NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | April 15, 2016 | PAGE 3
Over 10K severe worker injuries reported
in first year of new OSHA requirement
IN BRICKLAYERS LOCAL 1
Journeyman pointer-caulker-cleaner Mark Roddy, left, works with an
apprentice to rebuild a wall outside the Oregon AFL-CIO office.
Silicosis hits home
Journeyman bricklayer Mark
Roddy was having trouble
breathing. Common colds
would linger, and lead to
wheezing. Last July, when a
cold worsened into what ap-
peared to be pneumonia and
bronchitis, he went to the
hospital in Newport, Oregon,
at his wife’s insistence. A
chest X-ray showed some-
thing worse: silicosis.
Silicosis — the world’s
oldest known occupational
disease — is caused by
breathing in crystalline silica
particles from grinding, cut-
ting or drilling rock, brick, or
cement. The microscopic par-
ticles are as sharp as glass,
and cause scarring in lung tis-
sue. The most common ver-
sion of the disease can take
10 to 30 years to develop.
Roddy, 58, has worked 38
years on the “restoration”
side of the bricklayer trade as
a pointer/caulker/cleaner.
“Pointer-caulker-cleaners
are the ones that eat more
dirt,” Roddy says. “In the
restoration world, you cut out
a lot of mortar joints, and you
wear a respirator, but you’re
always in a cloud of dust.”
Today, Roddy teaches his
trade full-time at Angell Job
Corps Center in Yachats —
and he spent 13 years teach-
ing apprentices in Bricklayers
Local 1 at its Portland Joint
Apprenticeship Training
Center. How to avoid breath-
ing in silica dust is a big part
of the training, so Roddy
teaches students to use vac-
uum attachments on grinders,
and water hoses attached to
saws that are used to cut con-
crete blocks. But it wasn’t al-
ways that way.
“When I started in 1978,
we were cutting concrete
blocks dry with a paper mask
at best, and you turned the
saw whichever way the wind
was blowing,” Roddy said.
And there were jobs where
even a respirator wasn’t
enough.
“I relined lime kilns,”
Roddy says. “Bricklayers
will all know what I’m talk-
ing about. It’s called refrac-
tory work. It’s horrible work.
You’re in a 14-foot tube, 100
feet long, relining it with a
couple layers of high-strength
ceramic. You’re in there with
a jackhammer for 12-hour
shifts, in bad air. I wore res-
pirators, but I was in such
high concentrations of dust,
that even if you’re in a respi-
rator, you’re still getting
dosed pretty bad.”
Roddy thinks all that took
a toll. So far, he says, his sili-
cosis appears to be a mild
case. He’s an avid mountain-
climber, skier, kayaker, and
motorcyclist, and says he’s
not ready to give that up. But
his condition is also irre-
versible and has no cure.
“My lungs are compro-
mised, and I know it. I feel it.
I’m going to have to seek
more medical attention. And
it’s not going to go away.”
Roddy says if he has one
message for his fellow con-
struction workers, it’s this:
Take dust seriously.
“I have silicosis from a
very dust-filled career, but I
wore a respirator, and I was
conscious of it. I was not
somebody that just put a ban-
danna over my face.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the
first year of a new reporting re-
quirement, employers notified
the U.S. Department of Labor’s
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) of
more than 10,000 severe work-
related injuries. Another 5,000
or more severe injuries likely
went unreported.
Starting Jan. 1, 2015, em-
ployers are required to report
any severe work-related in-
jury—defined as a hospitaliza-
tion, amputation or loss of an
eye—within 24 hours.
In the first full year of the
program, employers reported
10,388 severe injuries, including
7,636 hospitalizations and 2,644
amputations. The reports were
from federal OSHA states only
and did not include injuries from
states that administer their own
safety programs, such as Ore-
gon.
OSHA said the number of se-
vere injury cases likely is higher
than 10,388—possibly 50 per-
cent higher—because many
small employers didn’t report
accidents. The federal agency
came to that conclusion after
looking at injury claim numbers
provided by state workers’ com-
pensation programs.
OSHA said in many instances
small and mid-sized employers
simply were unaware of the new
requirements. In other cases,
employers chose not to report
because they perceived the cost
of not reporting to be low. The
penalty for not reporting a se-
vere injury was $1,000. [OSHA
recently increased the fine for
not reporting a severe injury to
as much as $7,000.]
Federal OSHA found that
most of the reported hazards that
led to severe injuries were easily
prevented. In most cases, em-
Turn to Page 7
Retired Bakers union member walks to defeat melanoma
Robin Zimmerman, a retired 36-
year member of Bakers Local
114, is looking for sponsors as
he walks to help find a cure for
melanoma.
The AIM at Melanoma Foun-
dation is holding a 5k walk and
fun run Saturday, May 21, start-
ing and finishing at the Collabo-
rative Life Sciences Building,
2730 S.W. Moody Avenue, on
the South Waterfront in Portland.
The event will take participants
across the new Tilikum Crossing
over the Willamette River.
Monies raised will go toward re-
search to find a cure for
melanoma.
Zimmerman, a melanoma
survivor, lost his wife in 2008 af-
ter a four year battle with the dis-
ease. “We are working to bring
together those affected by mela-
noma to improve awareness,
prevention, and help move re-
search forward,” he said.
The walk and fun run is in
conjunction with the War on
Skin Cancer Screening and Re-
search Expo the same day. Ore-
gon has the fifth highest occur-
rence of melanoma in the nation
If a defective product
causes your work
injury you may be
able to sue the
manufacturer for
damages in a
products liability claim.
at 29.6 cases per 100,000 resi-
dents. Washington ranks 8th at
27.5 per 100,000, according to
the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
At the expo, dermatologists
will be on hand to offer free skin
checks and provide information
on how to monitor your own
skin, and to offer advise on the
best sunscreens to use.
To donate to Zimmerman or
to learn more about melanoma,
go to:
https://walk.aimatmelanoma.org
/Portland2016/robinzimmerman