For an index of NYCOSH in the News, click here.

• Schools need construction guidelines. Eastchester local hires hygienist to check lead levels - New York Teacher, November 3, 1997
  
  
• N.Y. Safety Group Delivers Broadside to United Parcel - CTD News, November 1997
  
  
• At the end of their rope: That's where a small Adirondack school was until the union sparked a safety crusade - New York Teacher, October 6, 1997
  
  
• Health Education Awards - DOH News, April 9, 1997
  
  
• Sick Days at Work - Environmental Health Perspectives, October 1996
  
  
• Hurt On The Job: Injured Employees Are Covered by Worker's Comp, but System May Be in for Overhaul - Newsday, June 2, 1996
  
  
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Site is National Historic Landmark - Cultural Resources Management, August 1994

Schools need construction guidelines. Eastchester local hires hygienist to check lead levels

Van Dyke
NEW YORK TEACHER
November 3, 1997

http://www.nysut.org/newyorkteacher/backissues/1997-1998/971103safety.html

New York State United Teachers is devising guidelines for local unions to protect staff and students at school construction sites. A lead scare in Eastchester shows why the move is necessary.

In late August, industrial hygienist Ed Olmsted found significantly high levels of lead in dust in several areas of the Westchester County district's high school. The dust covered floors and bookshelves in the library, coated plates and cups in the teachers lunchroom, and seeped into lockers.

Olmsted said most of the lead came from paint on walls demolished in renovations that continued into the new school year. Three of the seven coats of paint in the building were applied prior to 1975, when paint contained lead.

The Eastchester Teachers Association hired Olmsted to inspect the school after it heard about flying dust, loose asbestos, and careless workers. The local said students and staff have complained of itchy eyes, dizziness and colds since school began.

"You can find lead everywhere," said Olmsted, "but the dust in Eastchester is much higher than the guidelines recommend."

He said builders apparently took few precautions to contain the dust. "Carpeting had an inch of debris on it," he said. "They worked as if no one were ever returning to the site."

Getting action

The ETA's health and safety committee and the Eastchester Administrators Association are working to persuade the district to take seriously the lead and and other health concerns.

"Their response was too little too late," said Robert Liftig, who chairs the ETA's committee along with Regina Moynihan. "Their answer was to wipe down the lockers."

The district also summoned a BOCES environmental expert. But Liftig thinks she soft-pedaled, not wanting to panic people. Since Olmsted's site visit, the district has banned testing or inspections without its permission.

The ETA alerted area health agencies, which acknowledged there are health and safety problems in the district but claimed they do not have jurisdiction.

Ellen Bittner, ETA president, said the district doesn't want the public informed about the problems and isn't taking them as seriously as it should. "I'd like to see immediate attention to those areas that present a hazard or a danger, and see a plan of maintenance," she said. "We have a wonderful maintenance staff, but we don't have an ongoing process that ensures repairs are done so conditions don't reoccur."

She said all the schools have health and safety problems. Greenvale Elementary, for example, has barrels in the hallway to catch rainwater. Tiles are missing and floors buckling. Recently, a sewage backup forced evacuation of first-graders.

Guidelines needed

Denial is typical in district administrations, observed Joel Shufro, executive director of the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health. "Administrators try to avoid scaring parents. So they keep people in the dark instead of involving the parties from the outset of construction projects," said Shufro. "Then all hell breaks loose. There needs to be a protocol developed for districts doing construction, so they prevent unnecessary exposure."

NYCOSH inspects worksites and provides health and safety training throughout Long Island, New York City and parts of the Hudson River region.

Shufro and Olmsted said Eastchester is a timely case in point. If voters on Nov. 4 pass a $2.4 billion school bond act, the pace of renovations will accelerate.

NYSUT's Safety and Health Task Force has been considering construction guidelines. This month, the task force will review standard language in the contract of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City.

Task Force Chairwoman Catherine Davenport, a UFT special representative, said, "It's a nightmare whenever there's construction. But it has to be done."

Before contracts are set, she explained, a protocol meeting is held involving representatives for the UFT, maintenance workers, parents, the construction agency and contractors. They specify such things as work times, supervision, dust containment, noise provisions, and security. (See information box, above right.)

"Noise and dust are the big concerns," said Davenport. "We make sure, for example, that noise doesn't interfere with class work and tests."

The 'lost hour'

In Eastchester, art teacher Randey Gordon worries about winter's onset. That's when a suspect gas heater in his office will kick in.

"I don't want to lose another hour of my life ... or worse," he said.

Last year Gordon was "out" for an hour after he arrived early one morning and began some paperwork. "I awoke in a daze. Classes had begun. Students said they banged on my door, but I never heard them. Aides said I didn't look well. My blood pressure was low."

Gordon now runs a fan in his office. The district eventually provided a carbon monoxide meter, which recently registered a high reading. "They told me I should keep my door open," Gordon said. "I'm just hoping there won't be a 'next time.'"

N.Y. Safety Group Delivers Broadside to United Parcel

CTD NEWS
November 1997

http://www.ctdnews.com/past_issues/1997-11.html

Charging the world's largest package delivery service with "waging a multimillion dollar campaign to cripple federal protection of workers' safety," the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) has launched an offensive against UPS for its anti-OSHA and anti-ergonomics efforts.

In a 65-page report, "UPS's Stealth Campaign Against OSHA," the nonprofit job safety organization in New York City claims "UPS has bankrolled scientists, academics and think tanks, enlisting their services in a fight to prevent OSHA from developing an ergonomics standard."

While many of the activities steered or executed by UPS have been documented before, NYCOSH's efforts represents one of the first organized and direct counters to an ongoing effort by several national business organizations to raise doubts and questions about a planned national ergonomics standard. UPS is a member of many of those groups.

At the end of their rope: That's where a small Adirondack school was until the union sparked a safety crusade.

