Washington, D.C. – Last week, a report from the National Commission of Inquiry into the Worker Health and Safety Crisis in the Solid Waste Industry and the Teamsters Union provided alarming accounts of the hazards sanitation workers face on the job. Reports include exposure to asbestos and other harmful toxins.

This week, the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety heard testimony from sanitation unions with Change to Win about the need for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to monitor sanitation companies more closely.

In particular, sanitation giant Waste Management, Inc. has been targeted due to the close examination of its practices that was highlighted in the National Commission of Inquiry report, titled “In Harm’s Way.”

The report includes analysis of interviews with mechanics, solid waste drivers, and other sanitation workers employed by Waste Management, Inc., which employs approximately 50,000 people.

According to the report, “garbage collection is one of the most dangerous professions in the United States,” and “health and safety problems in this industry are at crisis proportions.” For sanitation workers, ever-present occupational hazards include “losing limbs in machinery, inhaling asbestos, [and] handling used medical needles and human feces.

Sanitation workers who responded to an anonymous survey admitted coming into contact with hazardous substances frequently. Respondents reported exposure to rotting meat, parasites, maggots, medical waste, used syringes, and asbestos.

Another reason Waste Management, Inc., has been targeted is the company’s increasingly poor record for OSHA violations. Between 2003 and 2007, the number of recorded OSHA violations for the company increased 28%.

The Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety this week was prompted by the death of Florida-based Waste Management, Inc. mechanic Raul Figueroa. The man was killed in January 2008 when the hydraulic arm of the garbage truck he was repairing severed his body in two.

Health and Safety Coordinator for Change to Win Eric Frumin testified that sanitation workers are more likely to die at work than are police or firefighters, and highlighted excerpts from “In Harm’s Way,” including allegations that Waste Management, Inc. is “playing a risky game with workers’ lives and public safety.”

Almost 60% of Waste Management, Inc. workers surveyed rated the company’s truck maintenance as fair, poor, or a failure. Just over 31% of respondents to an anonymous nation-wide survey reported being exposed to asbestos at least once within the three months prior to completing the survey.

Teamsters Union General President Jim Hoffa said, “We are calling on the Senate today to strengthen OSHA’s enforcement powers. OSHA needs the clout to reform bad-actor companies such as WMI, where an entrenched disregard for workers’ safety is part of the corporate culture.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, Asbestos Legislation, District of Columbia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.