Document G5njOGXdGOZaVvj9BKN6jx3ON

PCB-ARCH-EXT0378568 Appeals ruling which invalidated the OSHA benzene standard. In October 1978 the Appeals Court ruled in American Petroleum Institute et al. v. OSHA . (1978 OSHD If 23,054) that OSHA had not proved reducing benzene exposure from ten ppm to one ppm TWA was "reasonably necessary" and therefore failed to justify the estimated half-billion dollar compliance costs. OSHA Finds Postal Service Safety Program Weak The employee safety and health program of the Postal Service has deteri. orated in both size and^strength over the past few years, while employee ill ness and injuries have risen dramatically, according to a July 1979 report prepared by OSHA's Office of Federal Agency Safety and Health Programs. The OSHA office indicated that the deterioration may be traceable to sub stantial reductions in the Postal Service OSH staff. The headquarters safety staff, for example, was described as being simply too small to manage the pro gram effectively. . The analysis of the Interior Department's safety and health program . found the program to be strong in some DOI bureaus, but weak to mediocre in others--the result of the Department's policy of allowing each Bureau to operate its individual program. Little progress in the.health and safety area was being made at the Department level, and it provided little in the way of policy and evaluation for the Bureaus, OSHA said. The evaluation reports are discussed at ft 11,778. . Occupational Disease "Epidemic" Topic of OSHA Media Seminar Top OSHA and NIOSH officials, leading environmental health scientists and academics, and labor and industry representatives met in Chicago Sep tember 13 and 14 to exchange information on diseases resulting from work place chemicals. "Lost in the Workplace: Is there an Occupational Disease Epidemic?", the OSHA-sponsored symposium, was intended primarily to pro vide members of the news media with a greater understanding of occupaitonal disease and its impact on the nation and the worker. Labor Secretary Ray Marshall urged the media to alert the public to the threat posed to American workers by toxic chemicals. # Investigative journal ism, he pointed out,- has played a historic rule in creating public awareness of health and safety issues, which has in turn led to the establishment of such major pieces of health and safety legislation as the pure food and drug laws. Unlike stories on construction accidents or grain elevator explosions, the dan gers of toxic chemicals require the description of complex and subtle con cepts such as dose-response relationship, bioassay tests and threshold limit values. Workers, Marshall concluded, have the right to know the nature of the substances and hazards to which they are exposed and to know how effec tive their employers and the government have been in protecting them against . those hazards. . _ Joining OSHA Director Eula Bingham in discussing agency policy'were NIOSH Head Dr. Anthony Robbins and Timothy Cleary, Chairman of the occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Deputy NIOSH Di- pi;PLOYlKNT SAFETY AND HEALTH GUIDE (ISSN 0093-1535), published weekly Commerce Clearing House, Inc., 4025 W. Peterson Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60646. Sub rate $285 per year. ` Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Printed in A. AH rights reserved; 1979, Commerce Clearing House, Inc. 2 TfV - rector John Froines. speaking of controlling known hazards, predicted'occup; tional disease will be a major social issue of the 1980's. Industry Position ' Dissenting from the majority of government, academic and public intere: group speakers were representatives of the American Industrial Health Coui ; cil and the Monsanto Company. AIITC spokesman Ronald Lang dispute OSHA's claim that a "cancer epidemic" exists. He was especially critical i. OSHA's decision to issue a generic standard for carcinogens in the workplac Instead of relying on animal tests as a criterion for carcinogenicity, he sai the government should select top scientific experts to assess the degree ( hazard to humans presented by a suspect chemical. The real issue involve should be "acceptable risk," rather than "zero risk," since the latter is an in possibility, he said. Monsanto's representative described the concepts of occupational diseas and cancer epidemics as "myths," and challenged OSHA's assertion th: 100,000 Americans die from workplace exposure to chemicals each year. T3 fact is, he said, that the incidence of cancer among workers is nearly the sarn . as it is for the rest, of the population, and that the majority of independer scientists agree that'workplace cancer amounts to hess than five percent - the total. ' Changes to Worker Radiation Rules to Be Considered by EPA , Recommendations for new worker radiation protection guidelines will i published in. the late fall, the Environmental Protection Agency announcin the September 17 Federal Register. The guidelines, when approved bv ri President, would supersede current guidelines approved by President Fisc: hower in 1960. The EPA has considered dose limits, partial body, exposur exposure duration, worker-exposure categories and recordkeeping. Follow;: publication of the guidelines, public meetings with OSHA and Nuclear Reg: latory Commission participation will be held. EPA asks, potential participants to consider frequency and justific.atk- of exposures at or near current limits and the economic and productivity co of lower limits; whether categories of exposure limits should be consider!:-, and what methods exist for establishing worker lifetime dose records. The advance notice of proposed recommendations, and future hearing appears at ft 11,776, along with an address for requesting more information. OSHA Corrects Instruction on Farm Labor Camp Standards If labor camp housing built before January 1, 1979, meets the "relatioi: ship to employment" test, then either OSHA's 1910.142 standards or Err ployment and Training Administration standards are applicable, accordin to OSHA Instruction CPL 2.37 CH-1. Instruction CPL 2.37 originally sai that. OSHA standards were applicable when the "relationship to employment test was met. The correction appears in place- at ft 11,709. Seven OSHRC Decisions Appealed to Circuit Courts in August Commission decision on fiat-roof guarding and noise abatement we.r among seven cases appealed in August. R. L. Sanders Roofing (1979 OSIII (Q 1979, Commerce Clearing Hoitsc, Inc. /6 V3 o '