NEW YORK TEACHER
October 6, 1997

http://www.nysut.org/newyorkteacher/backissues/
1997-1998/971006safety.html

While arranging for photographs to illustrate this report, Gary Hajeris, Adirondack Central School Teachers Association's recently retired president, made one thing clear to New York Teacher:

"No one will go out on that rope ladder for you," Hajeris said. "No one's been on that ladder in years."

Yet that ladder, hung from the third-floor window of a classroom in the district's K-8 building, would have been the only means of evacuation for the seventh-graders in that room. In the event of an emergency, it wouldn't even have gotten them to the ground floor: The rope ladder would drop them only to the gymnasium roof. From there they would have had to jump -- a disaster waiting to happen.

But that ladder and other safety hazards in the 74-year-old structure for 900 elementary and middle-school students have been removed. Alternate escape plans have been devised.

Thanks to the efforts and determination of the teachers' local, which worked with a community coalition, the district is planning a new middle school, plus renovations at the K-8 building in Boonville and at the district's two separate elementary buildings.

What's most impressive, say those involved, is that the Community Coalition for a Safe School championed the rebuilding effort in the midst of heated opposition and criticism from factions that opposed any tax increases needed for school buildings.

Concerns about fire hazards heated up last year after someone set fire to a lavatory towel dispenser and smoke filled the junior high's third floor. The incident drew attention to several potentially dangerous fire hazards, such as the lack of properly enclosed stairwells for escape routes.

The rope ladder was attached to eye bolts screwed into the window's frame. That rig could support only 200 pounds.

Kenneth Reese, fire chief at the time in the town 25 miles north of Utica, had two children attending the school. He said, "It would be nearly impossible to perform a mass rescue in a major fire."

A fact-finding meeting of ACSTA led to the formation of a health and safety task force, which then worked with concerned parents to form the community coalition, whose chairwoman was parent Lori Woodworth.

The coalition identified problems and published a newsletter that detailed more than a dozen safety concerns, including:

• lack of an evacuation plan for handicapped students;
  
• more than 91,000 square feet of asbestos-bearing surfaces in 139 sections of the building;
  
• dangerous wiring problems; and
  
• falling plaster; more than 40 square feet of plaster ceiling had fallen onto the auditorium stage.

During the fact-finding phase, teacher Al Grenning learned that the school building passed previous inspections by local fire officials, but in several instances met only the letter of the law, or had been grandfathered in under less rigorous codes.

The district alerted the State Education Department's chief architect about the hazards. The SED pulled the school's certificate of occupancy, gave the building a temporary certificate, and directed officials to hire an architect to inspect the building and devise a plan.

This left the district with two options: either seek short-term fixes for a few hundred thousand dollars or propose a building and repair bond.

Passing a school bond wouldn't be easy, the coalition knew. Critics questioned the need for concern since the building had passed inspections. A letter to the school board from former students said the school was good enough for them, so it should be good enough for today's students. The previous year, voters had defeated by a 2-to-1 ratio a bond proposal to construct a new building.

In the midst of the controversy, a resident who claimed the bond supporters were "tax-and-spend liberals" decided to run against a board incumbent who supported the bond.

Despite all this, the coalition garnered much support. This groundswell was reflected by the school board, whose members then voted unanimously to propose an $18.5-million renovation bond initiative. The money would pay for a new 6-8 middle school attached to the high school, renovate the current junior high building for offices and renovate the district's other two schools. Costs to taxpayers would be nil, the coalition pointed out, because state building aid covers more than 90 percent of costs and the district would save by moving offices into the renovated building.

Given the politically fraught situation, Hajeris said the coalition decided to take the high road rather than get bogged down in the local politics of a tax-and-spending dispute.

"We decided to put the safety issue with the community by taking away the argument that the district has done everything required under the law," Hajeris explained. "I have an '85 Oldsmobile. Sure, it'll pass inspection, but I wouldn't want to drive it a lot."

The coalition worked to identify voters with a stake in the bond issue, rather than trying to persuade those who opposed it. The coalition did not get involved in the budget vote or in the school board election, although the ACSTA supported the school board incumbent.

The strategy paid off. The bond passed by 2-to-1. Voters re-elected the pro-education school board incumbent and also passed a budget that had a 3 percent tax increase.

Coalition chairwoman Woodworth said the challenge was keeping the focus on the safety issue. "Critics questioned the coalition's motives and whether spending was necessary. We had to maintain our integrity and stick to the issues. We also had to deal with community apathy," said Woodworth, who has two children in school and two more who will be entering.

The local union continues working to enhance its community relations. "We've shown teachers can be an influence in the community when we stand together and work together," said Bill Morgan, who became the local's president after Hajeris retired. "But we know we can't do it on our own. With the help of parents and other community members, we did effect a change."

At first glance, it looks like good news: The state Labor Department's latest figures indicate that health and safety violations in the public sector dropped 53 percent from 1994 to 1995.

But does this drop signal safer workplaces for public employees?

Some state officials would make that link. But public employee unions, including New York State United Teachers, think the decrease stems not from safer workplaces, but from the Labor Department's softer stance on employer violations.

The department has preferred "consultation" with employers rather than aggressive enforcement of fines for violations of the Public Employees Safety and Health Standards Act. Rather than levying fines, PESH inspectors give employers latitude to come into compliance when violations are found. Fines have been reduced and often go uncollected.

John Sweeney, who recently left his post as state labor commissioner, thinks the new strategy works. Sweeney said last spring at an Assembly hearing on enforcement of the PESH act, "The question should not be 'How much did you collect?' but 'How much did you achieve in order to prevent collection in the first place?'"

He pointed out that the illness and injury rates for state workers between 1992 and 1995 declined 19 percent in the most serious cases where people lost days from work: 6.9 per 100 workers in 1992, 5.8 for 1993, and 5.7 in 1994.

One caution on the numbers. The 1992 data were calculated from a universe of workers, while the 1993 and 1994 figures were drawn from a statistically representative sample, explained Marie Flom of the Labor Department's division of research and statistics. "But that doesn't necessarily endanger or qualify the quality of the numbers," she said.

