Document X7ZLwa6rELzyoYmNbBxgRObeJ

1968 ho.,unal Safely Congress 0006.95 I.abtir Session* mittec is to make management aware of the benefits of safety efforts anti to educate workers. Joint safety seminars arc held at scheduled intervals from four to seven months. Films arc shown, panel discussions held, demonstrations given, and particular subjects are discussed, such as "X-ray and effects of radiation on the human body." Company representatives arc also invited. A campaign emphasizing the importance of Jj, defensive driving was launched the first wedtfV, of June involving a questionnaire, visual aids |Jv such as posters, ami newspaper and rad* $ coverage. They arc enlarging the scope <QM Citation' Distinguished Service Safely to JULIUS N. JMBMrSsfeN;'Safeiy'Chairman, Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Local 4-4-17, Destrehan, La. their ofl-the-job safety activities and $*'' The judges were impressed with Brother The judges noted the many areas of ac operating with local safety council orj tions and community officials. Jacobsen's tenacious efforts on behalf of Safety in his local union. The documented caulerial vividly revealed the many extensive tivity in which he is engaged, including safety training, and the fact he was not deterred in achieving noteworthy goals. The Award of Honor to UNITIil) STEELWORKERS LOCAL 6500 Sudbury, Out., Canada activities he promoted and participated in. It abo showed the amount of time and energy ke unselfishly put forth to promote safety. Awards committee of the Labor Conference warmly commends him for his solid achieve ments. This local is receiving recognition for the third time. They received an Award of Merit for 1965 and the Award of Honor for 1966. They have now qualified for another Award of I lonor for activities conducted during 1967. Their efforts have assured the con tinuity that is so important in keeping a good safety program going and growing. They continue to give extensive publicity to safety through local television, plant bulle tins, anil their own paper. Safety trainings a vital part of their program for union mershers. They have accelerated their activities aaf improved present ones, so that the A' committee judges agreed they deserved receive the top award again. Mi OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS--MAKING * INVISIBLE VISIBLE By RALPH NADER Attorney, Author, Safety Critic, New York, N. Y. THE Award of Honor to \ INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN'S ASSOCIATION New York City { Tlie chief forms of domestic violence affecting American working men and women art motor vehicle crashes and occupational fingers and diseases. Taken together or This international union received an Award Milwaukee. They participate in committeql angly, their toll in death and injury utterly of Merit for the year 1964, and now they of the USA Standards Institute. They Itan*i1twarfs the violence incurred through street have qualified for the top award -- the Award of Honor -- for 1967. The International has consistently pro moted safety in its publications. They have expanded their activities from the Port of New York and vicinity to the entire Atlantic coast and Gulf area and the Great Lakes. Safely training receives top priority. An example is the 12-hour training course on "Handling Dangerous Cargoes" given in assisted in waterfront fire prevention mondTM'**- ***e na,jon * properly con- - t-*te sutc; jat&swliich included safety demonstrations. Co>-_.tuned abou,t street crime, , i,t v.irt.ually ig-, Occupational Safety and Health Act of 19(1 find open work areas such as construction has taken hours of their staff time. stes. Consider one comparison out of many The judges noted the significant accelers-J fiat could be detailed; all the riots in this lion of safety efforts and agree that tk country during the past three years in our International Longshoremen's Association cities have led to about 260 dead; each truly deserves the Award of Honor. forking day brings death to 55 workers, {tabling injury to 8,500 workers and lesser Award of Honor to OIL, CHEMICAL AND ATOMIC WORKERS LOCAL NO. 4-447 Destrehan, La. juries to 27,200 other laborers. Every year, K.OOO to 15,000 workers die, over half a illion are disabled by occupational diseases, wtr two million are disabled by occupational This makes the fourth time that this local has received recognition for safety activities. They were granted the Award of Merit for the years 1964-65-66. This local has significantly accelerated their accident prevention work over the pre vious years. A major activity was a "Poison Prevention Week;'' the National Drivers Test was again extensively promoted among their members; they conducted the annual Christmas holiday safety campaign; and also the annual Labor Day safety cani|>aign. ThMj?