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OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH REPORTER A weekly review of occupational safety and health developments Volume 11, Number 24 THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. November 12, 1981 URL 05149 HIGHLIGHTS OF CURRENT REPORT A FURTHER REDUCTION in funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for fiscal 1982 is approved by the Senate Appro priations Committee. The panel votes a funding level of $200.56 million, of which $5.4 million would be shifted from enforcement activities to voluntary compliance assistance (p. 459). A 'DRAMATIC DECLINE in OSHA enforcement activity is indicated in agency statistics for 1981, the AFL-CIO charges in a memorandum to its member unions. The federation urges union officials to do what they can to publicize the situation, and gather information on specific cases to further "illustrate these deficiencies" (p. 459). THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS on a suit arising from the death of an asbestos worker begins to run from the date his lung cancer was discovered, rather than from the date on which he was diagnosed as having asbestosis, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rules (p. 460). . . The New York State Court of Appeals holds that plaintiffs claiming injury from inhalation of asbestos particles must file suit within four years of their last inhalation of asbestos, and not after discovering their health problems (p. 460). ^ IMPOSITION OF A STAY of the workplace cotton dust standard for knitting operations was carried out by OSHA in an "outrageous" fashion and without prior consultation with organized labor, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union charges in a letter to a Senate oversight committee (p. 460). AN ASBESTOS SUIT filed by six retired brick layers should be dismissed, Bethlehem Steel Cor poration urges in a motion to a federal district court. The workers charged that the company intentionally concealed evidence of the workers' asbestos-related lung disease, which they allege was contracted at a Bethlehem plant in Maryland (p. 461). OSHA MUST PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY with its proposal to use joint labor-management com mittees to supplement federal enforcement ef forts at individual worksites, a subgroup of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health warns. The two specific pro posals under consideration by the agency. Project Build and the STAR program, could interfere with the rights of both unions and management, and could undermine legal remedies under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the chair man of the subgroup asserts (p. 462). A GOOD FAITH EFFORT must be made by OSHA to complete a field sanitation standard for agricultural laborers in the next 18 months, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rules. OSHA's actions to this point in delaying a standard for portable toilets, drinking water, and handwashing facilities were "irrational and tak en in bad faith," the court holds (p, 462). DIRECT LINKS BETWEEN ARSENIC and ex cess cancer rates found in smelter workers ex posed to the substance remain unclear and diffi cult to determine, researchers report at a symposium sponsored by the Chemical Manufac turers Association and the National Bureau of Standards (p. 463). REAGAN ADMINISTRATION POLICIES that will "impede effective safety and health pro grams" will be opposed by the American Public Health Association, the organization states in a resolution adopted at its annual meeting. Two former Carter Administration officials, Anthony Robbins and Bailus Walker, Jr., are elected to leadership positions in the association (p. 464) ... A finding of high rates of brain cancer and malignant melanoma among workers at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons plant in Colorado leads a speaker at the meeting to call for inde pendent and comprehensive epidemiological in vestigation of nuclear workers (p. 465). SaeMon 1 Copyright C 1961 by The Bureau of National Attain inc. QQ9S 3J3?'81/*00 W> 458 In this iasue ... OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH REPORTER Topical Summary APPROPRIATIONS Further reduction in OSHA funding to $200 million approved by committee ................. ARSENIC Researchers report difficulties in tracing links of cancer excesses....................................... CALIFORNIA CAL /OSHA standards board sued by growers group over EDB rule.................................... COTTON DUST OSHA methods in granting knitting stay scored by textile union; suit suggested....... ENFORCEMENT AFL-CIO reports `dramatic fall' in all OSHA compliance indicators.................................. ETHYLENE DIBROMIDE U S. judge denies injunction against California EDB standard............................................... GENERAL POLICY Pros, cons of voluntary compliance programs reviewed by NACOSH subgroup................. Reagan's safety, health policies opposed by public health association.............................. 459 463 466 460 459 464 462 464 HEALTH HAZARDS Call for study of nuclear plant workers among papers presented at health meeting JOURNAL Brief listing of coming events................. LITIGATION Court gives OSHA 18 months to issue sanita tion standard for farmworkers................... Court rules discovery of lung cancer, and not asbestosis, begins time to sue .................... Steel firm asks federal court to dismiss for mer workers' complaint.............................. NEW YORK Court rules last exposure to asbestos starts statute of limitations running..................... REVIEW COMMISSION Weekly report of commission activity 465 472 462 460 461 460 467 This issue of Occupational Safety & Health Reporter oonsisis of four sections. Section 1. Current Report. Section 3. Table of Cases; Section 3a. Standards Index and Section 3b. Decisions c. tf.vso OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH REPORTER Editor in Chief: William A. Belts Executive Editor: Stanley E. Degler Associate Editor Patricia R. Westlein BOARD OF EDITORS Afanugmp Editor: Michael H- Blake. Jr. Assistant Managing Editor: Stanley Pond Melanie M Aclander Anne Kohut Kurt Samson Fred Blosser Rose Lally-Knowles Kathryn J. Scott James D Crowne Michael M. McCann Glenn Totten Larry E. Evans Mary M. Miller Debra M. Waugh John Herzfeld MaUlda E. Monroe Mary Wheeler Senior Legal Editor: Stanley J. Gilbert Senior Scientific Editor: Girard L. Ordway Chief Index Editor: Suzanne L. Geigle Editor: Emil Toth Correspondence concerning editorial content should be direct ed to the managing editor. 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