The government command for the BP oil disaster announced last night its “interim guidance” for recovery worker health and safety, including the (limited) use of respirators. The report was actually released by OSHA and NIOSH, the CDC’s workplace safety group, almost one week ago.
These recommendations come after more than 28,000 people signed Firedoglake’s petition to BP & OSHA demanding workers have access to respirators.

The rules that are supposed to protect the health and safety of oil rig workers were designed 15 years ago by the American Petroleum Institute – the industry and lobbying group for major oil and gas companies. The worst part? Even those regulations are considered “voluntary.”

Today, the House EdLabor Committee, chaired by Rep. George Miller, is hosting a hearing called “Worker Health and Safety from the Oil Rig to Shoreline.” The hearing will explore what protections are in place for oil rig workers, what went wrong on the Deepwater Horizon, and how to protect cleanup workers in the Gulf Coast for BP’s oil disaster.

The Public Welfare Foundation released a poll this week on Americans’ attitudes on paid sick days and other workplace regulations. In the poll was something interesting as we consider the need to protect cleanup workers hired by BP to clean up the oil disaster in the Gulf. The poll showed that when asked which government workplace regulations were “very important,” a full 85% said that “workplace safety” was very important.

Despite clear evidence of illness from exposure to oil and dispersants, BP refuses to provide respirators to people cleaning up its disaster. Why? Because BP is afraid of the PR impact from images of people wearing this critical safety equipment in pictures and on TV. BP even threatened to fire workers who choose to wear their own. Firedoglake is joining with workers’ rights advocacy group American Rights at Work to petition BP – and government agencies like OSHA and the Department of Labor – to make BP provide respirators to protect cleanup workers in the Gulf of Mexico.

Some good news out of Congress about protecting workers involved in the BP oil disaster, as well as offshore oil workers. Rep. George Miller’s House Committee on Education and Labor will hold a hearing on oil worker safety on Wednesday.

According to BP’s records, only two workers in the oil disaster recovery effort have reported illnesses from chemical exposure while working with oil and dispersants. That’s great news! Except for Louisiana officials say that in reality, more than 70 workers have reported chemical exposure illnesses. So what’s the deal, BP?

Rep. Carolyn Maloney took to the floor of the House of Representatives this morning to speak about the need to protect the health of cleanup workers responding to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Knowing OSHA’s poor track record at enforcing laws during times of crisis, like the 9/11 cleanup, Maloney saw the situation unfolding in the Gulf and spoke out about the need to protect the health of cleanup workers, as she put it, “before they lose it.” Watch the video.

After two members of Congress cited OSHA’s letter citing BP’s “general systemic failure” to protect workers, OSHA did an about-face and lined up to protect BP. What’s going on?

OSHA’s director claims the workers trying to clean up BP’s oilpocalypse don’t need breathing protection. Hey, at least OSHA’s consistent. OSHA pretended the 9/11 rescue and clean up workers didn’t need respiratory protection. We all know how well that worked out. Now that EPA OK’d dumping a million gallons of incredibly toxic dispersant into the Gulf, NMS OK’d the catastrophically negligent and incompetent drilling/clean-up permits, and the Coast Guard’s OK’d their owner BP’s orders to detain and repel media from BP’s crime scene, why should we expect OSHA to do any better? As with all the other Executive Branch “regulatory” agencies, the corporatist servants revolving through the Oval Office long ago perverted the agency’s mission from one of public protection into one of permitting pollution.