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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Amanda Hawes, Esq, Cal-COSH, xxx, San Jose, CA 95112, 408-298-1776, ahawes@alexanderlaw.com

A consistently health protective chemical policy inside as well as outside the “fenceline” is urgently needed. Workplace standards for carcinogens and reproductive toxins are vastly less protective than environmental standards. Even in newer industries and despite our current chemical knowledge, workers face high risks due to non-protective exposure limits, inadequate controls, poor hazard communication, and no requirements or even incentives to use safe alternatives. After-the-fact legal redress does little to spur worker protection or sanction employers who could but don't protect workers from serious disease.

Cancers and birth defects in the electronics/semiconductor sector offers a case study of these problems. So-called “clean industry” workers use many chemicals whose toxicities have long been of concern. Analyses of IBM's Corporate Mortality File shed light on disturbing patterns of cancer mortality. Women in electronics production have had children with serious birth defects linked to workplace chemicals and suffered excess pregnancy loss.

Policy changes to address the protection gap include California Assembly Bill 815, which would close the gap between workplace and environmental “PELs” and AB 816 which would give the state access to chemical manufacturers' customer lists, thus facilitating targeted worker education and enforcement. AB 815 and 816 encourage investment in real exposure controls and better still, safe substitutes. Sound economic analyses, showing significant savings obtainable by shifts to more protective worker health policy and resulting reductions in worker morbidity and mortality, are broadly relevant to protective policies for workers and the general public.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will learn about the existing disparities between exposure limits in the workplace and the environment.
• Participants will learn about what can be done to remedy these disparities.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation