The Canary Report

A toxic emissions spill at a BP refinery in Texas makes area residents ill; a $10 billion class-action lawsuit is filed

Posted on Aug 30, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Susie Collins

The New York Times reports while the world was focused on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a BP refinery in Texas released huge amounts of toxic chemicals into the air that went unnoticed by residents until many saw their children come down with respiratory problems.

While we were busy paying attention to the health affects of the BP oil well blow out in the Gulf, a community in Texas was dealing with the aftermath of a BP refinery spewing out huge amounts of toxic chemicals into the air during an accident.

The New York Times reports With Neighbors Unaware, Toxic Spill at a BP Plant.

For 40 days in April-May, 538,000 pounds of toxic chemicals poured out of the refinery following an equipment failure. Environmentalists say the release of toxic gases ranked as one of the largest in the state’s history. Most households in one area close to the spill had at least one family member fall ill during the month of the accident, including many children. Residents are so angry, they’ve filed a $10 billion class-action lawsuit against BP.

[The] final report said the release of chemicals had gone on for 959 hours, until May 16. Among other pollutants, the plant had released 17,000 pounds of benzene; 37,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides, which can cause respiratory problems; and 186,000 pounds of carbon monoxide. Another 262,000 pounds of various volatile organic compounds also escaped.

“The state’s investigation shows that BP’s failure to properly maintain its equipment caused the malfunction and could have been prevented,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.

Of interest to Canary Report readers is that current research shows both carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds or VOCs can initiate Multiple Chemical Sensitivity in susceptible individuals. (The seven main classes of chemicals that can initiate cases of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity include three classes of pesticides: organophosphorus and carbamate pesticides, the organochlorine pesticides and the pyrethroid pesticides. Other types of chemicals reported to initiate cases of MCS include organic compounds, mercury, hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide. See the peer-reviewed MCS research of biochemist Martin Pall for further information.)

How many new cases of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity have been initiated through the negligence of BP in these recent accidents in the Gulf and in Texas is anyone’s guess at this point.

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Tags: Air, Canary's Cry, Chemicals, Children's Health, Environment, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Pollution, Research, Toxic

TEDTalk: Marine toxicologist Susan Shaw on the oil spill’s toxic trade-off

Posted on Aug 26, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Media/Videos, Susie Collins

Marine toxicologist Susan Shaw does a TEDTalk about the consequences of using oil dispersants during the BP oil well blow out.

Of special interest to Canary Report readers is Shaw’s point about the overarching problem of lax chemical regulation in the US.

Click here to learn more about TedTalks, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.

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Tags: Chemicals, Pollution, Toxic, Video

BP blowout cleanup workers are getting sick

Posted on Jul 09, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Media/Videos, Susie Collins

BP blowout cleanup workers are getting sick; Exxon Valdez survivor warns of long term health effects, and an activist chemist currently on site in the Gulf reports on current illnesses in BP cleanup crew.

Click on the video, it will automatically start at the beginning of the section on BP.

As the BP oil spill enters its 78th day, cleanup crews across the Gulf Coast are working to try and remove what they can of the expanding oil slick. And many of them are getting sick doing it. A growing number of cleanup workers have reported suffering flu-like symptoms including headaches, dizziness, fatigue, nausea and problems with memory and concentration. We speak with a Louisiana chemist who testified before Congress to call for greater worker protections and a former general foreman of the cleanup crews of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Interviewed:

Merle Savage, general foreman of the cleanup crews of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.

Wilma Subra, chemist and president of Subra Company. She provides technical assistance to community groups on environmental issues and to the Louisiana Environmental Action Network.

Click here for rush transcript.

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Environment, Environmental Illness, Pollution, Toxic, Video

Celebrating independence: You’re doing it wrong!

Posted on Jul 04, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Susie Collins

My annual commentary on 4th of July fireworks.

©2005 Chris Conway, used with permission.

Link to more information about the toxicity of fireworks.

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Tags: Air, Asthma, Chemicals, Environment, Pollution, Toxic

Gulf Coast: Grab your respirators!

Posted on Jul 04, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Media/Videos, Susie Collins

3M #4279 Organic Vapour/Inorganic and Acid Gas/Ammonia/Particulate Respirator

RT America reports on health problems in the Gulf caused by chemical fumes from crude oil and dispersant originating from BP oil well blowout. Don’t miss reference to the Exxon Valdez spill and the analogy to 9/11.

