The story below suggests that Interior abandons its obligation to maintain not only the U.S. biological environment, it feels no obligation to ensure even the simplest workplace protections, within the work ENVIRONMENT for its employees, that can preclude DEATH from exposure to known toxins. BLM, the employer that sustains Ron Huntsinger, Marlene Braun's persecutor, is a bureau within the parent U.S. Department of the Interior. Like its parent, the BLM work environment can be hazardous to employee health. More context to understand the Marlene Braun story.

Also note that in the U.S., the only obligation for employers regarding employee safety is physical safety assurance. OSHA is the governmental agency responsible for enforcement. Obviously, current OSHA leadership has little intention of honoring the mandated obligation. Worse yet, there is no "duty of care" employer obligation to be responsible for both workplace physical and psychological safety for employees. US employers foster dangerous conditions with impunity. It's doubly disgraceful when the ignoring employer is the US government! -- WBI

Press release from PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)



WASHINGTON - December 22 - The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has rejected a formal complaint by desperate U.S. Department of Interior workers seeking relief from acrid fumes, choking dust and nauseating odors produced by the massive modernization of the agency's Washington, D.C. headquarters building, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Civil servants and contract employees working in Interior Headquarters cite a rise in asthma attacks, crippling headaches, unexplained skin rashes and other maladies from a poorly contained reconstruction operation in the midst of a building housing an estimated 2,000 employees.

The December 12, 2005 letter indicates that OSHA will "not conduct an inspection" due to "air monitoring [that] is being conducted by the General Services Administration" which is in charge of the modernization project. OSHA, an arm of the Labor Department, directs the employees to seek intervention from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a separate agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.

NIOSH, however, has no enforcement power. In fact, the Interior modernization project is in direct violation of recently issued NIOSH "Guidelines for Maintaining Acceptable Indoor Environmental Quality During Construction and Renovation Projects," but there is no sanction for violations. Further, NIOSH conducted a health hazard evaluation of Interior Headquarters in 1999, three years before the modernization began, but Interior has yet to implement the 6-year old NIOSH recommendations from that evaluation.

"Interior employees who are concerned about their health are trying to work within the system but are rapidly running out of options," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "Interior's own manual declares that its policy is to 'provide safe and healthful working conditions to protect employees and the visiting public' but that policy appears to be a dead letter."

Employees report that the General Services Administration air monitoring is usually conducted when welding and other construction work has ceased. Last summer, GSA sent out a "customer satisfaction" survey to Interior Headquarters employees but has yet to release survey results. PEER is seeking to obtain those survey results under the Freedom of Information Act.

Material Safety Data Sheets for the compounds being used in the modernization show multiple hazardous effects from direct human exposure. Agency documents released earlier this month by PEER show that workers have been exposed to those chemicals for many months due to porous worksite containment and a venting system that pumps noxious fumes directly into the building's air intake.

"Last week, Interior had its gala Christmas party but, among the holiday well-wishing, no one dared ask Secretary Gale Norton for decent indoor air quality," Ruch added. "This unfolding unjustifiable environmental assault on Interior's own workforce is an apt metaphor for what Interior leadership is doing outside its headquarters."

Return to Marlene Braun index