Labor Department spokesperson John Bishop said the drop stems from the department's new stress on teaching employers about compliance and how to achieve it.

Union leaders and experts in workplace safety contend that employers respond best to inspections and penalties. "School districts were no more likely to be in compliance with the law in 1996 than in 1994," said Jan Conti, NYSUT's training director, who testified for the union at the Assembly hearing. "In fact," she continued, "given the deteriorating condition of schools throughout the state, we believe that working conditions for our members and their students have become more hazardous."

Comptroller H. Carl McCall said an audit of the Department of Labor showed that PESH inspections dropped 18 percent between 1993 and 1996, and that only a fraction of the fines have been collected.

All of this runs contrary to the law's intent, observed Joel Shufro, director of the New York Committee on Safety and Health in New York City. He noted that PESH's intent was to get first-instance penalties as a way to motivate employers to stay in compliance before accidents happened.

Ed Olmstead, an industrial hygienist, said school districts tend to overlook problems if PESH hasn't cited a violation. "You have ventilation systems that aren't maintained or don't work. Because there isn't an air-quality standard to cover this, no one gets cited."

NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin said the union wants to work with the Labor Department to address such issues, which include establishing standards for air quality. "We are asking our students to work to higher standards, and that's as it should be," Lubin said. "But it should also be a given that our schools are safe and hazard-free."

NYSUT worked with a coalition of unions to develop standards requiring employers to develop a hazard assessment and a security plan. The proposal was accepted by the Hazard Abatement Board in 1994, but the Labor Department has not yet promulgated standards, despite protests by the state AFL-CIO.

Delegates to NYSUT's 1997 Representative Assembly urged the union to continue fighting hard on safety issues.

Barbara Schatzman, who coordinates health and safety efforts of the Bellport Teachers Association on Long Island, has fought air quality battles. The union's insistence compelled the district to test air quality in 110 rooms where the BTA's health and safety committee documented higher rates of respiratory and eye problems. Tests by a private firm found problems; rooms were cleaned and filters in ventilators were changed, although some problems remain.

Schatzman said the school board, as a result of community interest, established an indoor air quality task force that includes parents, administrators, and union representatives. Now it's creating a master plan to monitor and fix problems.

"What we need is an agency that will tell us what the problems are and how we should take care of them," said Schatzman. "If I monitor a situation for two years, I don't want to be then told to 'consult' with management and to monitor it for another year."

New York State United Teachers, whose field staff assisted the Adirondack Central School Teachers Association in their safety campaign, is a strong advocate at the state level for ensuring that students and staff have safe environments for learning. The union supports the $2.4 billion School Facility Health and Safety Bond Act of 1997. It will fix crumbling school buildings and will go before voters Nov. 4. (See related story.) In 1994, NYSUT issued a report, School Decay: A Prescription for Recovery, which drew attention to safety concerns statewide.

Health Education Awards

DOH News
April 9, 1997

http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/press97/phwrel.htm

The State Health Department today presented awards to eight public health programs as part of New York State's 17th annual Health Education Awards ceremony. The ceremony, part of Public Health Week in New York, celebrated the contributions of schools, community partnerships and health care providers in providing high-quality preventive health services to New Yorkers.

"Effective public health programs utilize the broad partnerships available in our communities," said State Health Commissioner Barbara A. DeBuono, M.D. "Schools, civic groups, businesses, labor and the media all have a role to play in improving the quality of our lives. Each one of these programs exemplifies this type of community collaboration."

Programs receiving awards were:

For Excellence in Health Education Programming:

The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County for its "Healthy Heart Snack Choices Initiative." Since July 1994, the program has involved children and parents in food-related learning activities and has reached more than 4,000 children in 41 child care programs in Nassau County.

The Edmund W. Miles Middle School of Amityville, Long Island for its AIDS Education Program. The school has taught adolescents about HIV and AIDS and has involved students in activities to help them understand and support people with AIDS. Students have volunteered their services to local HIV/AIDS community organizations and have adopted local families affected by the disease.

For Outstanding Health Education Programming:

The Asthma Education program of the Lutheran Medical Center's Sunset Park Family Health Center Network of Brooklyn. To meet an increase in the incidence of asthma in the community, the network established a task force of nurse case managers and health educators who focus on the needs of asthma patients and their families.

The New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. The Committee, a non-profit coalition of more than 200 local unions and 400 physicians, lawyers, public health professionals, has provided training and education programs in response to a wide variety occupational health hazards.

For Meritorious Health Education Programming:

The Dutchess County Department of Health for its Youth Violence Prevention Coalition. The Coalition, utilizing the skills and experience of educators, medical professionals, criminal justice experts, church leaders, youth and concerned citizens, has implemented alternative activities for youth and advocated prevention measures that teach youth to resolve conflict in non-violent ways.

The Samaritans of the Capital District for a volunteer-staffed suicide education initiative for students. The initiative includes a training program, on-site education programs in local schools, publications, and a confidential helpline youth can contact in times of crisis.

The Ramapo Central School District (Rockland County) for its health education program. The program has been a driving force behind the expansion and integration of health education into many facets of student lives.

The Rochester General Hospital for its diabetes heath outreach and education program among Hispanics living in the Rochester area. The program features culturally sensitive education programs and support groups for Hispanics with diabetes, enhanced accessibility to health care through outreach programs, and blood glucose screenings for local residents.

Sick Days at Work

By Kathryn S. Brown
Environmental Health Perspectives
October 1996

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1996/104-10/focus.html

Early in her medical career, Rebecca Bascom became puzzled by a stream of patients complaining of respiratory problems. Bascom, a pulmonary specialist, ran standard lung tests on these patients, whose lungs, surprisingly, seemed to function normally. "With everybody I had seen before . . . I knew the tests to order, the way to treat them," recalls Bascom, now director of the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Environmental Research Facility. "With this group, there just wasn't any [test] that seemed to work." It turns out Bascom's patients were being made ill by substances in the air in their offices. These patients were among the first wave of office workers to complain of a set of symptoms that is now referred to as sick building syndrome (SBS).