6/30–What can go wrong will go wrong. Such is the case for the Gulf Coast and the unending saga of the BP oil spill that’s now in its eleventh week. What’s wrong now is this: winds from Hurricane Alex are pushing tar balls as large as apples onto Gulf Coast beaches. This has stopped cleanup efforts momentarily and even undone some of the spill control. As one marine scientist put it: “We lost all the progress we made.” But the winds picking up are a giant concern for something else.

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Tags: Air, Children's Health, Environment, Environmental Illness, Pollution, Products, Toxic, Video

The poisoning has begun

Posted on Jul 03, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Guest Bloggers

Thursday evening we found a voice message left by the owner of the land next to ours saying they would be spraying ROUND UP and select herbicides sometime on Friday. And there went our plans for a safe and happy holiday weekend.

By guestblogger Jacki Palmer-Boyce.

Our neighbor spraying his fields on Friday next to our home and organic gardens. Our holiday weekend has been ruined!

Thursday evening we came inside the house @ 10pm to a voice message left by the owner of the land saying they would be spraying ROUND UP and Select herbicides sometime on Friday. This ruined our HOLIDAY weekend. The soybean field is right next door to our property to the WEST and NORTH side of our land. We had no idea they were going to spray so our plans were to camp in our own yard “campsite” to avoid crowds and chemicals from the Holiday weekend. We had the tent sent up and plans for a fire with a few friends.

With the girls on a better day.

I was very grateful for the “warning” that was a life saver. HOWEVER all our plans of enjoying our own homestead went up in “fumes.” I had to keep all the windows closed today and it is a perfect day outside 70′s and sunny with low humidity and low dew point, so I had to miss out on a GREAT weather day. I could not enjoy my own yard, my “organic” gardens, my spring/well water are all at risk every time they spray more and more poisons into the land and air, which effects the water supply.

With Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, I smell, taste and feel the chemicals even though my husband John does not. So I am locked inside the house while he is outside. We can not go to our parks or Findley due to too many people and all their toxic chemicals they bring with them on a Holiday camp weekend: lighter fluid, tiki lights,sunscreen, the list goes on and on of things you have to avoid around crowds. So needless to say: several hours of spraying ruined several days to weeks of my life.

The tent we'd set up for "camping" in our yard this weekend.

I wonder how this can be legal and yet someone caught with a joint goes to jail. It is all about the $$ and GREED… MONSANTO & DOW should be in prison for poisoning people for year after year. Read about how glyphosate is toxic and Roundup is worse. Read here about clethodim herbicide. I hate when people say it is “JUST” roundup like it is something “safe”… boy did marketing pull the wool over so many zoombies’ eyes… WAKE UP, PEOPLE, CHEMICALS KILL! And not just the bugs!

I am very lucky the owner “warns me”– he doesn’t have to do that in OHIO; some states it is a law. So please know how thankful I am for the warning, without that I’d have my windows all open and clothes on the line and playing in my yard.

The raised beds out front, south exposure, with peppers and tomatoes.

This spraying happens about 3 to 4 times a growing season with different types of herbicides and fugicides. Each time is like a knife going into my heart and soul. We’d love to move away from all this madness they call country living and farming, but at this point in time it is not in the stars. So we try so hard to keep our little eco friendly homestead as chemical free as possible (in our control) and pray for protection from the chemicals when they spray. It beats the helicopter they used to spray fungicides last year– now that really drifted!

Just makes me so sad that this is still legal. Think of the millions of gallons of pesticides/herbicides used all over the USA. Add that to the GULF oil well blowout and we are doomed. They could stop it but choose not to. It brings in too much $$$$ and GREED is the name of the game… NOT HEALTH.

I want to end my day with a positive: I am well for the shape I am in…. I want to end with the positive… I must always be grateful no matter what… each day is a blessing even if it doesn’t turn out like you hope.

jj

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Tags: Environment, Food, Garden, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Organic, Pesticides, Pollution, Toxic

Kindra Arnesen speaks out on lack of respirators for oil well blowout “clean up” crew

Posted on Jun 30, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Susie Collins

Kindra Arnesen, whose husband was made ill during his work on “clean up” efforts in the gulf, speaks out about harsh realities in the impact zone.

On Monday I blogged about a timeline of health horrors caused by the BP oil well blow out. In that post, I told you about a commercial fisherman’s wife, Kindra Arnesen, who broke the silence about her husband’s deteriorating health since he worked on clean up efforts in the Gulf.

Above is a talk Kindra gave at the Gulf Emergency Summit in New Orleans on June 19.

