As part of a commitment to strengthen
and reform chemical management, the
EPA has announced a series of actions on
four chemicals that are raising serious
health or environmental concerns.
For the first time, EPA intends to establish
a “Chemicals of Concern” list and is
beginning a process that may lead to regulations
requiring significant risk reduction
measures to protect human health and the
environment.
The agency’s actions represent its determination
to use its authority under the
existing Toxic Substances Control Act
(TSCA) to the fullest extent possible, recognizing
EPA’s strong belief that the 1976
law is both outdated and in need of reform.
In addition to phthalates, the chemicals
EPA is addressing are short-chain chlorinated paraffins, polybrominated diphenyl
ethers (PBDEs) and perfluorinated chemicals,
including PFOA. These chemicals are
used in the manufacture of a wide array of
products and have raised a range of health
and environmental concerns.
EPA also recently announced that three
U.S. companies agreed to phase out DecaBDE,
a widely used fire retardant chemical
that may potentially cause cancer and
may impact brain function.
“The American people are understandably
concerned about the chemicals making
their way into our products, our
environment and our bodies,” said EPA
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “We will
continue to use our authority under existing
law to protect Americans from exposure
to harmful chemicals and to highlight
chemicals we believe warrant concern. At
the same time, I will continue to fight for
comprehensive reform of the nation’s outdated
chemical management laws that ensures
a full assessment of the safety of
chemicals on the market today and effective
actions to reduce risks where chemicals
do not meet the safety standard.
Chemical safety is an issue of utmost importance,
especially for children, and this
will remain a top priority for me and our
agency going forward.”
When TSCA was passed in 1976, there
were 60,000 chemicals on the inventory of
existing chemicals. Since that time, EPA
has only successfully restricted or banned
five existing chemicals and has only required
testing on another two hundred existing
chemicals. An additional 20,000 chemicals have entered the marketplace
for a total of more than 80,000 chemicals
on the TSCA inventory.
The actions announced include:
• Adding phthalates and PBDE chemicals
to the concern list;
• Beginning a process that could lead to
risk reductions actions under section 6
of TSCA for several phthalates, shortchain
chlorinated paraffins, and perfluorinated
chemicals;
• Reinforcing the DecaBDE phaseout –
which will take place over three years –
with requirements to ensure that any new
uses of PBDEs are reviewed by EPA
prior to returning to the market.
This is the first time EPA has used
TSCA’s authority to list chemicals that
“may present an unreasonable risk of injury
to health and the environment.”
The EPA also announced a new policy
to reject a certain type of confidentiality
claim, known as Confidential Business
Information (CBI), on the identity of
chemicals.
The chemicals that will be affected by
this action are those that are submitted to
EPA with studies that show a substantial
risk to people’s health and the environment
and have been previously disclosed
on the Toxic Substances Control Act
(TSCA) Chemical Inventory.
Under TSCA, companies may claim a
range of sensitive, proprietary information
as CBI. Under Section 8(e) of TSCA,
companies that manufacture, process, or
distribute chemicals are required to immediately
provide notice to EPA if they learn
that a chemical presents a substantial risk
of injury to health or the environment.
The Section 8(e) reports are made available
on EPA’s Web site. However,
companies would routinely claim confidentiality
for the actual identity of the
chemical covered by the Section 8(e) submission,
so the public posting of the information
would not include the name of the
chemical.
The new policy ends this practice for
chemicals on the public portion of the
TSCA Inventory. This new policy will increase
the amount of information available
by granting the public access to the chemical
identification information submitted,
along with other health and safety data under
Section 8(e).
More information on EPA’s legislative
reform principles and a fact sheet on the
complete set of actions on the four chemicals are available at http://www.epa.gov/oppt/existingchemicals.
Jackson Safety Acquisition
Benefits KC-Pro in 4Q
Stronger foreign currency exchange
rates, reduced costs and beneficial acquisitions
helped Kimberly-Clark Corp. increase
fourth quarter sales 8.4 percent to
$5 billion.
The paper and safety products manufacturer
reports a fourth quarter profit of
$522 million, or $1.17 per share, on sales
of $5 billion, compared to a profit of $454
million, $1.01 per share on sales of $4.6
billion in last year’s fourth quarter.