According to the World Health Organization, up to 30% of new and remodeled buildings worldwide contain enough pollutants to make workers ill. Asbestos, radon, and environmental tobacco smoke can cause lung cancer or chronic pulmonary disease. And pollutants like volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and bioaerosols--airborne particles emitted by fungi and bacteria--may be causing equally hazardous, though less well-understood, illnesses. Scientists have identified more than 1,500 indoor air pollutants from sources such as carpets, photocopiers, and ventilation ducts.

Researchers suggest that symptoms of SBS result from a complex, hard-to-study blend of pollutants that affects individuals differently. In response, scientists are wielding a range of research tools--from epidemiology studies to air chamber studies--to solve the indoor air pollution problem.

A Growing Concern

The problem of indoor pollution has generated concern among the scientific community around the world. This past July, indoor air researchers met in Japan at the Seventh International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate to discuss the latest research on the topic. Next year, the National Institutes of Health will host the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate's Fifth Conference on Healthy Buildings, which brings together physicians, epidemiologists, microbiologists, and engineers who specialize in indoor air quality.

In the United States, up to 21 million employees are exposed to poor indoor air quality, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Several major office buildings have recently made headlines by being diagnosed as "sick." At a New York office used by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, environmental investigators found high levels of carbon monoxide that forced more than 700 workers into temporary quarters. At Boston's Suffolk County Courthouse, a fume-emitting waterproofing compound caused over 800 employees to move to makeshift offices elsewhere. And in Washington, D.C., health investigators discovered toxic fungi and poor ventilation in the Department of Transportation's headquarters. Again, workers had to evacuate.

Jim Young, a spokesperson for the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), a nonprofit advocacy group for workers, says he receives about 300 telephone calls a month from workers worried about their health. The majority of these calls, he says, involve indoor pollutants. "Indoor air quality is probably the most prevalent occupational health problem that we hear about," Young says. "There have just been more and more calls over time."

Researchers trace a rise in indoor air pollution to the 1970s when the energy crisis dictated a cut in air-handling costs. In 1973, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) reduced the professional standard for the minimum amount of outdoor air brought into buildings by 70%. In the past, office employees had received 20-30 cubic feet of outdoor air per minute per person (cfm/p). The 1973 recommendation called for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems to provide a minimum of just 5 cfm/p of outdoor air.

This outdoor air cutback accompanied a gradual rise in the use of photocopiers, laser printers, personal computers, and other equipment that may release chemical fumes. What's more, architectural designs changed and sealed windows, wall-to-wall carpeting, and fiberglass or particle board materials that may also contribute to the problem were increasingly used in buildings.

Researchers say that lower ventilation rates combined with increased exposure to indoor pollutants might explain the rash of SBS-type illnesses.
According to the EPA, most Americans spend up to 90% of their time indoors, whether at the office or home. The EPA also suggests many indoor pollutants are concentrated at levels 2-5 times higher than outdoor levels. Other researchers suggest that psychological factors associated with the work environment including monotonization, loss of privacy, electronic monitoring of productivity, a faster work pace, and bad management practices may also play a role by increasing worker stress and compounding awareness of symptoms.

Too Little Data

Still, despite the statistics and plausible explanations, studies of hazardous buildings suffer from a lack of data as well as disagreements over sampling techniques, exposure assessments, and nomenclature.

"Think of it this way," says John Spengler, a professor of environmental science and physiology at Harvard University, "when you're doing classic epidemiology, you may have to control a lot of variables, but you're still just making observations about individuals or groups of individuals. When you talk about buildings, you expand the inherent variability. You have to consider stress, job dissatisfaction, vibration, noise, lighting. There are so many factors that it's much more difficult to study. So there has yet to be a 1,000-building study."

Understanding and fixing indoor air pollution problems hasn't been as easy as researchers hoped. "Ten years ago, as epidemiologists we anticipated that we would figure out the causes [of SBS] by studying the atmosphere in buildings and diagnosing the probability [of illness] by knowing what's in the air," remarks Michael Hodgson, an associate professor of occupational and environmental medicine at the University of Connecticut. "But that has not worked because of limitations in our study designs, sampling frames, and exposure assessment strategies." Simply increasing ventilation rates, for example, hasn't solved the problem in every instance, although studies show that symptoms do improve when rates are increased from the current professional design standard of 25 cfm/p of outdoor air to 50cfm/p. In 1990, ASHRAE modified its ventilation guidelines, recommending that building owners return outdoor air flow rates to around 20 cfm/p. Still, indoor air pollution complaints continue.

Ongoing uncertainty leaves builders and engineers without any indoor air regulatory standards to follow, notes Hillel Koren, director of the human studies division at the EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory. "It would be very difficult, at this point, to create [regulatory standards]," Koren says. "In outdoor pollutants, like ozone, there are ambient national quality standards and a scientific database. In indoor air, we are at an early stage of establishing, characterizing, and developing good biomarkers and endpoints. Here, we are just getting started." Still, Hodgson argues that regulatory standards have always lagged behind good professional standards and that adoption of the ASHRAE standard would solve a lot of the health complaints.

A Volatile Situation

At first, Mary Ann Mazzella, an administrative aide at New York University, began suffering from headaches. Then she began to have sinus problems. Soon she noticed she was feeling lethargic. Eventually, on hot days, she got so nauseous at the office that she'd call it quits and head home early. "I never got to the point where I was seriously ill," says Mazzella, "but I felt terrible."