Kindra Arnesen, a young mother of two 8 and 5 year-old children, and the wife of a commercial fisherman in Louisiana, became extremely concerned about the lack of progress of the relief operations of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. She had the opportunity to investigate on the spot by participating in a number of meetings with authorities, and in on-site “clean-up” visits. She vividly and powerfully describes, at the Gulf Emergency Summit in New Orleans, the harsh reality of what’s really going in the area – and the need to prepare for evacuation of populations.

You’ll be especially interested in Kindra’s explanation about why workers are not given respirators. From the transcript:

“I’m gonna go into the health issues for a moment, if you don’t mind. I sat through endless hours of meetings with BP’s safety officers. I sat through an hour and 45 minute meeting with the Coast Guard Safety Officer, both in the Homeland Incident Command Post, as well as a gentleman from OSHA.

“In order to obtain a respirator for our responders — now this isn’t just commercial fishermen — I’m talking about Coast Guard members, all responders, people off the street, everybody involved.

“Number 1: They have to fill out an OSHA questionnaire. Number 2: They have to have a physical evaluation by a medical professional.

“But, EPA is doing air monitoring. Everything’s OK. It’s great. Yeah, imagine that.

“At any rate, there is in fact some Act somewhere in OSHA’s law, that says that volunteers have a right to wear a volunteer respirator. But, as we all know, BP is taking over our Gulf. BP rules right now, our Gulf, I mean… Bottom line, that’s who’s in charge of the situation.

“They couldn’t even run their own company and they are in charge of this response! I’m totally appalled!

“They can’t wear a volunteer respirator because if they’re not properly trained… BP’s rules are, they have to be properly trained in order to wear a respirator. Now, BP said that they will provide the training and they will provide a respirator. But, everything’s OK! So, they don’t need to be trained and they don’t need a respirator. And as far as the right to wear volunteer respiration? Guess what? If you don’t follow BP’s rules, you don’t have a job. And that’s what they told me.”

Click here to read full transcript.

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Environment, Environmental Illness, EPA, Pollution, Toxic, Video, Work

A timeline of health horrors caused by the BP oil well blow out

Posted on Jun 28, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, MCS, Susie Collins, Worker's Rights

Clean up workers are already visiting their doctors with symptoms of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

A still from the BP oil well blow out live cam taken June 28.

Have you been as crazed as I’ve been watching the images of people without respirators working on the so-called “clean up” in the Gulf? We all knew it was only a matter of time before cases of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity were reported. Take a look at the timeline: reports of MCS started fairly soon after the blow out.

5/03: MSNBC reports that the oil spill has little impact on human health: gunk spreading across Gulf a disaster for ecosystem, but not the public. Yeah, right.

5/23: Gina Solomon at the Natural Resources Defense Council Staff Blog, called Switchboard, reports Oil Spill Clean-Up Workers Getting Sick.

5/27: The Washington Post reports that illnesses among workers highlight concerns about health risks of oil cleanup.

6/03: CNN reports on a gutsy fisherman’s wife who breaks the silence about her husband’s deteriorating health since he worked on clean up efforts in the Gulf. “After attending a lecture by Rikki Ott [sic], a toxicologist who’s worked with families affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, [fisherman's wife Kindra] Arnesen decided to organize other wives to ask questions about the safety of working near the oil.” (See next entry for more info on Riki Ott.) Here’s the CNN vid about Kindra and her husband:

Here’s a couple of asides from our Timeline– Here’s Riki Ott in the documentary film Black Wave about the Exxon Valdez spill:

Here’s more from Riki Ott on 20 years after the Exxon Valdez spill:

Back to our current disaster:

6/03: The Huffington Post reports Gulf Oil Spill Sickness: Cleanup Workers Experience Health Problems, Complain Of Flulike Symptoms.

6/07: I contacted Alison Johnson, author of Amputated Lives: Coping with Chemical Sensitivity, a book about the development of chemical sensitivity in Exxon Valdez cleanup workers, Gulf War veterans, 9/11 First Responders, and FEMA trailer residents. I spoke to Alison on the phone and she expressed concern for the people in the Gulf region that had lived through the toxic soup of hurricane Katrina, including the toxic FEMA trailers, and were now experiencing the fumes from this BP disaster. Given that MCS can be initiated by repeated exposures to toxic chemicals, people in the region should take note of Alison’s concern.

6/08: Ariel Schwartz at Fast Company warns clean up crews to Read This Before You Volunteer to Clean Up the BP Oil Disaster.

