0.3: Environmental Justice is Valuing Work!

Environmental Justice

In 1962 the book titled “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson was published, culminating years of research on the impact of indiscriminate application of pesticides for agricultural and commercial use. The birds were dying. Industrialization and commercialization had resulted in polluted and contaminated land and waters. Rachel’s writings are said to have sparked the global environmental movement. Eight years after her book was published, the Environmental Protection Act of 1970 was signed into law.

As published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environmental justice (EJ) is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Fair treatment means no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies.

The EPA created a number of environmental justice programs and has been working on various initiatives for more than 30 years. The basic charter of the EPA is to do research on important pollutants irrespective of the media in which they appear, and on the impact of these pollutants on the total environment. Many of the chemical pollutants which may also be hazardous materials, identified by the EPA as harmful to the environment are harmful to humans as well. The EPA lists and controls access to and use of toxic chemicals, with a fair number of these chemicals identified in the OSHA standard covering toxic substances. OSHA Occupational Chemical Database is a resource OSHA maintains that serves as a convenient reference for the occupational safety and health community. It compiles information from several government agencies and organizations. This database originally was developed by OSHA in cooperation with EPA.

Limiting worker exposure to chemical or toxic substances is one of the primary goals of the OSHA Hazard communication program. Employers are required to inform employees of their exposures, the management of those exposures, and the consequences of those exposures. This program protects all workers in most industries, all regions and workplaces.

Environmental justice also seeks to repair damage to communities most impacted by pollution and contamination caused by industrialization, dumping of toxic waste, and crumbling infrastructure. The EPA Brownfield’s program is one such EJ effort.

The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfield’s Revitalization Act defines Brownfields as real property, the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. They are called Brownfields in an effort to distinguish them from undeveloped, pristine land in areas outside of the city (often called Greenfields). When these Brownfields are located in underserved, disadvantaged, vulnerable communities, they not only further depress the community but can also be dangerous and harmful. OSHA provides resources for helping employers identify Brownfields hazards and offers solutions for mitigation through Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) education and training. Environmental justice correlates to worker safety through the diversity of skilled trades that are often needed in cleanup efforts. It correlates through sustainable practices of revitalization and renewal of harmed communities.

Finally, in a more recent instance where workplace safety ties to all three justice concerns was shown to persist in ways that reveal we must never separate justice concerns from worker safety, we have the compounded and residual effects from the events of 9/11/2001. Emergency planning is a core element of workplace safety. Our existing building infrastructure, the codes and standards responsible for safe working spaces, are based primarily on catastrophic events in the history of work in the US. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was one of the primary catalysts for new building and fire codes and the typical emergency planning exercises have historically focused on fire related events.

9/11 was a terrorist attack on US soil perpetrated by foreign nationals that permanently changed what we consider and view as a workplace emergency or catastrophic event. Airplanes with tons of jet fuel were used as weapons that resulted in massive explosions and fires that ultimately brought down and completely destroyed the Twin Towers of World Trade Center (WTC) in downtown Manhattan, NYC. It was a workplace emergency on steroids! It was a special kind of violence joined with a unique type of physical hazard that in today’s world must unfortunately be addressed in the workplace.

The official review of the events of 9/11, as revealed in “The 911 Report”, made it very clear who bore the brunt of that tragic event. 2,152 individuals died at the WTC complex who were not (1) fire or police first responders, (2) security or fire safety personnel of the WTC or individual companies, (3) volunteer civilians who ran to the WTC after the planes' impact to help others, or (4) on the two planes that crashed into the Twin Towers. 2973 individuals lost their lives on that day and approximately 92% of that total, sadly, were simply doing a day’s work.

In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack and workplace emergency, there was economic panic and social panic. There were unwarranted attacks on Muslim Americans in workplaces and public spaces. There were discriminatory attacks on Sikh Americans and anyone who was thought to resemble the terrorists. Land and air transportation was halted, ports of entry locked down. The small business sector, especially enterprises in the vicinity of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, suffered major losses. Almost 18,000 small businesses were shut down or destroyed.(Investopedia) Many of the emergency responders risking their lives to save the many workers at the WTC and others in or around what has since been called ‘ground zero’ have suffered from debilitating illness and disease resulting from the exposure to environmental toxins and silica released with the destruction of the towers. (see dangerous worksite)

While the general view was an attack or emergency of 9/11 magnitude was not improbable it was not thought or conceived as a possibility for the majority of workplaces and therefore not anticipated. In its aftermath many publically vulnerable, sensitive or critical workplaces and supporting infrastructure needed immediate assessments for the protection of workers and the public at large. Workplace emergency planning got a face lift and was permanently altered to consider significant foreign terrorist attacks but to also consider domestic violence as well.

Social Justice, Economic Justice, Environmental Justice. All are intricately woven into the fabric of workplace safety and when viewed critically are foundational to occupational safety and health. All show up throughout the history of work in the US. Workers are part of communities that are social, economic, and environmental networks and it is through collective work and safe work that we continue to build and press society forward.