Identifying and Reducing Metal Working Fluid Exposures: The Successful Experience of a Union Worksite

At a small unionized factory in northwest Ohio, the UAW encountered concerns expressed by employees about metalworking fluid exposures and illnesses, during a Participatory Action Research activity being conducted by the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Over the course of the next few months, two cases of Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis were diagnosed, and others were suspected. The company initiated investigation, with Local Union assistance, and found bacterial contamination of reservoirs of metal working fluids within the worksite. After much trial and error, workers and management found that the problems encountered with metal working fluids could be controlled, but not entirely eliminated. This poster presentation outlines the experience of the joint labor management team working on the identified problem, and which also provided an opportunity to follow up and determine whether measures taken during the abatement continue to work.