NIOSH Finds Hanford Workers Skeptical About Exposure Levels
Friday, December 2, 2016 | 0
A lack of transparency, miscommunication between labor and management, and management’s skepticism of workers’ claims that they’re being sickened by chemical vapors at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state has bred distrust at the facility, according to a report by the Tri-City Herald.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported the distrust between labor and management as part of a larger report investigating claims that workers have been exposed to dangerous levels of chemical vapors from tanks storing nuclear waste. NIOSH found little evidence that exposure levels exceeded standards for maintaining a safe workplace, the Tri-City Herald reports.
The U.S. Department of Energy, which hired a contractor to operate the Hanford site, requested the review by NIOSH as a growing number of workers have complained about symptoms including coughing, headaches, a metallic taste in the mouth and light-headedness, symptoms that are consistent with exposure to dangerous chemicals.
Six people at the facility were sent for medical evaluations on Wednesday, the Herald reports. And more than 60 workers have been evaluated for exposure complaints this year alone.
NIOSH said the government and its contract have taken steps toward protecting workers from dangerous vapors by installing monitors near the storage tanks and hiring industrial hygiene technicians. But workers remain concern that too much attention is directed toward monitoring rather than controlling vapors they say are being released.
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