SAFETYLEX

SAFETY & HEALTH RIGHTS: 95TH ANNIVERSARY OF TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE

March 25 marked the ninety-fifth anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire that killed 146 workers and led to the development of building codes and workplace safety and health laws throughout the country.  (See Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations website regarding the Triangle fire here and National Public Radio's archived audio program here).  Katherine Weber contributed an op-ed piece in the New York Times remembering those victims.  She also notes that such tragedies continue to occur in the world and are intimately related to our economy today.  She writes:

Various lists of those who died 95 years ago today — 140 named victims plus six who were never identified (were some of those charred remains children?) — include one 11-year-old, two 14-year-olds, three 15-year-olds, 16 16- year-olds, and 14 17-year-olds. Were the ages of workers, living and dead, modified to finesse the habitual violation of child labor laws in 1911? ... And now 1911 is almost beyond living memory. But we will also never know how many children were among the dead on May 10, 1993, in Thailand when the factory of the Kader Industrial Toy Company (a supplier to Hasbro and Fisher-Price) went up in flames ... We will never know with any certainty how many children died on Nov. 25, 2000, in a fire at the Chowdhury Knitwear and Garment factory near Dhaka, Bangladesh (most of the garments made in Bangladesh are contracted by American retailers, including Wal-Mart and the Gap), where at least 10 of the 52 trapped in the flames by locked doors and windows were 10 to 14 years old ... There may never be another tragic factory fire in America that takes the lives of children. ... But as long as we don't question the source of the inexpensive clothing we wear, as long as we don't wonder about the children in those third world factories who make the inexpensive toys we buy for our own children, those fires will occur and young girls and boys will continue to die. They won't die because of natural catastrophes like monsoons and earthquakes; they will die because it has become our national habit to outsource, and these days we outsource our tragedies, too.

See also Mary Turck's article on the Common Dreams website for further commentary.

TORT LAW & LEGAL NEWS: LEAD PAINT, TOBACCO, AND POLLUTED WATERS LAWSUITS

Earlier this month, a California appellate court reinstated a class-action lawsuit against lead paint manufacturers.  The plaintiffs', a coalition of cities, counties and school districts, allege that the manufacturers continued to sell lead paint for decades despite their knowledge of the product's potential to harm children.  Plaintiffs seek compensation for the costs of the paint's removal and for the costs of community education and outreach, environmental inspection and testing, and treatment to persons harmed by exposure. (See decision of the California Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District here).

In Chicago, plaintiffs filed suit against Exelon Corp. for failing to maintain a pipeline at the Braidwood Station nuclear power plant.  Exelon has admitted several leaks of Tritium at the plant.  The citizens' lawsuit alleges that the leaks polluted area groundwater and the suit seeks compensation for the costs of bottled water, medical testing, and for property damage.   

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined without comment to review a punitive damages award against Philip Morris in the matters of Philip Morris USA v. Boeken and Boeken v. Philip Morris Inc.  In 2001, a California jury awarded $3 billion in punitive damages against the tobacco company.  On appeal, the award was reduced to $50 million.

SAFETY & HEALTH NEWS: DISPUTED SCIENCE

The International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health recently published a special issue (Vol. 11, No. 4) on the manipulation of scientific research to support commercial interests.  Guest editors David S. Egilman and Susanna Rankin Bohme write:

Although occupational and environmental diseases are often viewed as isolated and unique failures of science, the government, or industry to protect the best interest of the public, they are in fact an outcome of a pervasive system of corporate priority setting, decision making, and influence. This system produces disease because political, economic, regulatory and ideological norms prioritize values of wealth and profit over human health and environmental well-being. Science is a key part of this system; there is a substantial tradition of manipulation of evidence, data, and analysis, ultimately designed to maintain favorable conditions for industry at both material and ideological levels. This issue offers examples of how corporations influence science, shows the effects that influence has on environmental and occupational health, and provides evidence of a systemic problem.

The issue includes the following articles: Corporate Corruption of Science; Maximizing Profit, Endangering Health; Industry Funding on Health Nonprofits; Business Bias: Epidemiology May Fail; Epidemiology Abuse: Auto Makers vs Asbestos Liability; and Keeping a Toxic Product on the Market. (See also Public Citizen's report on John Graham and the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis.  An institute that OMB Watch describes as "headquartered in the Harvard School for Public Health .... with a habit of taking large industry grants and producing industry-friendly studies").

Evidence of industry manipulation of safety and health science is not hard to find.  Late last year the Environmental Working Group (EWG) reported on industry efforts to hire consulting scientists to author journal articles distorting the conclusions of a previous study that linked hexavalent chromium to stomach cancer. 

