The consumer watchdog group Public Citizen is demanding that the federal government immediately take measures to reduce workers’ exposure to the highly toxic metal beryllium.
“The lack of any action is certain to lead to hundreds of unnecessary deaths of American workers, some of whom do not even know they have been exposed,” said Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group.
Public Citizen, which was founded by Ralph Nader, and the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union said they will file a joint petition Monday with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to improve safeguards regarding beryllium, a strong, lightweight metal whose toxic dust can cause an incurable lung disease. The petition asks OSHA to lower its legal exposure limit for beryllium dust and to require employers to offer annual blood tests to exposed workers.
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A similar request made by two beryllium researchers two years ago was rejected. But Lurie said OSHA is under pressure to take action because of new scientific findings on beryllium’s hazards and increased news media attention, including a Tribune investigation in July.
That story detailed how beryllium disease was emerging in a variety of industries, including machining, recycling and dental businesses. The newspaper found that many companies handling beryllium were not following government safety rules and guidelines and that few employers were providing blood tests.
An OSHA spokeswoman said the agency has not received the petition from Public Citizen and the workers union and could not comment.
OSHA’s exposure limit is 2 micrograms of beryllium dust per cubic meter of air–roughly equivalent to a marble-size piece of beryllium spread evenly throughout a box 6 feet high, a mile long and a mile wide. But scientific findings as early as 1974 indicated workers were contracting beryllium disease from exposures below the limit.
For the past three years, OSHA has been planning to lower the limit. The agency will update its regulatory priorities this autumn; it is unclear how that might affect rules on beryllium.
In their petition, Public Citizen and the workers union ask OSHA to cut the limit tenfold, to .2 micrograms from 2 micrograms. The petition says scientific papers published this year indicate that disease may occur at far below the current limit and after as little as two months of exposure.
“The current beryllium standard is ridiculously outdated and has done little to prevent [the disease],” said Dave Ortlieb, director of the union’s health and safety department.
“American workers should not have to spend another Labor Day worrying whether they will contract a fatal disease that the government should be preventing,” Ortlieb said.
The petition also demands blood testing so workers who show abnormalities can be reassigned to jobs with no beryllium exposure. Researchers note that virtually every company that has worked with beryllium and has tested employees has found beryllium disease or blood abnormalities linked to the illness.
No one knows how many workers are exposed to beryllium dust, but an estimated 1,300 people have contracted beryllium disease since the 1940s. Several hundred have died. Symptoms include coughing, fatigue and shortness of breath.
Public Citizen, a non-profit based in Washington, reports 135,000 members. The workers union has 302,000 members and is based in Nashville.