Merle Savage has a wheezy, guttural smoker’s cough. But the 71-year-old former Alaska resident and author of Silence in the Sound never smoked a day in her life. She did, however, spend four months as a general foreman during the Exxon Valdez oil spill recovery project in 1989. And she has a message for anyone working at the BP oil disaster sites: “You’ve got to use your common sense. Breathing crude oil is toxic.”

6/11: The Raw Story reports that a human rights group says BP is discouraging crews from using respirators. “BP’s logic seems to be that if the oil cleanup doesn’t look dangerous then it must not be. The oil company has told workers not to wear respirators because it’s bad for public relations, according to one human rights group.” [Emphasis added.]

AND HERE’S THE REPORT WE KNEW WAS COMING:

6/15: Janet Kwak at WOAI TV reports that a mysterious illness plagues Gulf oil disaster workers. Clean up workers are visiting their doctors with symptoms of Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance or TILT, which is another name for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

“What makes it challenging is that patients show up with non-specific symptoms. Headaches, fatigue, problems with memory and concentration, upset stomach,” lists Dr. Claudia Miller at UT Health Science Center.

The illness is called “TILT,” or Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance. Patients lose tolerance to household products, medication, or even food after being exposed to chemicals, like burning oil, toxic fumes, or dispersants from the spill.

“Things like diesel fuel, exposure to fragrances, cleaning agents that never bothered them before suddenly bother them,” adds Dr. Miller.

6/18: Politics AP reports BP’s records on ill workers tell only part of the story.

This is about the time I discover the Louisiana Environmental Action Network report on the Health Impacts Associated with Dispersants and Louisiana Sweet Crude. I felt from the beginning of the disaster that the dispersant Corexit was going to cause as much if not more damage to people, animals and the environment as the crude oil. Take a look at the lists on that page for health impacts of both the dispersant and the oil.

And yesterday I found a report in the New York Times about how Cleanup Hiring Feeds Frustration in Fishing Town. Don’t you just love how BP has managed to destroy the environment, livelihoods and probably the health of most workers and many others in the affected regions while at the same time remaining the main employer with “clean up” efforts?

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Tags: Air, Environment, EPA, Pollution, Products, Toxic, Video, Work

The President’s Cancer Panel releases report: We must eliminate environmental carcinogens from our workplaces, schools, and homes.

Posted on May 06, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Government Regulation, Policy, Research, Susie Collins

Report to the President concludes that the nation needs a comprehensive, cohesive policy agenda regarding environmental contaminants and protection of human health. The main problem they say? Toxic chemicals in the environment.

The President's Cancer Panel releases their 2008-2009 report, "Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now." The report emphasizes prevention rather than after-the-fact intervention.

The U.S. President’s Cancer Panel released their 2008-2009 report, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now. As a person with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity who has survived breast cancer, I’m pleased to see the panel addressed myriad health problems associated with toxic chemicals in the marketplace; the panel extended it’s opinion beyond carcinogens to include “other toxins” as well such as endocrine disruptors.

From the report’s introduction:

The Administration’s commitment to the cancer community and recent focus on critically needed reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act is praiseworthy. However, our Nation still has much work ahead to identify the many existing but unrecognized environmental carcinogens and eliminate those that are known from our workplaces, schools, and homes [emphasis added]. [...]

The Panel was particularly concerned to find that the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated. With nearly 80,000 chemicals on the market in the United States, many of which are used by millions of Americans in their daily lives and are un- or understudied and largely unregulated, exposure to potential environmental carcinogens is widespread. [...]

The American people—even before they are born—are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures. The Panel urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our Nation’s productivity, and devastate American lives.

I’m really impressed with the report’s emphasis on prevention rather than after-the-fact intervention. The report also emphasizes the fact that most people are unaware “that children are far more vulnerable to environmental toxins and radiation than adults.” They recommend that this perpetual state of ignorance be corrected by increasing efforts “to inform the public of such harmful exposures and how to prevent them.” Doesn’t that sound just like what most of us with MCS do on a regular basis? It’s so nice to see this prestigious panel catch up with us!

I also was very impressed with their conclusion, where they end with an emphasis on prevention:

The Nation Needs a Comprehensive, Cohesive Policy Agenda Regarding Environmental Contaminants and Protection of Human Health.