The acquisition of Jackson Safety in
April 2009 added more than 3 points of
sales growth in the quarter, and Organic
sales rose nearly 3 percent, driven by
higher sales volumes of about 2 percent
and increased net selling prices of approximately
2 percent, while changes in product
mix were unfavorable by about 1
percent.
The combined impact of the I-Flow
Corporation and Jackson Safety acquisitions
added an additional point of sales
growth in the quarter. The organic sales
growth was highlighted by double-digit increases
for the company’s global Health
Care business and for K-C’s international
operations in Asia, Latin America, the
Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa.
“Our fourth quarter results completed a
strong year for Kimberly-Clark,” said
Chairman and CEO Thomas J. Falk. “In
2009 we delivered excellent performance
in the near-term while we maintained our
strong focus on doing what’s right for sustainable,
long-term growth.”
Sales of K-C Professional (KCP) &
other products increased 11.6 percent compared
with the fourth quarter of 2008. Net
selling prices rose 7 percent, favorable currency
effects benefited sales by 5 percent,
and the acquisition of Jackson Safety that
occurred in April 2009 added more than 3
points of sales growth in the quarter, while
organic sales volumes fell about 3 percent.
Economic weakness and high unemployment
levels in North America and Europe
continued to affect KCP’s categories
in the fourth quarter. In North America,
sales increased 4 percent, including an approximate
6 percent benefit from Jackson
Safety.
The company has assets of $19 billion,
and liabilities of $13.3 billion.
Older Workforce Raises Issues
for OHS Professionals
Older workers are more severely injured
and die with greater frequency from work related
injuries than younger workers, according
to researchers using U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) data.
Older workers also have longer recovery
periods than younger workers. These findings
raise health care delivery and economic
issues for the nation, as more workers are
choosing to delay retirement due to collapsed
401(k) plans and savings.
BLS uses workers age 55 and older in its
calculations, although the rates rise sharply
for those workers over age 65. Other agencies
and organizations define the term as age
50 or 55 and up. The Department of Labor
uses age 40 as a starting point for “older
worker.”
“The issue of healthy aging is critically important
as the U.S. economy is revitalized. As
we go forward in time, the demand for workers
will grow but fewer workers will be entering
the workforce and a larger proportion of
the workforce will be older. This is a simple
reality of demographics,” said National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH) Director John Howard, M.D.
“Having a healthy, productive workforce
will help sustain economic growth in the
decades ahead. We must take steps now to
help all workers stay safe and healthy at
work as they age. We must also take steps
to address the special needs of older workers
who, more and more, will be staying on the
job past traditional retirement age.”
A conference, held last year at the National
Labor College in Silver Spring, Md., paid
particular attention to workers in physically
demanding jobs, such as construction and
health care. Health care cost-containment has
meant longer work hours and increased stress
among health care workers, which has led to
a shortage of nurses. Thirty-nine percent of
RNs were 45 years or older in 2002.
Construction workers already suffer the
highest number of fatalities of any U.S. industry.
But the death rate among construction
workers 55 years and older was nearly
80 percent higher than that of construction
workers under 35 in 2007. And like the rest
of the workforce, the average age of a construction
worker is rising; it was 40.4 in
2008, which is 4.4 years older than in 1985.
The average retirement age among construction
workers is 61.
“Our nation loses an average of four construction
workers every workday to a job-related
incident – and that’s been consistent for
more than a decade,” said Pete Stafford, executive
director of CPWR – The Center for
Construction Research and Training. “As we
start to rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure
and venture into green jobs, we
want to make sure jobsites do not become a
source of pain and death for older workers
who have so much to contribute, especially
in mentoring younger workers.”
Howard believes the 2009 conference
confirms and expands on a 2004 report from
the National Academies of Science that recognized
the deteriorating conditions facing
an aging workforce, to the detriment of
workers, their families, and businesses.
Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers”
made clear recommendations to increase research
efforts toward preventing work-related
injury, illness and fatality among aging workers. These recommendations have yet
to be adopted.