*^en|*> over 5evcn million are injured, aarree aaccttiivvee iinn tthhee eenn'ttiirree mmeettrroopnoolliittaann NNeet]ffTM* o11 ven 8rea,er *" UKllca`* Orleans area. The local is made up of II] die above data because death through toxic groups, each group employed by a differrtj^0"r* ov*^ *"n ] chemicals or^particu- company. Each group leader is also safdjSbrte matter is rarely recorded. The h"alf chairman. All groups elect an overall safdjl-illion plus workers disabled from llie ef director to coordinate and promote unofi1fe' cts of asbestos, beryllium, carbon mon- safety activities. "TJa*zide, coal dust, cotton dust, cancer-causing .................... .... chemicals, dyes, pesticides, radiation etc. must The judges commend tins local for ^ terminal doses over time from creanseiinngn sitse cs-aiffueftuy emffffonrrttms aann<d1 naogtrreae* iIwK." deserve the highest possible recognition, Seme of these exposures. There is another ttason why the above data must be con 12 * sidered understated--a reason which leads to the first of six realities which should be recognized publicly before significant prog ress can be made to reduce worker injury and disease; 1. Under-reporting by industrial firms of actual injuries and disease e.\|>cricnccd by laborers has long been an endemic mana gerial disease. First, the definition of what constitutes an injury is decided by an indus try-dominated body called the United States Standards Institute of America--a group of industries and industry technical six-ictics. Second, companies go to considerable length to avoid rc|Kjrting a lost time injur)--not only to keep their insurance rales down hut to preserve their place in safety competi tions. For example, a worker in a Jones & Laugldin steel plant received a groin injury; he was taken off his usual job and placed in a chair where he sat doing nothing for two weeks. Any blue-collar matt knows that such a practice is not unusual in numerous industries. * 2. Plant physicians surrender to or are constrained by corporate dictates as to the exercise of their medical judgment and right to publication of cases in the medical litera ture.' A recent case in point involved a Dr. John Zalittsky, a physician at the Brush Beryllium plant outside Cleveland, who had cases of workers suffering from Itcryllium poisoning and wanted to publish them in a 1.1 196,1 National Safety Congress 000W , Labor Session medical journal (williout mentioning their names, of course). He was told if he did lie would have to look for another job. The doctor had a bad heart and was con cerned about looking for other employment. Before he could do anything, he died of a second heart attack. Dr. Lorin E. Kerr of the United Mine Workers Welfare and Retirement Fund, an authority on coal workers' pneumoconiosis (or, as the coal dust disease is popularly called, "black lung"), has sharply denounced "the attitude and influence of employeroriented physicians who avoid facing known facts about the ravages of coal dust in hu man lungs because to do otherwise would cost money. The impact of physician knowl edge and attitudes is apparent in inaccurate or incomplete death certificates. These doc uments are essential for determining the existence of a dangerous dust requiring gov ernmental action for control or eradicatioa Too often, no records mean no action. Phy sician denial or avoidance of known facts can also determine Use publication of infor mation. In 1956, the concern of some physi cians about management attithdes ellectivcly blocked the publication of a paper of mine on coal workers pneumoconiosis in the most widely circulated medical journal in the United States. One can only wonder how many times other medical information vital for the protection of the health of workers has not been published for the same reason. Physician attitudes also influence other groups such as company lawyers, state legis lators, and officials who, all-told, arc remark ably resistant to the elimination or control of coal dust because it would cost money." Coal workers' black lung or pneumoconi osis affects at least 150,000 active ami retired miners in advanced stages of lung destruc tion. Two thousand men die from this dis ease in Pennsylvania every year. What Dr. Kerr was referring to was a critical rupture in the recording and communicating of data by members of the medical profession. 3. State safety laws and regulations are weak, inspection is poor, and penalties rarely imposed. The stales spend an average of 40 cents per worker per year on industrial safety. Some states such as Texas and Oklahoma have taken this down to two cents per worker per year. Of the 1,524 state inspectors, 697 inspect boilers, elevators and mines, leaving only 827 inspectors for control measures arc years ahe general safety inspection, construction, safety country, which docs not even ha\| promotion and education, health, and in standards in force. _______ dustrial hygiene, according to the Bureau of 6. The workmen's compensation system in Labor Statistics. (There are almost twice this country--its coverage, benefits, and de as many fish and game wardens -- about terrence--is creaking with obsolescence. A 3,000 -- employed by the states to look out thorough inquiry is needed and serious for wildlife.) Four states have no safety in thought should be given to uniformity. Not spection staff in any area and 17 other statu only are there irrational or |>olitically in have 10 or less on their safety iu|iectioa spired differences between slates but some stuffs. More shucking is the fact tliat only stales arc still mired in a value system of three states liave staffs specialising in the a bygone age. For example, coal miners' area of occupational health and industrisl Hack lung disease is not considered work- hygiene. related