Northwest labor press., April 18, 2014, Page 12, Image 12

The Most
DANGEROUS
Jobs in America
1
Logging Workers
Fatal injury rate:
127.8 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 62
2
Fishing Workers
Fatal injury rate:
117 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 32
3
Aircraft Pilots/Flight Engineers
Fatal injury rate:
53.4 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 71
4
Roofers
Fatal injury rate:
40.5 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 70
5
Structural Iron and Steel Workers
Fatal injury rate:
37 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 22
6
Refuse and Recyclable
Material Collectors
Fatal injury rate:
27.1 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 26
7
Electrical Power Line
Installers/Repairers
Fatal injury rate:
23 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 26
8
Drivers/Sales
Including Truck Operators
Fatal injury rate:
21.1 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 741
9
Farmers and Ranchers
Fatal injury rate:
21.3 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 216
10
Construction Laborers
Fatal injury rate:
17.4 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 210
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics/Data for 2012; The fatal injury
rate is the number of deaths per year,
per 100,000 full time equivalent workers.
PAGE 12
Silica rule: just a few more months, maybe
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
An OSHA rule protecting workers
exposed to silica dust may be nearing
the finish line — after as much as 40
years of politically-motivated delay.
Silica dust is an on-the-job hazard
for over 2 million American workers,
particularly construction and shipyard
workers, mineworkers and industrial
workers. When they cut, saw, drill,
chip, bore, blast or crush concrete,
brick, or stone — or use sand in appli-
cations like sandblasting, glassmaking
and foundry work — they’re exposed
to microscopic crystalline silica parti-
cles 100 times smaller than ordinary
sand. Inhaled over time, these particles
can cause crippling and fatal lung dis-
eases like silicosis, pulmonary tubercu-
losis, chronic bronchitis, emphysema,
and lung cancer.
In 1971, the newly formed Occupa-
tional Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) set an exposure limit for silica
dust, but as early as 1974, industrial hy-
gienists realized the rule didn’t go far
enough to protect workers. Decades
have passed since then, with no im-
provement in the OSHA regulation.
States like California and New Jersey
moved ahead with their own regula-
tions, requiring employers to use water
or ventilation to keep down the dust, or
where that’s not feasible, personal pro-
tective equipment like respirators to
keep workers from inhaling it.
The Obama Administration declared
a similar OSHA rule on silica to be one
Exposed workers are dying from
lung diseases, but business groups
howl at the expense of prevention
of its regulatory priorities — back in
2009. But it took OSHA until 2011 to
put together a “draft silica proposed
standard.” Then the rule was held up for
“review” by the White House — for
two-and-a-half years.
Worker advocates grew impatient.
National AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka — a former mineworkers offi-
cial — denounced the Administration
for the “inexcusable and heartless” de-
lay. Labor allies in Congress demanded
action.
Finally, the White House completed
its review, and on Aug. 23, 2013,
OSHA released the proposed rule.
The proposed rule would set a lower
limit for exposure to microscopic crys-
talline silica. Employers in industries
where workers are exposed would be
required to monitor air and use effec-
tive measures to reduce exposure —
like wetting down the area to reduce
dust, or using a vacuum, or enclosing
the area. If none of those methods are
practical, they’d have to provide respi-
rators or other protective gear. They’d
also be responsible for providing peri-
odic medical checkups to test for expo-
sure, and for training workers on how
to reduce risk.
OSHA estimates the proposed rule
will save nearly 700 lives a year, and
prevent 1,600 new cases of silicosis an-
nually.
Trumka urged the Obama Adminis-
tration to move the rule forward with-
out delay. “To protect the health and
lives of American workers,” Trumka
said, “the final silica rule should be is-
sued as fast as humanly possible.”
OSHA announced a 90-day period
for the public to submit written com-
ments. That wasn’t enough time, said a
group of Republican U.S. senators, led
by Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. So
OSHA extended the period an addi-
tional 47 days, then another 15 days.
In all that time, about 1,600 written
comments were received — many of
them identical and part of mass letter
campaigns for and against the rule.
Labor unions from AFSCME to
Teamsters, to Operating Engineers, La-
borers and Roofers supported the rule,
and so did medical and scientific re-
searchers.
Businesses and business groups
wrote in by the hundreds. Representa-
tives of a few businesses, like Dow
Chemical, wrote in with constructive
suggestions. Most, like the executives
of the nonunion Esco foundry in Port-
land, argued that compliance will be
unfeasible, burdensome and expensive,
or that there’s not enough scientific ev-
idence to justify it (after 40 years of
study!)
“This new rule could prove to be
burdensome enough to financially crip-
ple all businesses found in the con-
struction sector,” said Michael John-
ston, executive director of standards
and safety at the National Electrical
Contractors Association (NECA).
[OSHA estimates the rule will cover
an estimated 1.85 million construction
workers in 477,000 establishments, and
that compliance will cost $495 million
a year, or about $1,037 per employer.
The rule would also cover about
320,000 industrial and maritime work-
ers in 57,000 establishments, at a total
cost to employers of about $169 mil-
lion.]
Near the end of the comment period,
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote
in to say that — given that it took
OSHA over a decade to develop the
rule and the White House two and a
half years to review it — the comment
period ought to be extended some
more, and the hearings postponed, and
held around the country.
OSHA declined to take the Cham-
ber up on the suggestion.
The agency closed public comment,
held hearings from March 18 to April
4, 2014, and announced that hearing
participants will have an opportunity to
submit additional evidence and com-
ments through June 3, and final briefs,
arguments, and summations by July 18.
Then, at long last, OSHA will make
a determination whether to proceed
with the final rule.
Letter Carriers Food
Drive is May 10
Letter carriers in the Portland met-
ropolitan area and in Clark County,
Washington will help “Stamp Out
Hunger” on Saturday, May 10, part of
the 22nd annual National Association
of Letter Carriers and U.S. Postal Serv-
ice Food Drive.
Prior to May 10, plastic bags will be
delivered to every household, along
with a postcard reminder. All you have
to do is fill the bag with nonperishable
food items such as canned meat, fish
and soup, cereals, pasta and rice, and
leave it at your mailbox on the morn-
ing of Saturday, May 10. (Please do not
include glass items, homemade items
or previously opened containers.)
Letter Carriers will collect the bags
and deliver them to drop points, where
volunteers will sort the donations and
forward them to the Oregon Food
Bank. Food collected in Clark County
will benefit Clark County hunger-relief
agencies.
The Food Drive raises more than 1.5
million pounds of food each year for
the Oregon Food Bank. It is the largest
one-day food collection of the year in
Oregon — and across the nation.
According to the Oregon Food
Bank, an estimated 240,000 people get
meals from emergency food boxes in
an average month.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
APRIL 18, 2014