Monday, September 28, 2009
Deadly exposure to harmful chemicals and other fatal workplace conditions now represents the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, according to the advocacy group PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility). This problem may get worse if the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) continues to do such a poor job of inspecting job sites for exposures that result in more than 40,000 premature deaths each year from cancer, neurological disease, cardiopulmonary disease, and other serious medical conditions.
PEER claims OSHA officials now spend less than 5% of their resources on workplace health protection. In 2007, OSHA took about 53,000 samples nationwide from work sites—a number that is about a third of what the agency performed in 1988, at the end of the Reagan administration.
The environmental group also notes that the situation, so far, aris not getting any better under President Barack Obama. OSHA officials are continuing a policy that favors construction safety inspections over toxic samplings, which tend to be more time-consuming.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Workplace Exposures Rise as Osha Health Inspections Fall (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)
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