The Confined Space blog points to a recent report in Environmental Health (EH) regarding the chromium industry’s withholding data regarding health risks related to exposure to low levels of the metal.  At the same time, the industry stridently lobbied to block stricter standards limiting exposure to chromium in the workplace.  When OSHA released its new court-ordered standard for hexavalent chromium, the agency increased the permissible exposure limits to five times above the level originally proposed.   (See EWG's report Chrome-plated Fraud: How PG&E's Scientists-for-Hire Reversed Findings of a Cancer Study here; EH's article Selected science: an industry campaign to undermine an OSHA hexavalent chromium standard here, and Confined Space entries here and here). 

See related editorial cartoon from Gary Trudeau on March 5 here and Lyle Lahey's here.

SAFETY & HEALTH NEWS: WEBTROLLING

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work recently released its report, Expert Forecasting on Emerging Physical Risks related to Occupational Safety and Health.  Many of the reports findings are transferable to work environments in North America. Among other areas, the report's experts identify the following areas of concerns:

Lack of physical activity, which is the risk the experts agree on the most as being emerging, is to some extent the result of poor work organisation and harms the physical health of workers.

High-risk worker groups, such as workers with a low employment status, are the subject of fewer awareness-raising measures for physical risks and are more vulnerable, for instance to thermal risks.

Call centres are multiplying and bring with them new types of workplaces with multiple risk factors: inadequate headsets not filtering acoustic shocks, poor ergonomic design of the workplace, poor work organisation and high mental and emotional demands.

Unfavourable psychosocial aspects of the working environment are perceived as emerging risks increasing the incidence of MSDs.

Conversely, the experts recognise that the physical characteristics of workplaces, such as poor ergonomic design of the human-machine interface, augment workers’ mental and emotional strain and therefore the risk of accidents at work.

Daily-life aspects which enhance the effects of occupational exposure and affect workers’ health are also emphasised, such as the increase in UV exposure during leisure time augmenting the sensitivity to occupational UV exposure.

But also, combined exposure to longstanding physical factors such as vibration, awkward postures and heavy physical work is put forward.

The February issue of the Injury Prevention journal contains a guest editorial titled Building Safer Environments: Injury, Safety, and Our Surroundings. The author notes:

In response to the burden of injury, an array of countermeasures which focus on prevention of injury and the promotion of safety has been developed ... There is a growing body of literature that examines the influence of built environment ... on health outcomes ... Despite an increased understanding of the relation between health and the build environment and these health outcomes, scant attention is paid to the health outcome that could be achieved if safety/injury prevention was a leading priority in the design of the built environment.   

At the 7th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in June 2004, delegates voted to explore the creation of an International Society for Violence and Injury Prevention.  The World Health Organization's website provides information regarding creation of the organization and the Society has also formed a website providing additional information.  Nominations for members of the initial Board of Directors are being accepted through March 20.   

We were recently introduced to a website service of the AFL-CIO.  At its Working America - Job Tracker portal, individuals can search a national database of companies to find out "which companies in your area are ... endangering workers health."  The site can be searched by zip code, state, or company name and retrieves information regarding OSHA citations and reported injuries and fatalities. 

Earlier this year, the United Kingdom's Health and Safety Commission recommended that corporate directors and senior managers should be subject to explicit duties with respect to employee's safety and health.  The Commission found that there "should be more authoritative guidance, more enforcement, greater penalties and more use of director disqualifications."  TUC's national safety and health officer, Dave Joyce states:

Currently, the law doesn't impose any positive health and safety obligations on directors or senior managers. It's crucial that the Government implements the HSC recommendation which will have a big impact on influencing and motivating the conduct of directors. Company directors control companies, they decide what companies can and cannot do, and it's their conduct and decision making that ultimately determines whether or not a company operates safely and criminal sanctions should be directed at the criminal conduct of company directors and managers because a fundamental concern about the current law is that it allows culpable senior company officials to escape prosecution for manslaughter and other serious criminal health and safety offenses.  (See here for full article from the Communications Workers Union).

SAFETY & HEALTH RIGHTS: MASSACRE SUVIVORS FILE SUIT AGAINST CHEVRON

Last month, the survivors of a massacre by Nigerian soldiers and police filed suit against the Chevron Corp. in the United States District Court in San Francisco.  The suit alleges that the corporation's subsidiary paid, housed, and otherwise supported the Nigerian soldiers and police operating in the area and that Chevron security personnel directly participated in the massacre. (See plaintiffs' Complaint here).  Lead attorney, Stephen M. Garcia states:

What Americans have to understand is that these massacres of Nigerian men, women and children by Nigerian soldiers and police who are paid and supported by Chevron are not aberrations but standard operating procedure in the Niger Delta.

