Document o9wVyZmJgNzJdkJX79mNwJe1o

PEOPLE S WORLD BERKELY. CAL. JUl 21977 V*1 Labor & ecologists map joint action OAKLAND in-plaat bealth comfitiom. Lung fraction tests, instituted as a rendt of THREE HUNDRED people attended a conference on `The Labor thcstrifce settlement, showed the presence of ubstiutAivehanifisoaBe Monant and Hazardous Wastes", June 4 at the Alameda County in 75 of 239 winters tested. Twenty-six winters have filed com Labor Temple. Progressive ecologist and author Barry Commoner pensation daims. keynoted the coufmence which was sponsored by the 00, Cfcemfcnl Moure cited the dose relationship between the workplace ead thel and Atomic Woden Union (OCAW), and endorsed by a mranber of general environment. For example, many hazards common to thel labor and environmental groups includingthe Sierra Chib and Friends wort environment are also dangerous to the general population of the Earth. Participants were attempting to find ground for united Common action by labor and environmental groups could help meet action by the labor movement and environmental activists. the hazards is both cases. Examples given fay Moure included] Commooer said (be central issue was whether environmental im asbestos and aromatic solvents w&kh have replaced lead in gasoline. provements would conflict with the need for jobs and progress. Mouresaid OCAW had adfeesseditselftocommunity issues. Unemployment has always been a characteristic of tins economic tystmi, andwasnot invertedby eoTtroomeptalfeto, he added. Manyanrirmyricntal heslth problems, Commoner said, result from syuthettc wdistances being mtrodaced into the environment without adequate testing and scrutiny. Thousands of new plasties, dyes, and solvents are introdwed yearly. . Typically, hazardous substances have not been recognized as. ' drigerdus until they have caused a lot of severe fitness or some* serious damage to the environment. Frequently attention has been focmed on substances because of their disruption of the environment while tbeir effecton human health has goneunnoticed. .. . . jJMltEXAMPLE,potycUorfasatedbipbenytsjPCBLchemicalsused 4electrical insulators in transformer manuUHIlUfldg'&nd which are Mvlnud insignificant quantities in the Hudson River, first received attention because of tbeir effects on Baltic fish and eagles. If concern hr the effects on people's health bad been greater they would have hem spotted as s hazard 4b years agb. -AteeHciI paper from the 1990s indicated PCB poisoning among 23 act waiters ate Georgia plant. The examining physicians passed off the malady as due to "aversion to wort". Commoner pointed to the new Toabc Sdtwtances Act, passed with ANTHONY MAZZOCCHI, dtisensUHegteletive dfrector of OCAW,] told tbe andtence that legislation to reform the National Labor| Relations Act should be given high priority by people seeking to im prove tbe environment He said current regulations make organizing tskcrganized workers very difficult, and uorgaatoed workers wifi never be able to apeak out about beaithjjtd environmental problems^. For example, M of the 27 oew staodardi proposed under the 0| cupetioml safety and Health .Act were fostigated by tbe labor movement and pufatic interest gtags. Without the force of argtedzed labor OSHA wmtid have let tbest standards languish in e biracrstic malaise as it has a multitude of others. Tbontos WUUamsof the Eavironmestal Protection Agency'slEPA) Office of Sofid Waste described provirions of the new Solid Waste, Disposal Act Tbe Act charges EPA with identifying, promulgating, mid disposing of hazardous wastes. Jess Siri, an environmentalist active is Contra Costa County, said) the private sector could not be trusted to handle tbe waste ifisposai problem. She cited tbe case of a dump in Contra Cesta Coiaity that isj giving off carcinogenic hyifrecarbous, and another case in California where Agent Orange, a herbicide which caused birth defects in Vietnam, was being dumped where the public could be exposed. etroag supportfrom labor end environmental groups, as the beginning THE CONFERENCE was succeaaftd in possible uMM of a remedy. The bill reqrires premaitet testing and notification of programs for labor and environmental activists. Severs! ipeakim newly sjmthesiiad chemicals. said the two groups have a common enemy, monopoly rnrporattona, RrfaelMoore, an industrial hygienistemployed byOCAW, aoted the wheat pmrer mjst be cwbed if any headway is to be made on these grins made as a mult of the Sbefl strfte, In a strike (hat lasted * sin 1973, Shell wsrtWi is oarahltohed the ri^tt tea say an -JJLS. ooio* 1 i/> z