Toxic Workplaces: Bush’s Labor Dept. Ordered to Release Info

Toxic Workplaces: Bush’s Labor Dept. Ordered to Release Info

by Mike Hall, Jul 3, 2007

The Bush Administration’s Department of Labor has been ordered by a federal court in New Jersey to release the results of years of workplace sampling for toxic substances—including the cancer-causing metal beryllium.

The order came from U.S. District Judge Mary Cooper in a ruling last week on a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Adam Finkel, who served as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) chief regulator and as a regional administrator from 1995 to 2003. Finkel filed suit in 2005 after OSHA refused to release the results of beryllium tests on agency inspectors who were exposed to the chemical while on the job.

(Click here to read a Nov. 14, 2006, backgrounder on Finkel’s suit at Confined Space.)

Scientific studies show that low levels of exposure to beryllium dust, fumes, metal, metal oxides, ceramics or salts even over a short period of time can result in chronic beryllium disease, lung cancer or skin disease. The lightweight metal is used in aerospace parts, semiconductor chips, jet engine blades and nuclear weapons and reactors.