The November 2013, 2013, Lab seminar was presented by Edmond J. Safra Lab Fellow, Jim Morris. A journalist since 1978, Morris is senior reporter and editor at the Center for Public Integrity where he is also co-leader of the environment and labor team. During his fellowship year, Morris will investigate the forces that allow American workers to be exposed to chemicals at levels that are scientifically known to be dangerous. Specifically, he will explore how persistent industry challenges of standards proposed by the Department of Labor's Occupational and Health Safety Administration (OSHA), weak enforcement and industry-funded science have led to a near paralysis of OSHA and its ability to issue health and safety standards that sufficiently protect American workers. In doing so, Morris hopes to develop a monograph that is accessible to the public, which will not only inform citizens of the human and economic consequences of this inaction, but also provide lawmakers and representatives with strategies to strike at the root of industry influence.
Morris began his presentation by citing some appalling figures of the economic and human cost of occupational diseases in America from a 2011 study conducted by J. Paul Leigh at the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research at the University of California, Davis. According to Leigh's study, such illnesses claim some 53,000 lives each year, afflict another 427,000 people annually, and contribute to an annual economic loss of $58 billion. At this point in the presentation, Morris spoke about the creation of OSHA under the Nixon administration, and the eventual backsliding of the agency with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Explaining that the head of the agency under President Carter had begun a war on carcinogens, and that in 1978 alone, OSHA had issued standards for six toxic substances, including: benzene, arsenic, cotton dust, lead, acrylonitrile, and the pesticide DBCP, Morris described how such efforts were drastically cut down with the implementation of a program to make OSHA more "business-friendly" under the Reagan Administration. In the three decades since, procedural requirements placed on the agency by Congress and the courts have put an extraordinary burden on OSHA to prove "significant" harm before issuing a new standard. Disturbingly, out of the hundreds of toxic substances that threaten American workers, OSHA has only managed to update the exposure limits on 16 of these toxic substances, despite the fact that many of the limits are based on research from the 1960s or prior.
At this point in the seminar, Morris concluded his presentation with concerns regarding the risks new materials like carbon nanofibers may pose to workers, and by stressing that we need to find a way to fix the broken rule-making process in Washington. He cited University of Texas law professor Thomas McGarity's work on the "Ossification of Rulemaking," which suggests Congress can break this logjam by increasing its oversight of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), and the roles lobbyists, think tanks, and trade associations have in the rule-making process. Morris then turned over the discussion to participants of the Lab, which led to a robust conversation centered on applying the institutional corruption framework to his project. In particular, Lab participants were eager to debate aspects of regulatory capture, and how Morris could focus his ongoing research on examining the lobbying methods industry uses to influence or thwart regulation. Finally, one participant of the Lab suggested that Morris might focus some of his research on establishing to what degree the waning influence of labor unions have as a counterweight to industry's influence on regulation.
-Summary composed by Joseph Hollow