BAC Raises Awareness of Silica at Construction Safety Conference

Executive Vice President Jerry O’Malley presented BAC’s position on silica.

Improving the safety and health of construction workers was the focus of more than 1,000 government, safety and health professionals, union officers, and contractors at the 12th Annual Construction Safety Conference, Power Through Partnerships, held May 21–23, 2002 in Rosemont, Illinois.

The conference included keynote presentations by Kathy Rest, Acting Director of NIOSH, John Henshaw, Assistant Secretary of Labor, and Olympic athlete and Construction Safety Council spokesperson Cliff Meidl, who was severely injured as a construction worker when the jackhammer he was operating came in contact with a live underground power line. And in a moving reminder of losses suffered last year, a special tribute was paid to the 61 building trades workers who were lost in the September 11 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Local 1 Pennsylvania/Delaware restoration specialist Dominick Tulio tends to statuary at Philadelphia City Hall in June. Local 1 has been working with the IU and CPWR to monitor worker exposures and test engineering controls for silica dust.

The conference was cosponsored this year by the Center to Protect Workers’ Rights (CPWR), the research arm of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO. Other national cosponsors included the International Council of Employers of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (ICE). “It provided an excellent opportunity to discuss health and safety issues facing BAC members and what can be done to correct them,” said Executive Vice President Jerry O’Malley, who spoke at two sessions during the conference.

In a workshop entitled “Managing Silica Exposures at Construction Sites,” O’Malley framed the discussion by highlighting the potential health risks caused by exposure to silica dust. “Each year the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a substantial number of silicosis deaths among construction workers,” O’Malley said. “Studies have shown that because of incomplete reporting the death toll is even higher. And we know that there are thousands of construction workers who are thought to have undiagnosed silicosis, and millions of workers at risk for silicosis. Furthermore, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined that dusts containing crystalline silica create a cancer risk for humans.”

CPWR’s Chris Trahan outlines the key provisions in the Building Trades Silica Standard submitted to OSHA last fall.

O’Malley was joined on the panel by industrial hygienist Chris Trahan from CPWR, who has worked closely with BAC and the Building Trades Safety and Health Committee on the draft silica standard submitted to OSHA last fall. Trahan outlined the key provisions in the silica standard and explained why a comprehensive standard is the only way to protect construction workers. O’Malley called on all attendees to do what they can to urge OSHA to implement a comprehensive standard in the construction industry before more workers are made ill or die.

At a separate session on “New Materials/New Equipment — Labor Industry Partnership for Change,” O’Malley described BAC’s cooperative efforts with manufacturers of AAC block to expand the use of light-weight block in the North American building industry. “Historically, we’ve addressed ergonomic issues through the collective bargaining process, for example, by setting limits on how much weight an individual can lift,” O’Malley said.

“That’s helped — but over time, as the size of masonry units increased, we’ve seen more and more of our members developing back injuries. By working with the management of Trustone, an AAC manufacturer, we’ve been able to introduce a new ‘light-weight’ masonry product into the U.S. building market. This product — Autoclaved Aerated Concrete, or AAC — has the potential to reduce lifting-related injuries and reduce exposure to dust. We’re in the early stages, but preliminary results look very promising.”