Vinyl Plastic

Hazardous to Workers and Children

NYC CLC-NYCOSH - 2014 Safety & Health Series

 

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

256 West 38th St., 12th flr, New York, NY

 

Event Registration

Learn about the hazards of vinyl in schools and other buildings and also about safer, cost-effective alternatives to it.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl) is a commonly used plastic that releases chemicals like phthalates and dioxins that are hazardous to workers, women of child-bearing age and children. Chemicals released in the production, use and disposal of vinyl are linked with asthma, cancer, learning and developmental disabilities, and other chronic and increasingly prevalent diseases. Find out how you can help promote healthier and greener buildings for workers, children and other building occupants. 

Sponsored by the New York City Central Labor Council (NYC CLC) and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH).

...intimidated workers who raised safety issues...

Massey Energy Co. ignored well-established safety practices, intimidated workers who raised safety issues and used its clout to exert political influence and resist regulation. From the report: “Such total and catastrophic systemic failures can only be explained in the context of a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable…It is only in the context of a culture bent on production at the expense of safety that these obvious deviations from decades of known safety practices make sense.”

Persistent black lung, old scourge of coal, found in autopsies of most Massey miners. Autopsies of the 29 men killed in last year’s explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia revealed a surprising fact: Most had coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, better known as black lung , a deadly disease that U.S. authorities have been vowing to eradicate for more than 40 years. Center for Public Integrity
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/05/19/4643/persistent-black-lung-old-scourge-coal-found-autopsies-most-massey-miners

Report Faults Massey in Miners' Deaths

A 13-month independent investigation into the coal-mine explosion that killed 29 Massey Energy Co. workers last year concluded that the accident could have been prevented and was primarily the result of the company's failed safety systems, which federal and state regulators failed to correct. The 120-page report by J. Davitt McAteer, the top mine regulator during the Clinton administration, is the first comprehensive account of the worst U.S. coalmining disaster in 40 years, which occurred at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., on April 5, 2010.

The Wall Street Journal  [Author Kris Maher]

Upper Big Branch Report