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It’s Time for Protection Against Deadly Silica Dust
More than 300 scientists, doctors and workplace safety experts are asking President Obama to step in to speed much-needed protections against worker exposure to crystalline silica.
They signed a letter to the president today, urging him to direct the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to complete its review of a proposed rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on silica dust.
Some 1.7 million workers are exposed to crystalline silica, which kills some 200 workers each year and causes new cases of silicosis in as many as 7,300 workers, mostly in the construction field. Silicosis is incurable but preventable.
Says Leonard Serafin, a former railroad worker from California:
Every day I struggle to do activities because of my condition. I want to see that other people are protected from this dust—it’s not fair to expose people to something this dangerous when they can be protected.
OMB should have completed its review of the proposed rules within 90 days, but has delayed for nearly a year. The letter notes that OMB staff has hosted at least nine private meetings on the rules, most of which involved representatives of companies with a direct financial stake in their outcome.
Stronger worker protections from silica are a priority for the AFL-CIO, the Building and Construction Trades Department and many unions, who have been pushing for improved standards for years. This current rule has been in development for 14 years, according to a release from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Every day the rules are delayed, more workers are at risk.
Read more in this report from Huffington Post.
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3 Comments
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what in an earthquake kills more people than falling buildings?
It is dust.
In several earthquakes in Russia about a decade ago, almost one million people died of the dust from crumbled buildings and the fine earth being thrown up from land-slides and falling objects.
This message about silica is not a minor issue, there is silica dust in many, many applications of modern construction and industrial processes, including sand-blasting of motor vehicles in paint shops and in removing painted stripes and lines from streets.
The idea that this issue should be within the authority of the Office Of Management and Budget is obscene. This is a medical health issue, where is the Surgeon General’s input in this? What about OSHA ??? This is a Department of Labor component issue but not in the sole realm of the Department of Labor. This issue should be a shared campaign by several government departments and agencies PLUS Barack Obama should be addressing this issue.
The very idea that ANYONE would refer to this issue as being a costly issue is patently inhumane! Such persons do not have any justification in calling themselves a U.S. natizen, because that is the same inhumane abortion of sanity that the mining companies have used for hundreds of years — that it costs too much to provide safe working conditions for their workers! What they are saying is that it is okay to kill some of their workers because the alternative costs them money!
Preventable? Positively. In sand blasting, I have found, as has many others, that including a small amout of water to the spray knocks the dust out of the equation. It’s not all that hard to do and this minor increase in the cost of operation could drastically reduce the danger of silica dust. If the contractors are too cheap to protect their workers then OSHA and/or the unions should have the athority to force this in the workplace.
no one gives a shit about the worker bees. so many of us are expendable.