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The Campaign to End Silicosis
Kane F. Job Safety & Health Quarterly (JSHQ). 1997 Winter/Spring.
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"If It's Silica, It's Not Just Dust" -
those are the watchwords for a national public education campaign to prevent
silicosis - a disabling, sometimes fatal, lung disease caused by workers'
overexposure to silica dust.
In the forefront of the campaign has been the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA), along with the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA),
the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the
American Lung Association.
| "If It's Silica, It's Not Just Dust" -
those are the watchwords for a national public education campaign to prevent
silicosis... |
OSHA preceded the educational effort with a special emphasis program on
preventing workers' overexposure to crystalline silica that was announced May 8,
1996. The OSHA program, which included outreach efforts to encourage voluntary
protection as a preclude to enforcement, has been unique in that (1) it cuts
across industry lines and includes the general industry, construction, and
maritime sectors, and (2) it has been dependent on close cooperation with NIOSH
and MSHA.
Reports of workers dying from silicosis, caused by inhaling the silica dust,
date back to ancient Greece. During the 1930's, public attention in the U.S.
focused on the problem because of numerous worker deaths attributed to the
"Hawk's Nest" incident. As part of a hydroelectric project, workers had been
drilling a tunnel through rock in the Hawk's Nest area near Gauley Bridge, WV,
that contained a high amount of silica. Estimates of associated deaths ranged
from a company count of 66 to a researcher's count of more than 700.
In 1937, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins declared war on silicosis, toured
mines, convened national conferences on the problem, and issued a film entitled,
"Stop Silicosis." In later years, OSHA and MSHA adopted rules limiting silica
dust exposures. But the completely preventable occupational disease continued to
claim casualties, killing more than 250 American workers annually and disabling
countless others.
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Agriculture is one of the industries that poses the greatest potential risk for worker exposure to silica dust. |
In 1994, OSHA launched a process to determine which safety and health
hazards in the U.S. needed most attention. A priority planning committee
included safety and health experts from OSHA, NIOSH, and MSHA. The committee
reviewed available information on occupational deaths, injuries and illnesses,
and held an extensive dialogue with representatives of labor, industry,
professional and academic organizations, the states, and voluntary standards
organizations and the public. The National Advisory Committee on Occupational
Safety and Health and the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health
also made recommendations.
The committee looked at more than 125 hazards and, in December 1995, identified
18 as safety and health priorities in need o either regulatory or nonregulatory
action. Crystalline silica was one of five chosen for rulemaking.
OSHA and MSHA already had permissible exposure limits for silica, but OSHA said
it had evidence that its limit was too high, and worker protection was too low
in the absence of a comprehensive standard, which would include provisions for
product substitution, engineering controls, respiratory protection, and medical
screening and surveillance. The agency believed that a full standard would
improve worker protection, ensure adequate prevention programs, and further
reduce silica-related diseases.1
With NIOSH reporting more than a million U.S. workers exposed to crystalline
silica and more than 250 worker silica deaths recorded each year, OSHA launched
its special emphasis program. Although there is no cure for silicosis, it is 100
percent preventable if employers, workers, and health professionals work
together to reduce exposures.
| With...more than a million U.S. workers exposed to crystalline
silica and more than 250 worker silica deaths recorded each year, OSHA launched
its special emphasis program. |
Outreach efforts began last spring with training in the OSHA Training Institute
in Des Plaines, IL, on the hazards of silica, silicosis and its effects, and how
silica dust exposure can be prevented. The training, conducted with considerable
help from NIOSH and MSHA, is available to both enforcement personnel and
representatives of OSHA-funded state consultation programs. OSHA field offices
and the consultation programs have received outreach materials as well.
Each OSHA region also conducted its own outreach efforts, with speeches and
seminars.
Pocket-sized cards describing the symptoms of silicosis, which jobs entail the
most severe exposures to silica-containing dust,2 and how employees can limit
their exposures continues to be available fro general industry and construction
employers and workers and the public.3
Enforcement efforts began August 1, 1996, 60 days after launching the outreach
efforts aimed at voluntary compliance.
From August 1 to December 31, 1996, OSHA conducted 182 enforcement inspection
under the program. Eighty-three were in construction, 78 in general industry, 3
in maritime, and 18 in other types of establishments. Inspections showed some
significant overexposures, mostly in abrasive blasting or construction-related
work. In some, worker overexposures were 60 to 80 times the OSHA permissible
exposure limit. OSHA compliance personnel have been submitting between 100 and
150 employee exposure samples per month to the OSHA Laboratory for analysis.