With help from her local union, Mazzella got her office building's blueprints and surmised the source of her misery: industrial fumes and poor ventilation. "I work in a renovated factory building," Mazzella says. "We're supposed to have fresh air ducts every few feet. We don't. We have no windows. And the air conditioning shuts down for days at a time."
In fact, the photocopying room in Mazzella's building lacked a filtering system to flush out air rich in VOCs, including formaldehyde and ozone, which are emitted by photocopiers. This is a common oversight, according to indoor air researchers. Reporting in the July 1995 issue of the ASHRAE Journal, Hodgson and colleagues noted that, "In our experience, complaints around photocopiers abound, presumably because of ventilation inadequate for the needs imposed by this particular source."

In addition to photocopiers, a variety of building equipment and materials including paint, cleaning compounds, glues, silicone caulking material, insecticides, laser printers, personal computers, photographic equipment, fiberglass, and carpeting can give off irritating chemicals. Like Mazzella, employees affected by this chemical soup report a number of allergy-like symptoms.

Researchers often classify VOC sources based on how fast their emissions decline. For example, solid, dry materials like carpet or particle board are "slow decay" sources, meaning they strike the air with an initial blast of chemicals, then emissions slowly fall. Wet products like paints, adhesives, or waxes are "fast decay" sources that release most of their chemicals within minutes to days, though VOCs may be emitted for months or even years.

One wet product to gain attention in recent years is the adhesive glue used to install some carpets. Such glue can infuse the air with VOCs such as formaldehyde. Because of these chemicals, manufacturers recommend that new carpet owners temporarily turn up their ventilation systems.

Some workers may be more susceptible to VOC emissions than others. A myriad of factors ranging from noise to harsh lighting can aggravate symptoms of illness, making employees more aware of their physiological reactions. Awareness of an unusual odor, such as one emanating from carpeting, for example, can even make employees suspicious of air quality that is actually acceptable. "Smell plays a role because people smell things they don't expect to and [believe] there must be something wrong," explains William Cain, a professor of surgery and head of the Chemosensory Perception Laboratory at the University of California at San Diego. "They think that if something smells bad, it may be bad for you. That really isn't a good toxicological rule."

Cain is conducting experiments to separate the psychological effects of odor from measurable nasal inflammation and eye irritation, which more accurately pinpoint building-induced health problems. In a recent study to be published in Perception and Psychophysics, Cain and colleagues administered mixtures of VOCs to two sets of people: those with a normal sense of smell, and anosmics, or those without a sense of smell. In both groups of people, the researchers established threshold levels of physiological irritation for mixtures of chemicals like ethyl acetate, butanol, and benzene. "Every organic compound has an odor threshold and an irritation threshold," says Cain. "At some point above these thresholds, people can sense irritation. Our work entails measuring the difference. We use people without a sense of smell to measure the point where things truly become irritating."

So far, Cain and colleagues have found that the more chemical compounds that are combined, the more likely they are to cause physiological reactions. "If you want to be rash, you might say we get increasing additivity [more reactions between chemicals] with increasing complexity. You may have nine components in a study, and the real environment has 100 components. By the time you get to 100, you really have a tremendously more potent stimulus than you would predict by just knowing the individual components involved."

The additivity of VOCs may have foiled many attempts to discern toxic levels of chemicals in a building. Traditionally, environmental investigators simply measured the levels of individual airborne chemicals. But this approach overlooks the interaction between those chemicals. "The whole theory since the 1930s has operated on a flawed philosophy that maximum allowable concentrations were the best way [to measure indoor pollutants]," says Hodgson. "That helps explain why people have symptoms even while [equipment] perceives low levels."

Unfortunately, Cain says, research into VOC interaction is technical and expensive. "The problem is that we've got hundreds of chemicals. If we're going to talk about health effects that we're interested in, we've got to begin building the database one chemical at a time. Looking at the task, it seems almost insurmountable. But it's the tried-and-true path."

Koren is one researcher willing to travel that path. He and his colleagues are conducting a number of chamber studies in which they expose subjects to controlled amounts of VOCs. Using nasal wash to measure a subject's reactions and ocular examinations, the scientists can look for objective biological changes that indicate inflammation. "Our procedures allow us to measure changes that would lead to irritation and congestion, which are some of the most prominent complaints of SBS," Koren says.

Rather than build a database one chemical at a time, Koren hopes to find a model or prototype of VOCs to represent whole families of compounds with similar structures. "Ideally, once we find some clinical endpoints, I'd like to work with epidemiologists who can identify sick buildings, engineers to monitor exposure, . . . biologists of various disciplines that can analyze whatever we find," Koren says. "It's got to be the kind of research that can integrate studies."

Invisible Zoo

Abundant as they may be, VOCs are not the only hazards to inhabit office air. Fungi, bacteria, viruses, algae, and other microbes lurk inside air ducts, grow around ceiling tiles, and thrive on almost any warm, damp surface.

Microbes need only four basic ingredients to survive: organic nutrients on which to feed, moisture (whether from humid air or standing water), a surface on which to grow, and darkness. Fungi usually travel from outdoors into a building, so high concentrations of mold or fungi occur in buildings surrounded by trees or shrubs. Once the microbes get inside, they capitalize on the nourishing environment of indoor humidity, dust, and dirt.

While their living requirements are minimal, microbes' health effects are quite substantial. Bacteria and fungi can produce airborne particles called bioaerosols, such as spores or mycotoxins. These bioaerosols can leave employees with symptoms such as coughing, headaches, and other allergic reactions. Buildings left vacant or recently renovated are particularly susceptible to microbe invasions. Researchers suggest that renovating a building may increase the concentration of indoor air contaminants 1,000-fold.

Like VOCs, microbial contamination can be difficult to assess and treat. Current microbiological techniques are very limited, says Mark Mendell, an epidemiologist with the Cincinnati office of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. "For one thing," he says, "conventional measurements typically only measure organisms that will actually grow on culture, but it is not only the living organisms that can cause problems.

Nonliving spores, or pieces of organisms, or substances released from organisms can all have health effects, either allergic or toxic. For example, there are substances called mycotoxins (released from fungi) and endotoxins (contained in gram-negative bacteria) that are known to have serious adverse health effects at high levels in agricultural environments. A variety of evidence now suggests that both of these may be causing health effects at high levels in some indoor environments as well, but these substances are not usually measured indoors."