“The discussions and recommendations
from the conference point to steps that can
be taken to address needs identified in the
2004 report that were never acted upon,”
said Jordan Barab, formerly acting assistant
secretary of Labor for the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
“As those discussions make clear, a sustainable
workforce will be a critical component
of a secure and prosperous 21st century
economy. The work we do now is an investment
in a stronger workforce for tomorrow.”
The full conference report and presentations
from national and international researchers
on occupational health and safety
issues can be found on the Society for Occupational
and Environmental Health’s Web
site, www.soeh.org.
Haws Makes Executive Changes
Haws Corp., a Sparks, Nev. manufacturer of emergency showers and eyewash equipment,
has announced several executive level changes that include promoting a descendant
of the company’s founder to chair of the board of directors.
Sallie R. Haws, president of the company and the great grand-daughter of Luther
Haws, has been elevated to chairman of the Haws Board of Directors. She has served
as president for nine years, a period of significant growth both in terms of revenue and
scope of business offerings for Haws.
Most notable has been the company’s growth into a balanced North American sales
and marketing entity and a burgeoning international powerhouse.
Additionally, leading-edge industry advancements, like the AXIONT emergency
showers and eyewashes and the revolutionary Hydration Station, were launched during
Sallie’s tenure as president. She replaces Michael H. Traynor as chairman.
Replacing Sallie as president is Thomas White, a veteran of more than 15 years with
Haws. Advancing from his previous position as executive vice president, White has
held a variety of sales and operations positions within Haws Corp. and has served on a
wide variety of industry and community development committees and boards. He is
tasked with continuing the culture of innovation and growth that has developed at Haws.
“Tom is the perfect person to lead us into the bright future we see ahead of us”, said Traynor. “He has been an integral part of the decisions we’ve made over the past 10
years, and he has a great grasp of the direction we’ve taken. This will be a seamless
transition.”
DOL Releases Six
High-Value OSHA Datasets
To make it possible for anyone in the
public to better track health and safety
conditions in the American workplace,
the U.S. Department of Labor has made
six high-value datasets available.
In January, the Labor Dept. launched a
transparency Web page (www.dol.gov/open)
that tracks the department’s efforts to comply
with the Obama administration’s Open Government
Directive.
The six datasets released by the Dept.
of Labor follow:
OSHA Data Initiative — Establishment
Specific Injury and Illness Rates www.data. gov/details/1461. Also see www.osha.gov
/pls/odi/establishment_search.html.
Each year, OSHA collects work-related
injury and illness data from employers
within specific industry and
employment size specifications. This
data collection is known as the OSHA
Data Initiative or ODI. The data are used
by OSHA to calculate establishment specific
injury and illness incidence rates. Data from 1996 to 2007 are searchable online.
Dept. of Labor Research and Evaluation
Inventorywww.data.gov/details/1376.
This inventory is the first phase in
the development of a single repository
of all completed and planned research
and evaluation projects that have or
will be conducted by the Labor Department
during the upcoming calendar
year.
Project GATE (Growing America
Through Entrepreneurship) www.data.gov/
details/1516.
Project GATE was a random-assignment
demonstration project designed to
help public workforce system clients
create, sustain or expand their own businesses.
A total of 4,198 applicants to Project
GATE were randomly assigned to
either the program group or the control
group. Public Workforce System Dataset
(PWSD) www.data.gov /details/1497.
The PWSD is a dataset that can be
used to answer questions about various
public workforce system programs and
how these programs fit in with the overall
public workforce system and the economy. It was designed primarily to
be used as a tool to understand what has
been occurring in the Wagner-Peyser
program and contains data from quarter
one of 1995 through quarter four of
2008. Workforce Investment Act
(WIA) Net Impact Evaluation Dataset
www.data.gov /details/1498.
The evaluation employs administrative
data from 12 states, covering approximately
160,000 WIA participants and
nearly 3 million comparison group members.
Focusing on participants who entered
WIA programs between July 2003
and June 2005, the evaluation considers
the impact for all those in the program,
the impact for those receiving only core
or intensive services, and the incremental
impact of training services.
Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural
Worker Protection Act (MSPA) Registered
Farm Labor Contractor Listing
www.data.gov/details/1462.
The MSPA requires a contractor to obtain
federal certification prior to performing
any farm labor contracting
activities.
