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WEC
@ WORK
A newsletter on
key occupational and environmental HEALTH issues.
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Issues
of WEC @ WORK are available here in .pdf format. Click
here to download the latest Adobe Acrobat software if you don't have it.
JUNE 2008
Artificial Turf: Worth the Risk?
Are perfect playing fields really worth the potential risk to
human health and the environment?
NEW:
WEC Fact Sheet on artificial turf
Environmental Justice Activists Challenge Toxic Schools
Environmental justice activists asked Governor Jon Corzine at
a June 25th
press conference to issue an executive order to address what
they called the “toxic schools crisis” in New Jersey.
WHISTLEBLOWER WINS
In May, a Camden County Superior
Court jury ruled in favor of worker rights.
DUPONT TESTS CONFIRM PFOA CONTAMINATION
Following an
agreement made between DuPont and NJ DEP that requires the
company to periodically test for PFOA and report the results,
the company disclosed last month that eight of nine monitoring
wells on the edges of DuPont’s Chambers Works plant in
Deepwater, Salem County, exceed the current DEP “alert level”
of 0.04 ppb.
NEWS
AND NOTES
On June 21, 2008,
the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal from W.R. Grace and
Company in a criminal case over the company’s alleged release
of asbestos from a Montana mine.
MAY 2008
Governor
Corzine: Forward and Backward on Chemical Safety
In May, New
Jersey adopted a rule requiring 90 of our state’s most
dangerous chemical facilities to review their potential for
adopting inherently safer technology (IST).
STATE
HIRING FREEZE
New Jersey is throwing away
federal funds because of the Administration’s blanket hiring
freeze.
...AND
BETTER BUDGET CHOICES POSSIBLE
WEC is a member of the Better Budget Choices Campaign, which
believes we can and must find revenues to invest in New
Jersey.
PAID
FAMILY LEAVE BILL SIGNED
Following in the footsteps
of California and Washington, on May 2, 2008, Governor Corzine
signed into law the Family Leave Insurance Act (aka Paid
Family Leave), making New Jersey the third state in the
country to adopt it.
UAW,
PUBLIC HEALTH ADVOCATES WIN CASINO FLOOR SMOKING BAN
On April 30 at the United Auto Workers hall in Atlantic City,
Mayor Scott Evans signed a law banning smoking on casino
floors.
NEWS AND
NOTES
New
WEC fact sheet:
Employers Must Provide and Pay for Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE)
MARCH 2008
Good Jobs, Green Jobs!
On March 13th and 14th,
nearly 1,000 unionists, environmentalists, business owners,
and government leaders converged in Pittsburgh for the first
ever Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference organized by
the Blue Green Alliance, a partnership of the United Steelworkers and
Sierra Club. Read
more
Worker Participation Improves Safety &
Security
A recent WEC “snapshot” survey
of union representatives at chemical plants, oil refineries, and
water treatment plants showed that workers found that their
participation during Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
inspections helped prod employers to improve safety, security, and
community protection.
Read more
New Legislation to Protect School Children &
Staff
State legislators have proposed legislation to protect children
and school staff from toxic dangers.
Read more
* Senate Bill 480, by
Robert Gordon (D-Bergen) would require prompt parental
notification of pesticide contaminated soil on school property.
WEC supports the bill’s intent, but believes it should be expanded
to cover a wider range of hazardous substances. Senator Gordon
has asked WEC, the NJ Education Association, and environmental
groups to help improve the bill.
Read more
* Assembly Bill 1769, by
Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer) and Assemblyman
Frederick Scalera (D-Bergen, Essex, Passaic) would require schools
to identify chemicals used in labs and science classes and to
establish an overall management program to regulate school
chemical use. There are now no state or federal rules for many of
the issues the bill addresses, including separating chemicals by
compatibility, storage them in locked cabinets, disposing those
more than seven years old, etc. However, the bill’s inventory and
labeling provisions are already law or could conflict with OSHA
standards. WEC again supports the bill’s intent and submitted
recommendations.
Read more
* Assembly Bill 1319, by
Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Middlesex, Somerset, Union) and
Assemblyman John McKeon (Essex) would require the NJ Department of
Environmental Protection to establish a pilot program for
preventing chemical exposures in two school districts that
volunteer to participate.
Read more
For more about these bills, go to the
Office of Legislative Services website at
www.njleg.state.nj.us
and enter the bill numbers.
NEWS AND NOTES
* A recent study by
researchers at the University of Texas found that people living
near oil refineries and chemical plants suffer higher rates of
stress related illnesses. The study included a survey and blood
tests of the community members in the Houston area before and
after the 2005 explosion at the BP refinery in Texas City that
killed 15 people. More information is available at
www.guidrynews.com..
Wednesday, June 4,
Chemical Security & Green Chemistry Workshop,
9 AM to 4 PM, Rutgers Labor Education Center, New Brunswick.
Cosponsored by WEC & the USW’s Tony Mazzochi Center. Contact:
Denise Patel, (609) 695-7100, Ext. 305.
OCTOBER 2007
Kuehne Chemical:
New Jersey’s Greatest Toxic Risk?
Imagine this headline: “Millions sickened in New Jersey and
New York City after chlorine
release from chemical plant.”
It
is unnerving to think about, but a possibility if there was ever
an accident or terrorist attack on the
Kuehne
Chemical plant in South Kearny, Hudson County.
Read more
Finally, A Vote To Ban Asbestos
Congratulations to Bonnie Anderson, a former oil refinery worker
at Linden’s Bayway refinery for her efforts to get Congress to ban
asbestos. Bonnie suffers from mesothelioma, an
asbestos-caused cancer that can take 30 years to develop.
Read more
Ports Campaign gains momentum
WEC’s Board of Directors voted on October 1 to join the newly
formed Coalition for Healthy Ports (CHPs). CHPs includes diverse
organizations working to create sustainable ports in New Jersey and New
York, especially the Elizabeth and Newark Ports, by working to “improve
air quality, safety and security, as well working conditions for all
workers that support port commerce, and to ensure environmental justice
and prevent harm in affected communities.
Read more
Cumulative Health Impacts Hearing
Identifying the collective adverse health effects of multiple
pollution sources is in its infancy, but activists from around the
state converged at the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
on October 5 for a public hearing entitled “Environmental Justice and
Cumulative Health Impacts: How to Assess and Reduce Cumulative
Environmental Burdens in New Jersey.”
Read more
WEC apprentice leads Youth volunteers to
rebuild New Orleans
WEC apprentice Victor Coronado,
along with five other youth organizers, recently volunteered in New
Orleans with the grassroots organization, “Common Ground.” The four-day
stay was mostly spent on “The Block,” the affectionate nickname of the
impoverished Lower 9th Ward neighborhood, as the group assisted in
various volunteer projects and spent the weekend wielding machetes to
clear brush and shrubs from overgrown lots where homes stood before
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Read more
NEWS AND NOTES
WEC welcomes Michele Ochsner as a WEC Consultant to assist with
grants fundraising, which invariably involves thinking about our plans,
challenges and new opportunities.
Read more
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New Jersey
Work Environment Council
142 West State St., 3rd Fl., Trenton, NJ 08608
Phone: 609-695-7100 Email:
info@njwec.org |