Koren and others are trying to identify what makes a person susceptible to irritation from biological contaminants. Koren's microbe research includes buildings and homes, both of which can host high levels of fungi and other microbes. Koren is studying interactions between outdoor and indoor pollutants. "Our question is, does exposure to outdoor pollutants like ozone increase a person's sensitivity to [indoor pollutants] like dust mites," Koren says. "We hope to help other agencies come up with prevention policies that take into account how the indoor environment fits with the outdoor environment."

In one experiment, Koren and colleagues exposed asthmatic study participants sensitive to dust mites to ozone and later to allergens carried by dust mites found in homes. Results appear to show that the combined contaminants spur a much stronger asthmatic reaction than either does alone.

Filling in the Gaps

Because little data exists on VOCs, microbes, and other indoor pollutants, researchers are furiously working to fill in the gaps. For example, the EPA's Indoor Air Division is about halfway through a study of 100 randomly-chosen office buildings across the United States with the goal of creating basic pollution data on typical buildings.

"There isn't a lot of information about the quality of air in office buildings now," explains Susan Womble, an EPA environmental scientist and manager of the project, called Baseline Information on Indoor Air Quality in Large Buildings, or BASE. "So when people investigate sick building syndrome, for example, they don't have anything to compare their measurements to."

With the help of 40 experts, the EPA developed a standardized protocol--including characterization of a building, environmental monitoring, and questionnaires on health symptoms--with which to inspect buildings. Scientists have now studied 41 buildings. Information on the first 13 became available to researchers this fall. "We expect to use the data for trends and to help us spot indicators that we should be following up on," Womble says. "We're hoping that this will also give us some insight into other studies that we need to target."

Meanwhile, James Woods, an environmental design professor and director of the Center for Building Health, Safety, and Productivity at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, is working on a different approach: communication between practitioners. Because indoor air pollution spans many fields, epidemiology, microbiology, occupational medicine, and engineering specialists often find themselves working at cross purposes. Woods explains, "A clinician is going to approach the problem from the patient's perspective. A public health person is going to look at preventive measures. Engineers look at specific buildings. Policy makers look at sets of buildings. We want to try to get that all together and be able to address problems."

To bring indoor air specialists together, Woods and colleagues are planning a 1997 meeting, Healthy Buildings: Global Issues and Regional Solutions. The conference will be hosted by the NIH in conjunction with ASHRAE's annual conference. Eventually, Woods hopes to establish standardized methods of defining, tracking, and treating buildings that, over time, experience varying rates of pollution.

"I think awareness [of building pollution] is changing," Woods says. "So the social trend is greater demand for improved performance of buildings. That includes thermal conditions, lighting, acoustic, and ergonomic factors." Woods notes that such factors affect employee stress, which in turn aggravates most health symptoms. "If you address just one of these factors, the level of stress is not affected well enough. You've got to address all of them."

While these researchers attempt to refine existing approaches, others are examining often overlooked pollutants. At Cornell University, Alan Hedge, a professor of design and environmental analysis, blames some indoor health complaints on manmade mineral fibers dropped into the air by ceiling tiles, insulation, and ventilation systems. In a recent study, Hedge and colleagues discovered high rates of employee health complaints correlated with high numbers of manmade mineral fibers in settled dust. In another study, after installing filter systems that collected the fibers, Hedge says, the number of complaints plummeted.

Hedge stumbled across the mineral fiber phenomenon while investigating a building for VOC contamination. "We were inside the building when one employee said to me 'I'm sure there's something in this building. I've got an air filter on my desk. Would you take a look at it?'" Hedge recalls. "I shook the filter out and looked at some samples on [microscope] slides. I was absolutely astonished to find samples full of what looked like glass fibers."

Intrigued, Hedge began reading up on mineral fibers. He learned that in the 1960s--when homes were built using fiberglass in the linings of ductwork--residents complained of health problems similar to today's SBS. He also discovered a number of building practices introduced in the 1970s that might be implicated in illnesses, such as the use of fiberglass in broad ceiling spaces or insulation placed inside the ventilation system where mineral fibers can shred and rain down on employees. "Inhaling [fibers] is like swallowing a . . . javelin," Hedge says. "If you swallow them end-ways, they can get quite far. The fiber pieces are three to eight microns in diameter and up to 30 microns long. They can cause fiber damage to epithelial cells of your eyes, nose, and throat." Hedge also believes fibers cause skin irritation and other symptoms.

Hedge says many researchers, steeped in the study of microbes or VOCs, have yet to seriously pursue the mineral fiber-illness relationship. However, researchers in England are working on similar studies, and Hedge is planning further studies on fibers.

Regulation Unlikely

At least for the time being, enforced regulations on workplace air quality appear unlikely. The closest policy makers have come is a 1994 proposal by OSHA that addressed a wide range of pollutants, including tobacco smoke. The proposed legislation called for employers to implement and maintain controls for many known pollutants. The proposal also asked employers to develop indoor air quality compliance plans and do inspections to make sure those plans work. While many indoor air researchers and activists supported the OSHA proposal, even more building owners, managers, and employers opposed it. "In our period of public comment we received over 115,000 comments," says Debra Janes, a health scientist and project manager at OSHA. "It's hard to find anyone who wants to take responsibility [for indoor air pollution]. And nobody wants to be cited over something they have no control over. Say there's a wet photocopier with solvents that are leaking. The building manager will say, 'That's not related to the building design. Why should we be responsible?'" Given the blast of negative responses, Janes says, it will take OSHA "a while" to review the responses received during the comment period.

