National Council for Occupational Safety and Health
57
School Street 2nd Floor
September 30,
2005 Dear Members of
Congress and Senate: Thousands of disaster
responders, workers, and volunteers in the Gulf Coast areas affected
by Hurricane Katrina remain inadequately protected against exposure
to environmental health hazards.
As individuals and
organizations in the fields of public health and occupational and
environmental health and safety, disaster response, recovery and
cleanup, we are greatly concerned. Many of us have been directly
involved in 9/11 rescue, response, and recovery efforts. In the wake
of the terrible tragedy of Hurricane Katrina we urge that the lessons
learned in 9/11 response efforts not be ignored in Katrina response
operations. As we came to recognize
in the aftermath of 9/11, there is a difference between rescue and
recovery. Now, however, a month after the storm, we are now well
into the recovery stage on the Gulf Coast, and therefore EPA and OSHA
should immediately commence enforcement of life-saving workplace and
environmental laws and regulations.
Failure to do so puts
countless workers and residents at risk of contracting preventable
environmental and occupational diseases. This was our experience in
the aftermath of 9/11, when thousands of workers and residents were
unnecessarily exposed to toxic substances after being assured by EPA
that the air was safe to breathe. At the same time, workers were
left unprotected by OSHA, which declined to enforce its respiratory
protection standard and other regulations. The illnesses of thousands
of New York workers and residents today are in part the result of the
failure of government agencies to enforce environmental and
occupational health regulations after 9/11. Therefore, we are
unalterably opposed to the legislative proposal of Senator James
Inhofe (R-OK) to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to
temporarily suspend or relax its rules. Although it is not yet
possible to characterize with certainty the toxic nature of the flood
waters that cover Louisiana and Mississippi, what is known is of
great concern.
The flood waters
have been contaminated by 6.7 million gallons of petroleum as a
result of major spills from refineries and with another 1-2 million
gallons of gasoline from gas stations and 300,000 flooded cars.
There have been hundreds of smaller oil spills (396 as of Wednesday
9/14). The flood waters contain elevated levels of sewage, bacteria,
lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, arsenic, and pesticides. Some
contaminants, such as benzene, are presumed to be present in such
large quantities that the EPA has not considered it necessary to
conduct sampling. The flood waters impacted 31 hazardous waste sites
and 446 industrial facilities that reported handling highly dangerous
chemicals before the storm. Thousands of damaged buildings are likely
to be contaminated with mold and asbestos. Additionally, to our
knowledge, no tests have been conducted for dioxin B
which is known to be present at levels of concern in southwest
Louisiana.
As the flood waters
recede, contaminants that remain have the potential to become
airborne when disturbed by natural causes (wind and other storms) or
by cleanup activities, creating an even greater occupational and
public health hazard. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency Joint
Taskforce published on September 17, 2005 an initial Environmental
Health Needs and Habitability Assessment. The report provides an
outline of the threats to the health of the public and of the workers
who will be involved in cleaning up the areas impacted by Katrina.
These threats are serious and are unprecedented in scope. The joint report
provides a valuable overview. However, it offers no details
concerning what needs to be done to protect workers and residents.
That is why we believe that Congress should act on the following
recommendations. We must not repeat the errors of 9/11 today in New
Orleans. Response and recovery operations must proceed expeditiously,
but the health and safety of those engaged in such efforts must be
protected. We urge immediate
action on the following steps: 1. Presume
Contamination Until Proven Otherwise: Given the wide range and
toxic nature of contaminants to which workers, volunteers, and
residents may be exposed, it is imperative that work areas be
presumed to be contaminated and that appropriate precautionary
measures be implemented until the work environment is demonstrated to
be safe. 2. Implement the
National Response Plan’s Worker and Community Environmental
Testing and Monitoring Provisions: The worker and community
environmental testing and monitoring provisions of the National
Response Plan must be followed closely. It provides for hazard
identification, environmental sampling, personal exposure monitoring,
collecting and managing exposure data, development of site-specific
safety plans, immunization and prophylaxis, and medical surveillance,
medical monitoring and psychological support.
3. Enforce all OSHA
and EPA Regulations: Environmental and occupational health
standards must be strictly enforced. 1We
are distressed that OSHA has defined its role in Katrina response, as
in 9/11, as advisory rather than enforcement. 4. Assess the
Hazards: EPA should conduct comprehensive environmental sampling
to characterize the nature and extent of environmental hazards and
NIOSH and OSHA must conduct a comprehensive assessment of the hazards
post to recovery workers. Hazard assessment should include evaluation
of environmental hazards presented by chemical plants and refineries,
hazardous waste sites, in-place building materials, biological
agents, and other potential sources affected by the storm.
Environmental monitoring should be ongoing. Sampling results should
be accessible to the public in a timely manner. Toxic materials
should be catalogued, evaluated and tested, and any known or
potential releases contained. Failure to act will threaten returning
residents and workers and will increase long-term cleanup costs as
toxic substances spread to larger areas. 5. Train and Protect
Clean Up Workers: All cleanup workers (public and private sector,
paid and unpaid) should receive the appropriate OSHA-required
training and equipment for protection against the hazards to which
they may be exposed. OSHA should specify the minimum training that
must be provided to workers engaged in clean-up and recovery.
Training may include Hazard Communication, Respiratory Protection,
Personal Protective Equipment, and Hazardous Waste Operations and
Emergency Response. Protective equipment may include respirators and
protective clothing and equipment. 6. Provide
Appropriate Decontamination for Workers: To protect worker
and public health, emphasis must be placed on regular decontamination
of workers and volunteers and of their protective gear, tools,
equipment, and vehicles. Workers and volunteers must be trained in
the importance of meticulous personal hygiene in the presence of
toxics and must be provided with appropriate decontamination and
sanitary facilities. 7. Provide Medical
Surveillance: Provision must be made for early detection and
treatment of occupational, environmental, and psychological
illnesses. To ignore the medical needs of potentially exposed workers
and residents is asking them to be guinea pigs in a long-term
experiment the consequences of which remain unknown. All public and
private sector rescue, response, and cleanup workers, including
volunteers, should be entered into a centralized database to
facilitate medical surveillance. 8. Protect
Vulnerable Workers: Special consideration must be given to
protection of immigrant and temporary workers, who reportedly are
being recruited in large numbers. In 9/11 response efforts, immigrant
and temporary workers were the workers least likely to be provided
with proper training and respiratory protection, and were the workers
least likely to have medical insurance. As a result, they incurred
high rates of illness without having access to medical treatment.
9. Adopt Uniform
Re-occupancy Standards: There must be one standard for
re-occupancy that applies uniformly to all communities and is
sensitive to the needs of vulnerable populations. EPA has indicated
that it will permit local authorities to determine re-occupancy
criteria. To allow each locality to implement its own standard for
re-occupancy will result in a range of standards, not all of which
may be adequately protective of public health. A cleanup of this
magnitude and complexity has never been undertaken. While we support
proceeding with the cleanup and recovery with dispatch, protection of
the health of clean-up workers and of the public at large must be
given the highest priority.
