Although Workers' Memorial Day was officially April 28, the time has not passed for remembering the thousands of friends, family members, and neighbors whose lives were tragically cut short due to fatal on-the-job incidents this past year. We carry on their memories as we renew the fight for healthy and safe working conditions.
On average, 5,320 workers die on the job every year. In 2017, the latest year for which data is available, the death toll was 5,147. These figures do not account for the estimated 50,000 workers who succumbed to occupational diseases caused by chronic exposures to toxic chemicals and other harmful substances they encountered in their workplaces.
Every day across the nation, salon workers are exposed to toxic chemicals like toluene and formaldehyde in nail polish and hair dyes, construction workers inhale asbestos during home renovations and silica during sandblasting, and janitorial crews work with hazardous commercial cleaners. The health risks they encounter are ever-present, and the consequences can be financially and emotionally devastating.
American companies have a legal and moral duty to provide their workers with safe and healthy working conditions. And our nation's protector agencies, like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), have the responsibility to adopt and enforce strong standards to ensure companies are meeting their obligations. Yet chemical hazards persist in the workplace.
Many employers take this legal and moral obligation seriously and take proper steps to safeguard their workers from hazards by implementing emergency and risk management plans, replacing harmful chemicals with safer alternatives, building safeguards into their plants and production processes, and training workers to identify and protect against toxic exposures. Unfortunately, even when employers follow the letter of the law, some of their workers may still be at risk because a number of toxic chemicals are essentially unregulated. Some employers take precautions to protect their workers from such dangers, but not nearly all of them.
Even more worrisome are the employers who choose to ignore the law, cutting corners to save a few dollars even if it means exposing their employees to potentially fatal hazards.
The reality is that numerous low-road employers actively skirt the law, knowing the chance of a random OSHA inspection is small. In 2018, the agency had a mere 1,815 inspectors across the country, responsible for 9.8 million establishments. And although these employers certainly don't intend for workers to be killed, they know the average penalty for a fatality in 2018 was a paltry $7,761 in Fed-OSHA states and $2,700 in states that run their own programs.
Despite the need for federal and state governments to boost resources dramatically, the Trump administration is working against workers' interests while helping big companies through deregulation and tax giveaways.
For all those reasons, workers sometimes need to keep a watchful eye on possible exposures to toxics, and, when necessary, stand up to defend themselves. A new resource from the Center for Progressive Reform aims to help them hold scofflaw employers accountable for endangering their employees with uncontrolled exposures to toxic chemicals and other harmful substances. The guide explores tactics workers can use to secure a nontoxic work environment, from filing complaints with government agencies to suing employers themselves.
Even as Workers' Memorial Day passes, we must not only remember our fallen workers, but we must fight for the living. There's no better time than the present to take action.
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Katie Tracy, Thomas McGarity | April 29, 2019
Although Workers' Memorial Day was officially April 28, the time has not passed for remembering the thousands of friends, family members, and neighbors whose lives were tragically cut short due to fatal on-the-job incidents this past year. We carry on their memories as we renew the fight for healthy and safe working conditions. On average, […]
Matthew Freeman | April 23, 2019
CPR Member Scholar Bill Buzbee has an op-ed in The New York Times this morning in which he observes that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority faces a true rubber-meets-the-road test as it considers the Trump administration’s determination to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, despite multiple procedural and substantive problems with the plan. […]
Joseph Tomain | April 22, 2019
In 1956, Texas oil geologist M. King Hubbert predicted that U.S. oil production would peak no later than 1970. Lo and behold, in 1970, oil production topped out at just over 9.6 million barrels a day (mbd) and began its decline. The predicted peak had been reached. Regarding the world oil supply – no worries. […]
Joseph Tomain | April 22, 2019
Fossil fuels are reaching their consumption peak. By way of example, the United States has a surfeit of coal, but coal use is on the decline as natural gas and renewable resources replace the dirty fuel for generating electricity. Similarly, oil and natural gas are on the same decreasing consumption trajectory as recent data and […]
James Goodwin | April 18, 2019
One of the most successful environmental regulations in U.S. history is under attack from the Trump EPA – and its demise might be accomplished by shady bookkeeping. That is the conclusion of comments filed by Center for Progressive Reform Member Scholars and staff on April 17. Since it was issued in 2011, the Mercury and […]
Katie Tracy | April 17, 2019
Workers should be able to earn a paycheck without putting their lives or their health and well-being on the line. Yet every day, an estimated 137 U.S. workers succumb to diseases caused by on-the-job exposure to toxic chemicals and other hazardous substances, and hundreds of thousands more suffer from nonfatal illnesses. In fact, more people die annually from toxic exposures at work than from car crashes, firearms, or opioids.
William Funk | April 16, 2019
Last week, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum to all agencies regarding compliance with the Congressional Review Act (CRA). This memo supersedes one issued in 1999 and pulls independent regulatory agencies – specifically designed by Congress to be less prone to political interference than executive agencies – […]
Matt Shudtz | April 15, 2019
The federal Clean Water Act has been a resounding success as a tool for restoring our nation's waterways and preserving wetlands and other vital components of our ecosystems. But that success depends, in part, on restricting development in ecologically sensitive areas. That's why the Trump administration has proposed to narrow the scope of the Clean […]
Daniel Farber | April 12, 2019
Originally published on Legal Planet. Every day, it seems that there is a headline about some investigation involving campaign finance violations, the White House, or the actions of some foreign power. Perhaps that's all the bandwidth that Congress has. But there are other areas calling out for inquiry. Here are just a few: CAFE Standards. […]