The EPA continues to emphasize voluntary building standards to prevent indoor air pollutants. "We think there are incentives for doing it voluntarily," says Elissa Feldman, deputy director of the EPA's indoor air division. "Some real estate markets have rentable office space that's overflowing. [Quality indoor air] is a niche that some building owners could use to their advantage. It's also true that indoor air costs increasingly are associated with liability. In a big lawsuit, [the victim] can go after everybody from the architect to the general contractor and everybody along the way. Plus, getting a reputation as a sick building is really death to a marketable property."

The only way to tighten indoor air regulation and improve patients' diagnoses is to amass a broad collection of studies on poorly understood pollutants, researchers say. However, says Koren, "We are experiencing dwinding funding for this important health issue. There is a great deal of research that has only begun and that needs to be pursued vigorously to improve our understanding of the risks associated with the indoor air environment. And that is our number one goal."

Hurt On The Job: Injured Employees Are Covered by Worker's Comp, but System May Be in for Overhaul

By Kenneth C. Crowe and Craig Gordon
NEWSDAY
June 2, 1996

http://www.productslaw.com/wc1.html

Molten plastic was injected into the machine, then steel plates slammed down with a force equal to 2,000 tons. For 18 years it went that way as Newburgh Molded Products turned out pretty little boxes for the cosmetics industry - until a hot August night in 1993.

No one is quite sure what went wrong that night, but when operator Alice Hayes reached into the plastic-molding machine to take out the finished boxes, the powerful steel plates crushed her outstretched arms. Three safety devices, any one of which would have prevented the machine from slamming shut, had failed to operate.

The accident resulted in Hayes losing both arms below the elbows and receiving $4 million in settlement of a lawsuit. Her case has become one of the centerpieces of the contentious battle over restructuring New York state's workers' compensation insurance system.

It is a battle pitting powerful, deep-pocketed interests on both sides - big business vs. organized labor and Republican vs. Democrat - that has been going on for more than two decades with little significant movement. But many Albany insiders believe this year could produce some changes in workers' comp because two competing proposals in the state Legislature share the broad themes of seeking savings for business, increasing weekly benefits for injured workers, promoting workplace safety and reducing fraud.

"The fact that this state's economy has been in such bad shape and that we have been sitting dead in the water and the rest of the country has been booming since the recovery began is really sinking in, and both parties are trying to do something about it," said David Shaffer, spokesman for the state Business Council.

Gov. George Pataki, the insurance industry and business groups including the Long Island Association are pressing for legislation to cut the $5-billion workers' compensation insurance premium tab by about 25 percent through reforms, including eliminating so-called third-party lawsuits against employers, and a new approach to providing benefits to injured workers.

They say New York's worker compensation costs are 50 percent higher than the national average and must be reduced to create jobs and attract new business. They cite examples like that of B.F. Goodrich, which is moving 150 jobs from an upstate Norwich electrical components plant to Fort Worth, Texas, because of New York's high business costs, including workers' comp. To be sure, Goodrich also will be able to cut its labor costs by moving the jobs from the unionized Norwich plant to the nonunion factory in Texas.

The cost of workers' comp "has been a major problem for small businesses like ours," said Louis Miaritis, owner of the Three Village Inn in Stony Brook, who pays about $75,000 a year in workers' comp premiums, or $5 for every $100 he pays in salary.

On the other side is the 2.5-million-member New York State AFL-CIO, headed by Edward J. Cleary, which is aligned with the State Trial Lawyers Association and the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health. They contend the Pataki proposal would shift the proposed savings from the pockets of injured workers into the coffers of their employers and insurance companies.

The workers' compensation system was set up by the state in 1914 so that employees suffering on-the-job injuries were guaranteed lump-sum or weekly payments and medical treatment. Workers' comp can cover anything from a dramatic accident such as Hayes' to minor injuries such as a strained back.

There are three sources of workers' comp insurance: Private insurance accounts for 40 percent of the $5 billion in premiums, and coverage through the state Insurance Fund accounts for about one-third. The balance is paid by large corporations that self-insure, or set aside enough money each year to cover their workers' comp expenses.

An important part of the system was a no-fault provision that meant workers would get benefits no matter how the injuries happened, in exchange for giving up the right to sue their employers over the injuries.

However, that changed with a 1972 state Court of Appeals decision, Dole vs. Dow, which has emerged as a central sticking point between this year's competing proposals. Under Dole vs. Dow, the manufacturer of a product or machine, sued by an injured worker, can include the worker's employer as a third party in the suit to share the blame and the costs of the damages.

Pataki and Republicans who control the state Senate are pushing for repeal of Dole vs. Dow, a top business priority, arguing that it would save employers $220 million to $350 million a year - even though only about one-third of 1 percent of the 200,000 claims filed each year result in third-party suits.

Democrats in the state Assembly and union leaders argue that repealing Dole would limit workers' abilities to be compensated for injuries. Democrats say their bill would cut Dole-related costs by up to 40 percent for the safest employers by limiting liability and setting up a pool to pay out awards above the limits.

Democrats also say their bill would bring costs down by 20 percent overall, based on the track records of similar programs in other states, though Republicans accuse the Democrats of inflating the likely savings that would come from reducing fraud.

On worker benefits, the Senate Republican bill, an amended version of Pataki's original bill that now has the governor's support, would increase benefits to a maximum of $560 a week over three years, from the current maximum of $400. The Assembly benefits proposal provides for increases in years when insurance rates come down by 5 percent and appears less generous than the Senate's plan, though Democrats said they considered their proposal the starting point for negotiations.

Labor has long contended that benefits should be indexed to increases in the state's average weekly wage. The cap hasn't been raised since 1992.

Alice Hayes' case is an example of why Dole vs. Dow is significant and why passions run so deep on both sides.

Hayes had worked at the factory in upstate Newburgh for 19 years when the accident occurred at 8:20 p.m. on Aug. 3, 1993. She was a 59-year-old widow with four grown children, earning $258 a week.

As the machine moved into its next cycle, opening and releasing her, Hayes turned to walk away in a state of shock. A supervisor immediately called the fire department's emergency number, saying Hayes' arms were "hanging off."