by the compensation laws of all 4. By and large, union leaders liave bees far too pliable when confronted by manage meat's inaction or decisions regarding worker health and safety. Too often, health and safety' conditions are treated as trade-ofil for more tangible union gains in wages It the collective bargaining table. This bat been the case, for example, with the United Mine Workers leadership, which finally it becoming slightly, aroused over the plight of their workers but little dedicated to over turning coal management's modus operandi states, except Pennsylvania (1965), Virginia (1968), and Alabama. Such human derelicts, spitting up coal dust, struggling for breath, mfTlictcsl with emphysema, massive fibrosis, or enlarged heart, are denied workmen's compensation in such states as West Vir ginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois. In Ken tucky, according to the state's Department of Labor, about 1,400 out of 2,000 mines licensed to do business do not comply with die workmen's compensation law for other mine injuries apart from black lung. Yet, ,(|ic present governor ^nd his predecessor Have not considered laiy jand order to In tipjilieablc to coal ojierntdr;. Where docs tliii leaVp,tl|e National Safct; Council? Certainly, it does no service t( truth and candor to hide the fart that tin Council's industrial members and rnnstilu ency take a strong interest in how far tin Council goes in the occupational healili am safety area. That interest, to uc a mill word, resulted in the Council's being plans in a difficult position regarding the Occiipa linnnl Safety ami Health Act of 1968. Soon observers believed that the Council rctractci from a relatively imsitivc imsilinn on tin bill in February to a statement more ii consonance with industry's preferences a few months later. Fur the Council, it is the satin old dilemma of "to be or not to be" thm has plagued its potential independence ir other safety areas. If the Council is to b( true to its potential in occupational hcaltl and safety, it cannot ignore at least soon of the above-noted problems obstructinp progress toward more humane working conditions. that treats coal miners as being less expen sive than coal. Union leaders simply do not give health and safety a first rank pri ority; their lack of aggressive lobbying for the proposed Occupational Safety and Health LASER BEAM PRECAUTIONS Act of 1968 in Congress cannot be covered up by resolutions and resonant statements for the records. Labor leaders are wanted on the ramparts, not just on the record. 5. The Federal government has abdicated its responsibility to devote funds toward effective research programs and trainint programs for occupational health and safety. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) has had no sense of the importance of this problem, the need to de velop preventive systems and competent med- ical and engineering personnel. HEW'* ad vocacy has been weak and, if anything, the occupational health activity in the De-' partment has been downgraded recently. The one area where HEW has received somej consistent funding--$5 million since 1953-- for research on the causes and prevention of coal workers' pneumoconiosis has bad little to show for it, apart from a prevalence ; study completed three years ago. It is dis-j maying to note that not only does Westers Europe spend twenty times the level on re search in the coal dust disease area, but : By WILLIAM McCULLOUGH Collective Agreement & Grievance Officer, Canadian Union of Public Employees. Ontario Hvdro Emolovees Local 1000. CLC, Toronto, Ont. Before we consider the hazards and pre cautions for the safe use of the laser beam, we should understand what it is. Tlic name laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The original concept was invented by Dr. Townes pi 1955. In 1958 Dr. Townes and Dr. Arthur Schawlou gave a paper on how to construct an optical maser. The name maser is an acronym for micro-wave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. An optical maser is a laser. In 1960 Dr. Theodore Maiman, a scientist then working with the Hughes Aircraft Company, gave the world's first demonstra tion of a laser beam. In 1964 Dr. Townes won the Nobel prize for his work on the theory of lasers. ' The light that conies from a conventional fight source radiates in all directions in waves of varying lengths that reinforce or cancel each ntlicr. Because it is non-dircctiuual anil of varying wavelengths, it is said to lie incoherent. Light from a laser beam travels in only one direction ami is all at the same wavelength, so that it reinforces itself and is known ns coherent light. Be cause it travels ill one direction in straight lines, it is a very narrow beam. To obtain a directional beam from an in coherent conventional source of light it must be focused, and even then it soon spreads it's beam again. Ordinary light sources arc usually heat units such as incandescent lamps, arc lights, etc. In a neon tube the glass walls remain cool but the electrons activate the neop atoms within the glass tube and ac celerate them to levels normally found at high temperatures. The atoms of the source material arc brought to a continuous excited state and they fall back to normal by losing energy through heat and visible light. I 15