Fax re EP hearing attendees and questions, Feb 2002

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Standards

Monona Rossol, Safety Director of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage employees testified that OSHA contradicted its own regulations and inaccurately announced they were providing respirators and performing fit "checking" (i.e.. testing to ensure a respirator fits as it should). However, purportedly OSHA regulations allow fit "testing" (i.e., testing to ensure a respirator fits without "breakthroughs"), but ugly if the agency has medically certified a worker "as capable of wearing a respirator without exacerbating a physical condition." What type of respirators are being provided to workers and how is OSHA ensuring they are adequate?

2. Rossol also claimed that OSHA has proposed a standard of one fiber per cubic centimeter for fiberglass, but the industry has opposed instituting it. She said, OSHA "knows that's what [the standard] should be [since] they've already proposed it." Purportedly, monitoring would have found levels in excess of this tougher standard. The industry itself uses "threshold limit values," which is akin to one fiber per cubic centimeter and stricter than the current "permissible exposure limits." If OSHA's proposed standard were used, would fiberglass levels be considered a health risk?

3. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that EPA experts and physicians at the Center for Disease Control and private research centers have shown that a "single burst, heavy dose" of asbestos could cause lung disease. Doesn't this research demonstrate the heath risks from short-term exposure?

4. Prior testimony indicated that young, healthy individuals, such as the firemen and EMT's whose lung function is now being tested are likely to react better to exposures to multiple toxins, carcinogens, etc. than children, the elderly, and people who have compromised immune systems. Dr. George Thurston of the NYU School of Medicine testified that standards for lead are stricter in a home with any infant, who is more at risk of exposure to lead where "a lot of this dust got in." How are you evaluating the past and future health risk to the various populations who live and/or work downtown?

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