Hayes was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in Newburgh, then transferred the same night to Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan, where surgeons tried to save her arms. The effort ended with both arms being amputated above the wrists.

Under workers' comp, Hayes received $171 a week, or two-thirds of her normal pay. Medical expenses totaling $208,000 were covered by insurance, also as provided by the workers' comp law.

Hayes, who needs round-the-clock assistance, sued to get more than the compensation system provided. Her lawyer, Elliot Tetenbaum, filed a personal injury suit in federal court in Manhattan against Newbury Industries, the Newbury, Ohio, company that manufactured the molding machine in 1975. Tetenbaum contended that Newbury Industries had sold Newburgh Molded Products a defective machine whose safety devices failed and lacked an alarm bell to warn the worker of the failures.

In every state except New York, Hayes' employer would have escaped being included in her lawsuit because of no-fault provisions. But because of Dole vs. Dow, Newbury Industries was able to file an action against Newburgh Molded as a third party. The Ohio company alleged that Hayes' employer didn't provide safety information about the machine to its workers, and said the safety devices failed because the machine was modified and inadequately maintained.

"It was my position those devices were neglected and not inspected," Tetenbaum said.

Newburgh Molded denied the allegations.

Last October, just before the case was to come to trial, the insurers for the two companies settled by agreeing to pay Hayes $4 million. The Ohio company's share was $500,000, while $3.5 million came from Newburgh Molded's insurer, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. The settlement ended Hayes' benefits under workers' comp.

That might have been the end of the matter. But after Sally Polhamus, the owner of Newburgh Molded, testified at a state Senate Labor Committee hearing in February, the Hayes case became something of a cause celebre for labor.

Polhamus described the mishap as "a freak accident" and cited Dole vs. Dow as the reason Hayes was able to obtain a settlement for as much as $4 million. Polhamus urged repeal of Dole vs. Dow, saying her company's workers' comp premiums have increased from $40,000 in 1988 to $125,000 each of the past three years.

A state AFL-CIO staffer at the hearing decided to research the case. Ultimately, Hayes became a symbol of labor's lobbying effort against Pataki's effort to change the workers' comp law. Posters and brochures showing Hayes holding out the stubs of her arms say: "Alice Hayes' Employer Took Her Hands Away. Now Big Business Wants to Take Your Rights Away."

Tetenbaum, her lawyer, said, "For her to permit a photograph of herself to be used was a real, real gutsy deal. Why? Because she wanted to help other people. She doesn't want publicity, she doesn't want to be another Elephant Man. [But] she does not want another worker not to get redress."

Tetenbaum said that without Dole vs. Dow, Hayes would have received only $500,000, the settlement amount paid by the machine's manufacturer.

Cleary, the state AFL-CIO president and his allies contend that third-party suits put pressure on insurance companies to encourage employers to operate safely.

But Pataki staffer Bob Bellafiore said, "What did it do for Alice Hayes? There was Dole, and she was subjected to a tragic accident. What is important is that accidents like these be prevented, which is what the governor's bill is all about."

The Pataki-Senate bill provides rate incentives to companies adding safety-improving technology and requires employers with poor safety records to improve safety practices or face a surcharge on premiums.

Central to Pataki's cost-cutting program is replacing the current system of workers' comp administrative law judges making subjective decisions on the level of benefits with a new approach: using the American Medical Association's "Guide to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment" to set benefits. The guidelines would be applied to "permanent partial injuries," with an injured worker getting up to 700 weeks of benefits on a sliding scale. Existing workers' comp insurance can provide benefits for life.

"About 38 other states use them [AMA guidelines], and their costs are significantly lower than New York's," Bellafiore said. "They are objective standards that insert objectivity and fairness into a system that right now lacks both." The state Labor Department estimates that adopting the AMA standards would save employers between $200 million and $500 million a year.

However, Dr. Tom Houston, director of preventive medicine for the AMA, said that Pataki's proposal is a misapplication of the guidelines. Houston said the guidelines actually are used by only two states, Tennessee and Colorado, to determine benefit levels.

He sought to explain why it is difficult to strictly apply the guidelines to workers' comp cases. "We like to use the example of a concert pianist and a bank vice president in a car accident, in which they both lose the first and second fingers of the right hand. They have exactly the same impairment, but the disability is quite different. The bank vice president is just fine, but the concert pianist is pretty much ruined. That's why it is not proper to take the number from our book."

Fraud is the one factor that all sides agree should be eliminated from the system, though no one knows how extensive it is. Pataki would create a workers' compensation fraud inspector general, backed by an investigative staff. Assembly Democrats would require insurance companies to have investigative units and also provide incentives to safer employers, such as rate credits for employers who use safety consultants. In both bills, workers' compensation fraud, now a misdemeanor, would become a Class E felony with a mandatory prison sentence.

While labor also wants fraud eliminated, Cleary contends that most of it is attributable to businesses, not workers. When businesses pay for services off the books or underreport their payrolls to insurance companies, they are, in effect, forcing honest employers to bear a larger part of the cost of the workers' comp system, he said.

All the arguments aside, Dan Shannon of BH Aircraft Co. in Farmingdale just wants to see some flexibility introduced into the system. Three years ago his company acquired Production Cable Industries in Ronkonkoma, which produces small cable harnesses and assemblies used for such things as bar-code readers at supermarket checkout counters. He said the work consists of two shifts of 20 to 25 women putting the small assemblies together with little risk of injury, but the insurance rate exceeds $6 per $100 of payroll - the same as if the workers were in a telephone cable plant.

"It is very safe work," said Shannon, BH Aircraft's treasurer. "The rate should probably be about half of that. We've had no workers' compensation claims. There's a lack of flexibility in setting up the rates"

Copyright Newsday 1996

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Site is National Historic Landmark

By Debra E.Bernhardt
Cultural Resources Management
August 1994

http://crm.cr.nps.gov/archive/17-1/17-1-12.pdf

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