Environmental health, including cancer risk, has been largely excluded from overall national policy on protecting and improving the health of Americans. It is more effective to prevent disease than to treat it, but cancer prevention efforts have focused narrowly on smoking, other lifestyle behaviors, and chemopreventive interventions. Scientific evidence on individual and multiple environmental exposure effects on disease initiation and outcomes, and consequent health system and societal costs are not being adequately integrated into national policy decisions and strategies for disease prevention, health care access, and health system reform.

Use this document to your full advantage. Share it with employers, family, friends, members of your church, administrators at your kid’s schools, and other people that need an education about the risks of toxic chemicals in everyday life.

What do I keep telling you? Trends are moving in our direction.

Here’s the link to the full report.

Here’s a link to an article about the report from Environmental Health News. Thanks, Roslyn!

Here’s a link to column about the report by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times.

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Tags: Cancer, Chemicals, Environmental Health, Policy, Pollution, Research, Toxic

Film: Submission

Posted on Apr 22, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Media/Videos, Susie Collins

SUBMISSION: In defence of the unborn. A film by Stefan Jarl.

This documentary film, a rebuke on the chemical industry, will have its premier in Sweden on April 23, and in Denmark on May 5.

A documentary by Stefan Jarl featuring Eva Röse and 23 professors.

Thirty years ago I began shooting a documentary, which came to be called Nature’s Revenge (Naturens hämnd). It was about how humans manipulate nature and how nature strikes back. Since that day I have been continuously collecting material for a new film on the same theme; however, much more than a “Nature’s Revenge, part 2”.

Submission is a documentary about the ‘chemical society’ – the society we have been building since the Second World War. Back then, humans used 1 million tonnes of chemicals per year; the figure today is 500 million tonnes. The chemical industry is the fastest-growing industry in the world. The film is about the 100,000 chemicals we use every day, what they’re used for and what they do to us and our health. And I don’t mean food additives – I’m talking about chemicals we are exposed to in our daily environments: softeners (phthalates), flame retardants (PBDE), surfactants (PFOS, PFOA) and so on.

Professor Åke Bergman at Stockholm University is my guide throughout the film, analysing the chemicals in my blood and explaining what they are. It turns out I’m carrying several hundred foreign chemicals. I can’t hide my shock.

After discovering the huge number of chemicals in my blood, I turn to my friend Eva Röse and ask if she would like to test her blood as well. She’s 35 years younger than me; surely she couldn’t have picked up as many chemicals as I have? Eva is pregnant at the time and has her baby while the film is being made.

Consulting a wide range of scientists from the United States, the UK, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Finland, Denmark and Sweden, I seek answers: What problems can these chemicals cause? These are some of the world’s foremost experts, and they explain what we currently know about effects and risks, the cocktail effect, hormone disruptors and the vulnerability of unborn children.

As I considered the format for my film, I thought of Claude Lanzmann’s documentary Shoah, which is based solely on interviews. I decided to put my faith in the close-up, the candid testimony of the human face. Rather than travelling to developing nations and bringing home terrifying images, I chose a different path.

But why the title, Submission?

Over the years I have grown to realise how willing we humans are to submit to others’ terms. It’s a holdover from our earliest childhood. And commercial interests in society are quick to make use of it. This interests me from a philosophical viewpoint. Just as Nature’s Revenge showed that Mother Nature doesn’t take kindly to manipulation and strikes back at us, I now understand that humankind is prepared to submit to whatever consequences our manipulations of nature throw our way.

The American musician Adam Wiltzie from the band Stars of the Lid made the music. He calls the film “a horror movie for the 21st century”.

I am aware that this popular science essay film asks a lot of the audience, but like most of my other documentaries, Submission is, at the core, about what kind of society we want to live in.

This is the most important film I’ve ever made. Ever.

Stefan Jarl

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Tags: Chemicals, Children's Health, Environment, Environmental Illness, Indoor Pollution, Pollution, Research, Toxic, Video

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues indoor air quality policy for all CDC offices nationwide

Posted on Apr 07, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Government Regulation, MCS, Policy, Susie Collins, Worker's Rights

This is arguably the strongest and most important toxic chemical-free and fragrance-free policy in existence for the workplace.

CDC′s Roybal campus in Atlanta, GA.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, recently issued a policy on indoor air quality that will affect all CDC offices (owned, leased and rented) and more than 15,000 employees nationwide. Among a host of indoor air quality standards, the policy includes specific guidelines restricting the use of fragrance in cleaning and personal care products.

