Hearing on Suspension of Occupational Safety and Health Regulations After Disast

[Guest guest]

http://www.nycosh.org/UPDATE/printableArticle.php?articleid=538 August

5, 2006 NYCOSH UPDATE Health and Safety News August 1, 2006

Democrats in Congress Call for Hearing on Suspension of Occupational Safety

and Health Regulations After Disasters

Eight Democratic members of the House Committee on Education and the

Workforce have asked the committee’s Republican chairman to convene

Congressional

hearings concerning a Bush administration practice of suspending enforcement of

worker safety laws in places affected by major disasters.

After the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001 and

again after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year, the Occupational Safety and

Health Administration suspended enforcement of worker safety laws in the

affected areas. The lawmakers asked for the hearings to determine whether this

OSHA

practice has in fact become policy for the Bush administration and to

determine what implications the practice could have for the safety and health

of

workers involved in rescue and recovery during and after major disasters.

The lawmakers said that reports of subsequent illness, disability and death

among rescue and recovery workers show the serious need for Congress to

conduct oversight hearings.

" It appears that OSHA’s decision to forestall any safety enforcement and

limit itself to providing only advice and technical assistance at Ground Zero

was a major factor in the failure to safeguard thousands of workers at the

site, " the lawmakers wrote in their letter to committee Chair Buck McKeon

(R-CA).

" In light of the fact that OSHA repeated its decision to halt enforcement of

safety rules in the aftermath of another national disaster, Hurricanes

Katrina and Rita, immediate Congressional oversight is critical.

" Although OSHA’s website lauds the fact that no workers were killed on-site

during the World Trade Center rescue and recovery operations, " continues the

letter, " some 60 Ground Zero workers have since died from respiratory

diseases, including rare and fatal lung scarring associated with exposure to

asbestos, lead, and other dangerous toxins. Last month, a New Jersey coroner

cited

" 9/11 dust " as the cause of death of a 34 year-old police detective who was at

the World Trade Center during the bombing and worked at the Ground Zero site

for some 500 hours afterwards with only a paper mask as protection.

" Countless other emergency responders have been forced to retire on

disability since working at the World Trade Center site. Some 300 first

responders

who worked at Ground Zero have contracted certain blood-cell cancers, including

leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s and myeloma, linked to exposure to toxic

benzene found in jet fuel. More alarming still is that physicians at New York

City’

s Mount Sinai Hospital, based on their medical screenings of a sample of

16,000 Ground Zero workers, predict that rates of cancers and lethal pulmonary

disease among these workers will increase exponentially in the coming months

and years, and are generally anticipated to far exceed rates among the general

public. "

The eight Democrats who signed the letter to McKeon are (CA)

and Major Owens (NY); Payne (NJ); s (NJ); Lynn Woolsey

(CA); Carolyn McCarthy (NY); Dennis Kucinich (OH); and Bishop (NY).

The complete text of the representatives’ letter requesting a hearing is at

_http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/pdf/mckeonletter7506.pdf_

(http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/pdf/mckeonletter7506.pdf)

-- From the August 1, 2006 NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health

http://www.nycosh.org

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