Why An Expanded OSHA Focus Matters

The Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted in 1971, creating the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

This critical push for workers’ health and safety, and the agency designed to enforce it, makes sure employers weren’t continuing to put their employees into any risky health situations on the job.

OSHA is a law to protect the workers, and significantly reduced workplace deaths, injuries, and illnesses.

Throughout our working years, we were often assigned to work in situations that—unbeknownst to us—could cause negative health effects down the line. We can’t know for sure if the company recognized they were putting some of us in harm’s way at the time, but with advanced medical and record keeping, we now know better and are better informed.

For linesman and repair staff, our heads were often just a few feet away on ladders or bucket trucks, emitting high voltage power. We worked smelting lead or cutting cables. We were first responders in major catastrophes and weather events. We were frequently putting our health and safety at risk, without question.

Our own Association chairman, Thomas Steed, was present on the day of the 1975 New York Telephone Company Fire and for months, he worked underground in the closest manhole to the fire scene.

During the restoration, Steed has stated that they were given no respiratory protections, despite working in the toxic fumes and millions of pounds of melted polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cable and toxicity the fire left behind.

Hundreds, if not thousands of our members certainly have similar stories they could share.

For the FDNY firefighters who extinguished the fire back in 1975, each coincidentally received a “Red Star of Death” on their human resources and medical file, marking them as more likely to experience adverse health effects from that event. Cancers were prevalent among them.

No such tracking was done for those present from the Telephone Company.

When the World Trade Center was attacked on 9/11, our workforce rushed to reestablish service for the New York Stock Exchange and critical financial industry businesses. We were breathing in the toxic air.

If you were working a job at 375 Pearl Street or 140 West Street in lower Manhattan, you were unknowingly putting yourself at risk.

The Association of BellTel Retirees has turned up the volume and increased its advocacy related to occupational health and safety for this very reason. Because even now in retirement, you have rights.

Our recent collaboration with Pulitzer Prize winning journalists from the Wall Street Journal resulted in a multi-part investigative story on lead toxicity that shows the damage done by the countless thousands of miles of toxic lead cables that were laid and maintained for many decades by our members.

As per the Journal reports, AT&T, Verizon, and Frontier have done very little to address the health and environmental damage done by them.

In these news reports, our member Jody Fischer recalled developing numerous health ailments, such as infertility, anemia, severe anxiety and brain fog, and repeated kidney-related illnesses, which have been associated with her exposure after working in AT&T’s San Diego central office, maskless with lead solder for 40 years.

When working with lead during our careers, true protection against the dust, fumes and other toxins were simply not provided. High exposure is known to lead to kidney and brain damage, as well as affect your central nervous system, and the long-term health effects can be passed down your family tree.

Keeping our members’ stories about their health and welfare quiet was never an option.