An Asphalt Pact Cut Fumes—& Created A Model

Summary posted by Meridian on 7/29/2010
Source: New Haven Independent
Author: Melissa Bailey

At a recent conference hosted by the United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), convened to talk about the potential health hazards in the nanotechnology industry, a successful partnership between government, industry, and workers to tackle worker safety in the asphalt industry was looked to as a possible model for addressing worker safety in the nanotechnology industry. Dr. Jim Melius, an occupational physician and epidemiologist with the Labors International Union of North America (LIUNA), who was involved in the asphalt partnership, said "[W]e need to know a lot more about the risks" to nanoworkers, "Industry should be partnering with labor and government to address the uncertainties." The collaborative effort for the asphalt industry was successful in tackling worker safety issues and led to a new way of paving asphalt that became the industry standard. Bill Kojola, an industrial hygienist for the AFL-CIO, said "[I]t is a model and could be duplicated in the nanotechnology world," adding that "[W]e may have a lot of unanswered questions about the health effects, but we have some reason to believe that nanomaterials aren’t benign and inert. Let's make sure that we reduce worker exposures – so if we later find out they’re toxic, we minimize the adverse health impact." The article also details the work of a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who is trying to fill in a huge gap in knowledge - who is the nanotechnology workforce? Barbara Herr Harthorn, a medical anthropologist at UCSB, conducted a survey to get a sense of what fields nanomaterials are used in. She also asked companies using nanomaterials what they do to keep their workers safe; only 46 percent said they had specific safety protocols for nanomaterials. Companies said the biggest impediment to implementing nanotechnology specific protocols was "lack of information". The article can be viewed online at the link below.

The original article may still be available at newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/asphalt_pact_--_a_mode...

As tagged by Meridian Institute:

Implications: Human Health Risks, Worker Safety, Governance, Economic Competitiveness
Materials And Manufacturing: Manufacturing, Materials
Nanomaterials: Carbon Nanoparticle, Metal Nanoparticle, Naturally Occurring
Regions: North America
Stakeholders: Government, Industry, NGO, Academia
Minerals And Metals: Minerals, Metals

Related Forums:

• Materials and Manufacturing
• Metals and Minerals
• Human Health Risks and Worker Safety
• Economic Competitiveness
• Governance

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