Get OSHA to the Gulf

[KT2000]

Will you join me in contacting senators, congress people and anyone you can think of to get OSHA to the Gulf right away to assure the workers are trained and properly protected?

BP says the workers are getting sick from food poisoning and heat stroke - BS!

They need our help and support.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

1. K & R

[sandnsea]

2. OSHA Oil Spill Response Page

They're there, they've been there.

http://www.osha.gov/oilspills/index.html

[KT2000]

3. Thanks - but

they need to step it up then.
The workers I see on tv are not in protective gear. BP is already denigrating the sick.

They need at least a couple hundred OSHA personnel - on site.

[chill_wind]

4. 15 to 20 personnel....

"15 to 20 OSHA safety and health professionals are deployed around the gulf coast to monitor BP's safety operations."

After almost 5 weeks...

'On May 25th, OSHA began taking samples to evaluate worker exposures. These samples will be posted on this webpage as results are available.'

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. Then where is the Hazmat gear and the directive (via EPA) to stop trying to hide the oil w/ Corexit?

[nashville_brook]

8. below for a list of 5 real actions they can take in addition to having a webpage.

see post #7

[chill_wind]

5. K & R. n/t

[nashville_brook]

7. NRDC (national resources defense council) is calling for 5 specific OSHA and DOL actions...

(b/c these things aren't being done already...)

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ahuang/dol_and_osha_must_protect_work.html

In light of these health threats to workers, NRDC and local community groups in the Gulf Coast are demanding by letter that the DOL, OSHA, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH):

-- DOL strongly enforce OSHA’s Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response standards requiring personal protective equipment, including respirators as required under Respiratory Protection standards, against BP;
-- DOL/OSHA work with NIEHS to provide medical surveillance for workers;
-- DOL/OSHA publicly release any data that is available on worker exposures;
-- The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) immediately initiate a Health Hazard Evaluation to investigate gulf oil spill worker health concerns; and
-- DOL work with EPA and the Coast Guard to obtain independent air monitoring in places where workers and fisherman could come into contact with oil or may be exposed to fumes from the oil.



Now is the time for swift action to protect these workers and fishermen, before we repeat some of the well-documented physical and mental health issues that affected workers in previous oil disasters.

[KT2000]

9. That is more like it

What has happened with OSHA?
Are they another result of the bush admin. gutting the agencies so they are ineffective?

[chill_wind]

11. Thank you so much, nashvillie_brook

for that awareness and information.

[nashville_brook]

12. you're very welcome!!

my pleasure -- :evilgrin:

[chill_wind]

10. Think about this: Regional OSHA Admin had air quality sampling but wouldn't publish it

because "it was BP's data." And it appears they were relying on it until up to May 25, which is when (according to their own website) they said they began obtaining their own samples?-- weeks and weeks later.

The company also hasn't publicly released air sampling for oil spill workers although Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency in charge of monitoring compliance with worker safety regulations, is relying on the information and has urged it to do so.

"It is not ours to publish," said Dean Wingo, OSHA's assistant regional administrator who oversees Louisiana. "We are working with (BP) and encouraging them to post the data so that it is publicly available."

Much of the worker exposure data is being collected by contractors hired by BP.

That was as of a May 18 report.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8425060#8425365


BP withholds oil spill facts — and government lets it (McClatchy)
Tuesday, May 18, 2010

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/18/94415/bps-secrecy-keep-facts-on-gulf.html#ixzz0oOgEMK7i

While BP’s Oil Gushes, Company Keeps Information to a Trickle (ProPublica)
by Marian Wang, ProPublica - May 20, 2010 8:59 am EDT


It is good that OSHA is now, after all this time, getting it's own independant monitoring data,
but if the only record that exists of the first weeks was collected by, compiled by and belonged to BP, once again it seems claims sought by sick workers exposed in that time could be very difficult to establish legally.