and keeping them in the public eye.

It is during times just like these that our Section takes on special importance as a place to share concerns and information with colleagues and to plan ways to advance a positive agenda of worker protection. I am happy to report great progress on OHS plans for the APHA Annual Meeting in New Orleans from Nov. 5 to Nov. 9. The Section’s scientific program is coming together nicely under the leadership of Program Chair Janie Gittleman. Twenty-nine safety and health sessions are listed in the preliminary program, including Moving OSH from Theory to Practice, Quantitative Methods in OSH, Occupational Respiratory Disease Surveillance, Public Health Impact of International Trade Treaties and a special session on the 35th Anniversary of the OSHAct. In addition, there will once again be multiple opportunities to interact more informally, including our awards luncheon, social hour, and dance party. And the bonus this year is New Orleans itself! Not only is the city a great place to enjoy food and music, but it is full of occupational and environmental health history. A history tour is being planned for Saturday with details to be forthcoming – make sure you are on the section listserve and watch for announcements. I urge all members of the OSH Section to attend the meeting this year.

Here are a couple of quick updates on OHS section activity:

• Following some excellent work by Mary Miller and Jonathan Bennett, APHA Executive Director Georges Benjamin sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee expressing concerns about the asbestos bailout legislation that is moving through the Senate. The bill is now out of committee and moving for a full Senate vote. We expect APHA to send another letter before the vote. Highlights of the letter follow:
o “The Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act (S.852) will, if enacted, adversely affect those who have been exposed to asbestos and are at risk of dying or becoming sick as a result. Fundamentally, the APHA believes that everyone who has been injured by asbestos exposure should be compensated for the cost of their medical care, for their loss of income, and for all other losses…Anything less than this creates an environment of inequality…
o “The bill creates a new medical standard to define asbestos-related disease, instead of relying on the professional diagnoses of physicians…the bill’s criteria seem to be suited toward administrative expediency, instead of science-based criteria such as those issued by the American Thoracic Society. Our concern is that many legitimate victims of asbestos related disease will be ineligible for compensation based on these criteria…
o “Even for those workers who successfully file a valid claim, the new rules do not provide a fair, full and expedited compensation to victims. Interestingly, the size of the trust fund is determined by the companies who will contribute to it, not by an actuarially valid projection of the cost of compensation…
o “The APHA believes there is an asbestos disease crisis in this country that needs to be treated, not an asbestos litigation crisis. ‘Solving’ the asbestos litigation crisis will do nothing to resolve the disease crisis, and may actually make it harder for victims of asbestos-related disease to recover…”

• A new resolution developed by Sherry Baron, Deborah Weinstock and Mary Miller of our Section on addressing the dangers faced by immigrant workers is moving through the process and hopefully will become official APHA policy. The resolution states the facts regarding the exceptionally high risks faced by increasing numbers of immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, and the barriers they face in obtaining decent medical care or workers’ compensation. For example, “Foreign-born workers, especially foreign-born Hispanics, have a higher occupational fatality rate compared to other workers. Between 1997 and 2001, the occupational fatality rate for all foreign-born workers was 20 percent higher than the rate for all workers, and the rate for foreign-born workers from Latin America was 40 percent highly than for all workers. The cause of this disparity is, in large part, due to the disproportionate distribution of foreign-born workers in high-risk industries, such as construction, agriculture and manufacturing. However, a recent analysis found that Hispanic construction workers (65 percent of whom are foreign born) had an 80 percent greater fatality rate compared to non-Hispanic construction workers.”

It then goes on to recommend several actions, including the following:

o Expand the policy of Region V of the Department of Labor nationally, to create initiatives in each region that permit OSHA and the Employment Standards Administration, two divisions of the U.S. Department of Labor, to collaborate with community, faith-based, and worker organizations that are trusted by immigrant communities to establish outreach centers to train workers about their rights and to identify and forward complaints without fear of identification or retaliation.

o Strengthen whistleblower and anti-retaliation provisions to protect workers who exercise job safety rights and raise job safety concerns.

o OSHA and NIOSH should enhance outreach, training and education programs for immigrant and Hispanic workers and employers to inform them of job safety rights and responsibilities, job hazards and protections. This would include a requirement from OSHA that compliance with existing hazardous training standards be interpreted to mean that employers are required to provide such training in meaningful interactive formats that include training in a language the individual understands and that follow-up measures for training effectiveness be developed and implemented. In addition, the OSHA notice of violations that is posted in the workplace should be in the language(s) spoken by the employees, as well as in English.

o Target enforcement activities among industries, employers and operations where immigrant workers are at high risk of injury or illness and strengthened OSHA criminal and civil penalties; additionally, develop a National Emphasis Program that targets record-keeping and training requirements as applied to temporary agencies and to worksites hiring day laborers.

o Urge that NIOSH expand intramural and extramural research programs to address the safety and health problems of immigrant and Hispanic workers.

o Urge the Department of Labor to continue the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) so that the public and policy makers are assured accurate information regarding migrant and seasonal farm workers.

o Encourage labor unions and other worker organizations to continue to prioritize training and outreach activities related to protecting the safety and health of immigrant workers.

• The APHA Student Assembly has developed a new scholarship program to assist public health students in attending the APHA Annual Meeting. The OHS section has contributed $300 to the fund this year, enough for one student. This is in addition to the scholarship assistance we will be providing once again for several students and union members.

• Come see the OHS Section booth this year in New Orleans. With the initiative and creativity of Kerry Souza, Janie Gittleman and others, we will be unveiling a banner identifying our Section and bringing attention to the need for worker protection. We will be able to use this banner for years to come, not only at the booth but to identify Section members and others interested in workplace safety and health at other political and scientific events.