HEALTH & SAFETY

Vol. 8, No. 2
April, 1999



	HEALTH & SAFETY Serious Hazards from Untested Chemicals Nearly three-quarters of the top-volume chemicals in commercial use in the United States have not undergone scientific tests for their toxic effects on workers at their job sites, according to a 1997 report by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The EDF report says that 71 percent of the 75,857 chemical substances in commercial use in the United States as of October 1996 lack minimal information about their toxicity. These chemicals, sold in the U.S. in quantities of more than one million pounds per year, include many substances that we are likely to work with, to breathe or drink, that can build up in our bodies, that are in consumer products, and that we know are being released from industrial facilities into our air and water. The federal Toxic Substances Control Act has been ineffective. The law's regulatory efforts are open to endless legal challenges from chemical manufacturers. Meanwhile, a flood of new drugs continues to hit the commercial market with names that are meaningless to the average person. To make matters worse, corporate lobbyists have managed to get Congress to restrict OSHA's budget and weaken its effectiveness. OSHA has been limited to a staff of 2,140 (nearly 300 fewer than it had in 1975). Thus, it would take 75 years for inspectors to visit each of six million private-sector worksites just once! OSHA to Draft New Ergonomics Plan Ever since the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was passed in 1970, major business groups have fought consistently to limit its budget and oppose its regulations. In 1997, more than six million workers suffered on-the-job injuries and illnesses, nearly half of them resulting in lost time from work. At least 600,000 are injured or crippled each year as a result of ergonomic hazards in the workplace that affect their wrists, back, eyes, ears and other parts of their bodies. OSHA is proposing a new set of ergonomic standards this year that would require employers to take their employees' safety and health into consideration when planning their production operations. OSHA proposed a draft ergonomics rule in 1995 but was forced to withdraw it, under pressure from major corporations and the Clinton Administration. Aware of the power that business groups can exert over members of Congress through campaign contributions, OSHA's administrator, Charles N. Jeffries, is moving cautiously, saying that his latest draft version on ergonomic change will be analyzed soon for its economic impact and technological feasibility, after which it will be made public, hopefully by the end of this year. Jeffries said that one of his priorities for the 106th Congress was to increase protections for workers who complain of safety and health hazards and are later fired or otherwise abused by their employers. He said: "Clearly, the whistleblower improvements will be the highest priority. It's something that in the past five years, Democrats and Republicans have supported in slightly different versions." Business groups have already begun their counterattack by sponsoring studies that question the physiological and economic data on which OSHA bases its proposals.

HEALTH & SAFETY

Serious Hazards from Untested Chemicals

Nearly three-quarters of the top-volume chemicals in commercial use in the United States have not undergone scientific tests for their toxic effects on workers at their job sites, according to a 1997 report by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The EDF report says that 71 percent of the 75,857 chemical substances in commercial use in the United States as of October 1996 lack minimal information about their toxicity.

These chemicals, sold in the U.S. in quantities of more than one million pounds per year, include many substances that we are likely to work with, to breathe or drink, that can build up in our bodies, that are in consumer products, and that we know are being released from industrial facilities into our air and water.

The federal Toxic Substances Control Act has been ineffective. The law's regulatory efforts are open to endless legal challenges from chemical manufacturers. Meanwhile, a flood of new drugs continues to hit the commercial market with names that are meaningless to the average person.

To make matters worse, corporate lobbyists have managed to get Congress to restrict OSHA's budget and weaken its effectiveness. OSHA has been limited to a staff of 2,140 (nearly 300 fewer than it had in 1975). Thus, it would take 75 years for inspectors to visit each of six million private-sector worksites just once!

OSHA to Draft New Ergonomics Plan

Ever since the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was passed in 1970, major business groups have fought consistently to limit its budget and oppose its regulations.

In 1997, more than six million workers suffered on-the-job injuries and illnesses, nearly half of them resulting in lost time from work. At least 600,000 are injured or crippled each year as a result of ergonomic hazards in the workplace that affect their wrists, back, eyes, ears and other parts of their bodies. OSHA is proposing a new set of ergonomic standards this year that would require employers to take their employees' safety and health into consideration when planning their production operations. OSHA proposed a draft ergonomics rule in 1995 but was forced to withdraw it, under pressure from major corporations and the Clinton Administration.

Aware of the power that business groups can exert over members of Congress through campaign contributions, OSHA's administrator, Charles N. Jeffries, is moving cautiously, saying that his latest draft version on ergonomic change will be analyzed soon for its economic impact and technological feasibility, after which it will be made public, hopefully by the end of this year.

Jeffries said that one of his priorities for the 106th Congress was to increase protections for workers who complain of safety and health hazards and are later fired or otherwise abused by their employers. He said: "Clearly, the whistleblower improvements will be the highest priority. It's something that in the past five years, Democrats and Republicans have supported in slightly different versions."

Business groups have already begun their counterattack by sponsoring studies that question the physiological and economic data on which OSHA bases its proposals.

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