Housekeeping Guidelines

CDC will ensure that products used in the workplace, such as soaps, cleaning products, paints, etc. are safe and odor-free or emit low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to the fullest extent feasible. Only green cleaning products shall be specified and used within CDC facilities and leased spaces unless otherwise approved by the Office of Health and Safety. [...]

Non-Permissible Products

Scented or fragranced products are prohibited at all times in all interior space owned, rented, or leased by CDC. This includes the use of:
• Incense, candles, or reed diffusers
• Fragrance-emitting devices of any kind
• Wall-mounted devices, similar to fragrance-emitting devices, that operate automatically or by pushing a button to dispense deodorizers or disinfectants
• Potpourri
• Plug-in or spray air fresheners
• Urinal or toilet blocks
• Other fragranced deodorizer/re-odorizer products

Personal care products (e.g. colognes, perfumes, essential oils, scented skin and hair products) should not be applied at or near actual workstations, restrooms, or anywhere in CDC owned or leased buildings.

In addition, CDC encourages employees to be as fragrance-free as possible when they arrive in the workplace. Fragrance is not appropriate for a professional work environment, and the use of some products with fragrance may be detrimental to the health of workers with chemical sensitivities, allergies, asthma, and chronic headaches/migraines.

Employees should avoid using scented detergents and fabric softeners on clothes worn to the office. Many fragrance-free personal care and laundry products are easily available and provide safer alternatives.

Further, the policy extends to enforcement. Within the document itself is clearly stated the process by which an employee may file a report about air quality problems through a questionnaire, and further still, who is responsible for overseeing the investigation:

Building occupants who experience irritation or symptoms that may be related to the quality of indoor air should notify their supervisors, and the OHS or local Safety Officer to initiate a complaint. BFO must also be contacted upon initiation of a complaint, to identify and/or review any potential structural, maintenance, or heating, ventilating or air conditioning (HVAC) issues. Building occupants must also complete the Indoor Air Quality Questionnaire (see Attachment B) in order to properly document the complaint. Each IEQ complaint poses a unique set of circumstances that will determine the investigative procedures used to resolve each IEQ concerns.

Office of Health and Safety/Designated Safety Officer Administers the Indoor Environmental Quality Program and serves as the primary coordinator and investigator for reported incidents involving IEQ hazards or conditions; educates CDC supervisors and workers; develops report findings and recommendations for corrective action; and reviews and updates to meet future needs and regulatory changes.

You’ll also be happy to see that there is a section on pest control. Although it’s not perfect, it’s far safer than the hazards many workers endure with ubiquitous application of hazardous pesticides, usually performed without notice: “Pest management, for both buildings and lawn care, will emphasize non-chemical management strategies whenever practical, and the least-toxic chemical controls when pesticides are needed. Integrated Pest Management practices must be utilized.”

Coming from the CDC, this is arguably the most important toxic chemical- and fragrance-free policy in existence for the workplace. In the words of former CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding, the agency is charged with confronting “the challenges of 21st-century health threats.” It looks like the current CDC director, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, believes this responsibility covers not only the general public, but CDC’s own employees and workplaces as well.

Creating nontoxic work environments is not just good for employees’ health, it’s good for the bottom line, too. Workers who are not being slowly poisoned by toxic chemicals on the job can think clearer, work more efficiently and be more productive. Employees who suffer toxic chemical sensitivity, asthma and other respiratory ailments will take less sick days. People who are prone to developing health problems triggered by toxic chemicals will be safer; in fact, everyone who works in CDC buildings will now be safer.

For those of you with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity who are currently battling it out with your employer over hazardous chemicals in your work environment, in addition to discussing your rights to safer accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, you might want to print out this new CDC policy and give copies to your boss, your CEO, and your human resources director. Explain to them that the experts at CDC understand that indoor air quality is greatly compromised by a host of toxic chemicals, including those from cleaning products used by maintenance personnel and personal care products used by employees. Tell them that this recent CDC policy is indicative of the way trends are going, and any company getting on board now will be spared future costs caused by condoning an unsafe environment for employees.

This policy is incredibly good news– use the clout and expertise of this CDC policy to strengthen your arguments for a toxic chemical- and fragrance-free work environment.

Here’s the pdf of the policy.

Here’s the pdf of the questionnaire to be used when CDC employees file a complaint about air quality.

Thanks to Harry Clark for obtaining these documents from CDC and for sharing them so freely!

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Tags: Air, Asthma, Chemicals, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Indoor Pollution, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Perfume, Personal Care, Policy, Pollution, Products, Sick Building, Toxic, Work