HOUSE ORDERS BUSH OSHA TO MOVE AGAINST EXPLOSIVE WORKPLACE DUST

Friday, May 2, 2008

(PAI)HOUSE ORDERS BUSH OSHA TO MOVE AGAINST EXPLOSIVE WORKPLACE DUST

   WASHINGTON (PAI)--Brushing aside yet another
Republican-led effort to defend Bush regime inaction
on workplace safety, the House on April 30 ordered
Bush’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration
to write standards ordering firms to crack down and
curb explosive workplace dust.

   The 247-165 vote on HR 5522 included a 226-0 margin
from House Democrats and 21 Republicans. There were
165 GOP “no” votes. Lawmakers were prompted by the
fatal February blast at a Fort Wentworth, Ga., sugar
refinery, when dust caught fire.

   Bush’s OSHA told the House Education and Labor
Committee in mid-April it was probing the blast and it
maybe might do something if it found present rules
didn’t help. But the agency relies on voluntary
agreements with industries and that’s not good enough,
committee chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) said.

   “Workers cannot be asked to wait any longer for these
basic protections,” Miller added. In its report
explaining the need for the bill ordering Bush’s OSHA
to act, the committee noted that “in 2006, following a
series of fatal combustible dust explosions, the U.S.
Chemical Safety Board conducted a major study of
combustible dust hazards.”

   The board “identified 281 incidents between 1980-2005
that killed 119 workers, injured 718 others, and
extensively damaged industrial facilities. The
tragedy at Imper-ial Sugar shows the threat of dust
explosions is very real at industrial worksites and
needs to be addressed immediately.” The Georgia blast
killed 13 and injured 60.

   “OSHA has known about these dangers for years, but
failed to act” even after the chemical board urged it
two years ago to “issue rules controlling dust
hazards,” the panel added. “OSHA has never offered
any indication it is planning to” do so.

   There are effective standards on the books, but
they’re voluntary, the committee noted. That’s
because they’re from the National Fire Protection
Association, a private group, and not the government.
If industries follow them, the panel added, those
anti-flammable dust standards work and protect
workers.

   “To truly protect workers, these voluntary standards,
which are effective, feasible, and affordable, must be
made mandatory. Without an OSHA standard, many
employers are unaware of the hazards of combustible
dusts, while others have chosen not to adopt voluntary
standards,” the panel concluded. The bill now goes to
the Senate.

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