Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Worker Health and Safety During the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Cleanup in Alaska in 1989


This cleanup was the first done under OSHA's then recent Hazwoper regulation and maybe the first time an OSHA program went into voluntary compliance mode (like the agency later did during the World Trade Center cleanup and Katrina). Contact me for more information on worker health and safety issues during this spill. I was living in Alaska at the time and worked with the Alaska Laborers Union on occupational health and safety concerns during the cleanup. My email is mdcatlin@earthlink.net . For a detailed federal government review of worker health and safety issues, read the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) report, Alaska Oil Spill Health Hazard Evaluation (HETA 89-200 & 89-273-2111), published in May 1991 and available on the NIOSH website at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hhe/reports/pdfs/1989-0200-2111.pdf . For more information on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill go to the Website - Sound Truth and Corporate Myths: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill at http://www.soundtruth.info/ This website is from Riki Ott, PhD, a marine oil pollution expert and former commercial fisherman in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. She was on the scene before, during, and after the Exxon Valdez oil spill and experienced firsthand the spill’s effects, including environmental devastation, economic losses to the fishing industry, and psychosocial trauma to the close-knit community