The U.S. agency that's supposed to protect workers' health has all but given up on setting limits on a dangerous chemical released in tire manufacturing. Meanwhile, workers are dying.
Used tires stacked at a Goodyear auto service location in South San Francisco, Calif., on July, 2020.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The permissible exposure limit for ortho-toluidine is 5 parts per million in air, a threshold based on research conducted in the 1940s and '50s without any consideration of the chemical's ability to cause cancer. Despitethat far lower levels can dramatically increase a person's cancer risk, the legal limit has remained the same.
"To me, it was obvious," Michaels said."You can't lie and say you're offering protection when you're not. It seemed much more effective to say, 'Don't follow our standards.'" James Briggs worked for 20 years in the Niagara Falls plant before taking a job with the United Steelworkers union, which represents dozens of Goodyear employees there. While pushing for changes that would reduce its members' exposure to ortho-toluidine at the plant, the union has essentially given up on eliminating the risk.
Still, it came as a shock to Casten when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2020."If you looked up 'nice' in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of Gary," said Harry Weist, one of his former co-workers. Casten underwent surgery and chemotherapy and lost his strength and his appetite. It soon became clear that the cancer had spread.
But within a few years, asbestos, which was already well established as a carcinogen, presented a political challenge."For asbestos, NIOSH said nothing other than a number approaching zero can be considered safe," said Rosner."But then they sent that science over to OSHA, and OSHA realized if you do that you're going to have to shut plants everywhere."
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