The United Auto Workers (UAW) and the United Steelworkers unions filed suit against US Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao seeking to compel the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to set clean air standards in US factories. The suit, filed in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia asks the court to order OSHA to issue standards reducing the permissible exposure to metalworking fluids at US manufacturing sites. Metalworking fluids are mixtures of oils, detergents, lubricants and other ingredients. They are most often used during manufacturing for their helpful lubricating, cooling, and corrosion resistant properties. Breathing mist from metalworking fluids can cause severe respiratory ailments, including asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis, an inflammation of the lungs that frequently leads to hospitalization. Continued exposure can lead to pulmonary fibrosis, or permanent scarring of the lungs. An OSHA inspection at the plant found that levels of exposure to metalworking fluids were within "acceptable" limits. The present OSHA standard, issued in 1971, requires that no worker be exposed to more than 5 milligrams of oil-based metalworking fluids per cubic meter of air (5.0 mg/m3) during an eight-hour day. In 1998, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) determined that the 5 milligrams standard for oil-based fluids exposed workers to serious health hazards and recommended a standard 10 times more stringent ? 0.5 milligrams per cubic meter. Shortly after the UAW petitioned OSHA to reduce worker exposure to metalworking fluids in 1993, the agency identified metalworking fluids as a regulatory priority. In a procedure that has been used only twice in the agency's history, OSHA appointed a Metalworking Fluids Standards Advisory Committee, including labor, management and public health representatives. In July 1999, after collecting a substantial body of evidence about metalworking fluids, associated health hazards, and economically and technically feasible means of reducing worker exposure, and months of public meetings, the Standards Advisory Committee voted to recommend that OSHA adopt the standard suggested by NIOSH ? 0.5 milligrams per cubic meter of air for both oil and synthetic metalworking fluids. Four years after the Advisory Committee made its recommendation, OSHA withdrew the new rule from active consideration. On a related front, an Alliance was signed between OSHA and the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association (ILMA). One of the goals of the Alliance is to provide the association's members and others with information, guidance and access to training resources on the hazards of working with metalworking fluids.
 American Wire Producers Association |
