1000's of workers exposed to Chemicals, 100's SICK, does Anyone care?
- by: Seth Ellingsworth
- recipient: U.S. Congress, U.S Senate, and the President of the United States of America
Worker's continue to get sick without an end in sight. Who will be next?
(click on petition tab to see petition letter and demands)
The legacy of the Atomic bomb continues to ruin the lives of those who work on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation Site.
1) Workers are being chemically poisoned at the Hanford Tank Farms site and no one seems to care, let alone stopping it from happening.
2) Workers are persuaded into ignoring the risk to their personal safety by high paying jobs and lack of information.
3) Governing authorities are ignoring the fact that workers continue to get sick, and at times pretending that it’s not happening at all.
4) Companies deny anyone is getting sick from these extremely dangerous chemicals being vented into the air around the workers. When in fact, hundreds have been affected. Once sick, the company turns its back on workers taking zero accountability.
*When will it be enough?
*Who will step in and stop this?
*How many more lives must be destroyed?
*When will people be held accountable for allowing workers to get sick?
The work has to be completed, but not at the cost of our family, friend’s and co-worker’s lives. It is time to do it safely, and put the worker’s health first. Workers being exposed are the people trying to clean up the remaining by-products found at the Hanford cleanup site, as a result of the production of the Atomic bomb. Their lives matter.The Tank Farm workers lives matter. Please stand with me and show them we care!
U.S. Congress, U.S. Senate, and the President of the United States of America:
We the people, respectfully request that you immediately correct the continual and potentially deadly chemical releases that workers on the Hanford site are regularly being exposed to. In addition, the following items need to be addressed and corrected immediately:
1) Stop government contractors on the Hanford site from knowingly exposing workers to harmful and even potentially deadly chemicals.
2) Investigate government contractors and their company representatives to hold them legally accountable for chemical exposures, illnesses, and deaths of workers, as a result of the unsafe work practices at the Hanford cleanup site.
3) Find out exactly what chemicals workers are being exposed to, give the workers readily available access to this information, complete MSDS’s for each chemical, and require awareness training for the changing chemicals present during work evolution's.
4) Enforce current regulations meant to protect workers who work around chemicals.
5) Hire a separate third-party entity to enforce safe work practices, provide monitoring of chemicals, and protect workers from chemical exposures. This entity must be separate and have no connection to other contractors that are incentive based to complete work at any cost even over worker safety.
6) Enforce transparency between government contractors and employees on the health hazards and risks associated with working on the Hanford Site. Provide chemical monitoring results that are made accessible to all workers at anytime.
7) Provide the workers and public with accurate statistical data of how many workers have been exposed at Tank Farms on the Hanford Site and how many workers have had symptoms or reactions to their exposures. In addition provide a list of what symptoms and illnesses workers have experienced and how many are currently sick or dead from chemical exposures.
8) Provide accurate data on the cause and effects to human health from being exposed to chemicals regularly, or even one time, on the Hanford site.
9) Protect workers from retaliation when raising concerns about health and safety. The fear of reprisal has allowed this to continue for way too long: It’s not okay for victims to fear for their jobs if they talk to someone about their exposure!
10) Stop venting chemicals into the air without first treatment, filtering, or removing the potentially harmful chemical components. Find all sources known and unknown where chemicals are venting into the air, and correct the hazard to workers immediately.
11) Require real-time monitoring of stack and emission sources of ALL the chemicals that are vented or released into the air.
12) Continuously characterize and survey tank head spaces under a variety of typical work conditions, including but not limited to waste disturbing activities. Provide representative samples of the hazards that could potentially harm or cause death to workers.
13) Develop and require routine-based monitoring for ALL the chemicals present, using a combination of the most advanced technological methods in order to provide accurate data and finally, worker protection.
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