About one-third of these have been above the permissible exposure limit. The
inspections resulted in issuance of citations for 228 serious violations of OSHA
standards relating to silica. The average penalty for a serious violation has
been $892.
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Workers with no protective equipment drill into the brick face of a New
York City building increasing their exposure to
silica, or stone dust. |
In the fall of 1996, Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich decided to launch a new national
education campaign to finish the job of eliminating silicosis that Secretary
Perkins had started 60 years earlier.
"We are continuing to make significant progress fighting this disease," the
secretary told a crowded news conference last fall. He added, "...there is no
reason at all for any workers to suffer from silicosis. When we get the word out
to all worker and employer on how to control silica dust, lives will be saved."
Workers and employers can get a package of free materials by calling the NIOSH
toll-free information service (1-800-35-NIOSH). The package contains a tip sheet
of ideas for preventing silicosis, a guide for working safely with silica and
stickers for hard hats to remind workers that "if it's silica, it's not just
dust."
Staff from OSHA and MSHA will distribute the silica materials when they inspect
mines, construction sites, and other affected industries. NIOSH, as an agency
that researches and recommends solutions to workplace hazards, is staffing the
80 number and providing technical information to callers.
Joining Secretary Reich at the news conference were silicosis victims and their
families who came to Washington to tell their stories. Others participating and
pledging their support for the campaign were Margaret Seminario, Director of
AFL-CIO Department of Occupational Safety and Health; officials of two companies
committed to preventing silicosis at their worksites, Kevin Crawford, Chair of
the National Industrial Sand Association and President and CEO of Unimin Corp.,
the nation's leading producer of industrial sand; and Donald M. James, President
and Volunteer Spokesperson for the American Lung Association.
| Although there is no cure for silicosis, it is 100
percent preventable if employers, workers, and health professionals work
together to reduce exposures. |
Munzer of the lunch association noted that silicosis is "an insidious,
debilitating lung disease that robs people of their breath and eventually limits
their mobility and makes them dependent on supplemental oxygen. Cigarette
smoking only aggravates the effects of silica dust and worsens a patient's
condition."
The International Agency for Research on Cancer recently determined that
crystalline silica is a human carcinogen.
A "National Conference to Eliminate Silicosis," sponsored by OSHA, MSHA, NIOSH,
and the American Lung Association, was held March 24-25 in the Renaissance
Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. For further information, contact Donna Green
at MSHA, (703) 235-2525, or on the
Internet.
 The conference highlighted the best methods of eliminating silicosis. There were
problem solving workshops on how to prevent the disease in specific industries
and job operations, plenary sessions with senior government, labor and corporate
officials, and opportunities to meet with safety and health professionals who
have implemented successful silicosis prevention programs.
Among those invited to speak were Gregory R. Watchman, Acting Secretary of Labor
for Occupation Safety and Health; J. Davitt McAteer, Assistant Secretary of
Labor for Mine Safety and Health; and Dr. Linda Rosenstock, MD, MPH, Director of
NIOSH.
As Secretary of Health and Human Serviced Donna Shalala has said, "This
Silicosis prevention effort is a partnership that will save lives and
significant human and economic costs."
Acting Assistant Secretary Watchman notes, "OSHA has been proud to be in the
forefront of the partnership, both with it special emphasis program to limit
worker exposure to crystalline silica and its participation in the national
educational campaign...by working together with MSHA, NIOSH, the American Lung
Association, trade associations, employers, and workers, we can finish the job
Francis Perkins began decades ago." JSHQ
1 Announcement of the Results of the OSHA Priority Planning Process, December 13, 1996.
2 Some of the most severe exposures to silica dust in general industry result
from sandblasting, cement manufacturing, asphalt pavement manufacturing, and in
the foundry industry. In construction, some of the most severe exposures occur
in sandblasting, jack hammer operations, concrete mixing and concrete drilling,
railroad track operation, and tunneling. In the maritime industry, severe
exposures can occur from abrasive blasting in shipyard operations.
3 OSHA publications are available by calling the OSHA Publications Office at
(202) 219-4667.
Kane is a public affairs specialist in OSHA's Office of Information and Consumer
Affairs, Washington, DC.
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