SAFETY & HEALTH RIGHTS: EXXON MAY BE LIABLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

Last week, U.S. Judge Louis Oberdorger ruled that a lawsuit on behalf of Indonesian villagers against the multinational oil firm Exxon Mobil Corp. could proceed in the Washington, D.C. district court.  The lawsuit was filed in 2001 by the International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of eleven villagers from Aceh, Indonesia. (See plaintiff's complaint here). The defendant subsequently moved to dismiss plaintiffs' claims.  The suit alleges that Exxon Mobil hired Indonesian army personnel to guard the company’s pipeline and facilities and that the soldiers tortured, killed, and engaged in a range of human rights abuses against local villagers while guarding the company’s property.  Judge Oberdorger rejected defendant's arguments and found that “[u]ultimately, the United States … has an overarching, vital interest in the safety, prosperity, and consequences of the behavior of its citizens, particularly super-corporations conducting business in one or more foreign countries.” (See Judge's order here).  The San Jose Mercury News reports that Exxon Mobil Corp. intends to appeal the ruling.

TORT LAW & LEGAL NEWS: PRODUCT LIABILITY LAW AND METHAMPHETAMINES

In an editorial in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Mike Hatch discusses a multifaceted approach to fight illegal methamphetamine production and use.  Hatch notes the potential for product liability law to contribute to efforts to curb meth production.  He writes:

Minnesota, like all other states, imposes liability on manufacturers of unreasonably dangerous products regardless of whether the products are legal. If the design of a legal product is defective and thereby poses an unreasonable risk of harm to consumers or third parties affected by the product, the manufacturer is liable for the damages the product causes. In deciding whether a product is defective, courts look to factors such as the availability of safer alternative designs and the overall utility of the product in comparison to its risks.  The manufacturers of pseudo-ephedrine/ephedrine products knew for years there was a safer design for their cold tablets made from phenylephrine. Unlike pseudoephedrine/ephedrine, phen-ylephrine cannot be converted into meth. The manufacturers have been selling this alternative product in Europe for years. Pfizer finally just released such a safer product in the United States. Minnesota law clearly authorizes the state to sue these manufacturers for selling a defective product when they knew a safer alternative was available.  During the time the meth epidemic was spreading, these manufacturers desperately fought efforts to regulate the sale of their products when they knew how their products were being used to make meth.

Mike Hatch is the attorney general of the State of Minnesota and a candidate for governor. 

In an article from February 27, Lawyers Weekly overviews existing suits against cold medicine manufacturers relating to the use of their products in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine. To date, suits have been brought by the widow of an Oklahoma state trooper killed in the line of duty by a methamphetamine abuser and by a town in Alabama.  The Oklahoma suit claims

that prior to the spring of 2004 ... addicts in Oklahoma could easily buy large quantities of pseudoephedrine cold tablets at local stores and use them to produce meth. A significant part of [the defendants'] cold medicine sales and profits are generated directly from drug addicts and street dealers seeking to buy large quantities of pseudoephedrine medicines to be easily converted into illegal meth.

The Alabama suit alleges that pharmaceutical companies created a public nuisance through the sale of their products and thereby "created a major drug problem in the community."

TORT LAW & LEGAL NEWS: FORUM SHOPPING DEFENDANTS

In EHCA Cartersville, LLC v. Turner, the Supreme Court of Georgia found as unconstitutional a venue provision of recent legislation restricting citizen's safety and health rights.  The Georgia state constitution provides that in suits against multiple defendants, venue is proper in any county where one of the defendants reside.  The legislative provision however allowed a co-defendant to have a case transferred to any county where the injury was inflicted and where that defendant resides.  In finding the legislation unconstitutional, the court noted:

The defendants correctly contend that [the state constitution] authorizes the General Assembly to enact laws that permit the superior and state courts to exercise the power to change venue. The defendants, however, incorrectly contend that [the recent legislation] is a proper exercise of that authority.  [The state constitution] vests the power to change venue in the courts, whereas [the recent legislation] vests the power, not in the courts, but in nonresident defendants who reside in the county where the tort occurred. Such a defendant may require a court to transfer venue by simply filing a motion to transfer, thus divesting the courts of any power over the decision to change venue.

SAFETY NEWS: PREPLANNING FOR SAFETY IN CONSTRUCTION

In past months, the Hazard Information Foundation, Inc. (HIFI) published its second research report relating to hazards in the construction industry.  The report, Inherently Safe Design  for Construction, provides a detailed overview of safety engineering principles applied to construction projects.  The authors include informative discussion, charts, and real-world examples illustrate how to integrate safety precautions throughout the project. The report’s abstract states:

This research study of Inherently Safe Design Principles for Construction serves as a preliminary study to provide architects, their design engineers, and the construction management engineers an easy methodology to identify hazards that are likely to arise in the erection process and provide reasonable design features to preclude potential peril inthe design phase. The study provides practical information to construction equipment design engineers to assist them in identifying inherent hazards of equipment used in construction. It offers practical principles that can be applied to control additional construction hazards found on the building site, in structural components, and from materials, processes, and procedures employed during construction. This study is a guide for developing the skills of engineers to control many kinds of hazards at the time of design or before the workers arrive at the work site to achieve optimal safety throughout the construction process and the life of the facility.

The report is available here. An earlier HIFI report, Safety Interventions to Control Hazards Related to Powerline Contacts by Mobile Cranes and Other Boomed Equipment, is available here.