Direct Threat 1,3,4 LIMITED DEFINITION of “DIRECT Tony Mazzocchi 1,2,3 THREAT” UNDER EEOC REGULATIONS Ecological Medicine 4,5,6 by Keith H
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New England College of Occupational and Volume 2 Issue 6 Environmental Medicine Fall 2002 NECOEM Reporter SUPREME COURT UNANIMOUSLY REJECTS INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Direct Threat 1,3,4 LIMITED DEFINITION OF “DIRECT Tony Mazzocchi 1,2,3 THREAT” UNDER EEOC REGULATIONS Ecological Medicine 4,5,6 By Keith H. McCown Ethics 5 State Reports 7 A unanimous the right to stay on the United States Supreme job despite the threat to Web links 8 Court recently ruled in his health. Chevron U.S.A. v. Echazabal that an em- The ADA pro- Special points of interest: ployer can rely upon hibits workplace dis- NECOEM/MAAOHN medical opinion to bar an crimination against peo- Annual Conference 2002: employee from a particu- ple with disabilities, and lar job that would be requires reasonable ac- Old Problems, New highly likely to damage his commodations rather Problems and the Latest health. The Supreme than exclusions from op- Science Court reversed a federal portunity. However, the December 5 and 6 appeals court, which had ADA has a common where the individual’s dis- said that the Americans sense exception that al- ability “pose[s] a direct Marriott’s Renaissance Hotel, With Disabilities Act be- lows an employer to bar threat to the health or Bedford, MA stowed the employee with an employee from a job (Continued on page 3) Register Now! OBITUARY Featuring: Tony Mazzocchi, 76; • Injury Management, The Spine and Post Surgical Care Workplace Safety Advocate, Political Activist • Latest Scientific Reviews Presented by Faculty from the Harvard School of Public Health, including particu- Tony Mazzocchi, a in the New York bor- cal & Energy Workers late exposure, ergonomics, mold, gene/environment, hormonally longtime advocate for ough of Brooklyn, the (PACE) International Un- active compounds, IAQ vis a vis the workplace safety whose dis- son of a unionized gar- ion and the former Oil, common cold and bioterrorism enchantment with tradi- ment worker who lost Chemical & Atomic • Disaster Preparedness tional politics led him to the family home because Workers Union (OCAW) • Non-Conventional Therapies: Soft organize the nation's first of medical bills for his for 52 years. He became a Tissue Treatment for CTD’s, Mind- labor party in 70 years, cancer-stricken wife. She member of OCAW in Body, Herbal Medicine died at his home in Wash- died when Mazzocchi 1950 on May Day and as a CME, CEU, CCM, and CM (ABIH) cred- ington, D.C., on October was 6. local union president, he its 5. He was 76 and had pan- Mazzocchi was a negotiated a number of For information, call or email NE- creatic cancer. member of the Paper, firsts, including the first COEM at 978-373-5597 or ne- Mazzocchi grew up Allied-Industrial, Chemi- [email protected] or visit our website (Continued on page 2) www.necoem.org Page 2 Volume 2 Issue 6 dental insurance program ever in treasurer of the Oil, Chemical and Testimonials private industry. "Tony Mazzochi Atomic Workers International Un- was one of the most dedicated ion, Mazzocchi advised its most fa- Rose H. Goldman, MD, MPH: trade unionists I have known," said mous member, Karen Silkwood, I would like to add a few of my com- PACE International President whose struggles to ensure plant safety ments to this wonderful obituary Boyd Young. "There were few peo- and tragic death inspired the 1983 about Tony Mazzocchi. I was one of ple in this world like Tony-he was Oscar-nominated movie "Silkwood." the students mentioned in the article true to his belief and a champion of Silkwood, 28, died in a suspicious who participated in the "innovative whatever cause he chose to under- one-car crash in November 1974. internship program that exposed take. Some of his best work was in She had been contaminated with plu- medical and public health students the area of agitating for national tonium while working at Kerr- to workplace conditions". I spent the health care for every man, woman McGee,a fuel rod processing plant in summer of 1980 working with and child in the United States. To Crescent, Okla. A private investigator OCAW while I was in the Preven- be sure, he was a trailblazer for na- hired by the union after her death tive Medicine (Occupational Health) tional health care and for safe con- found evidence that Silkwood’s car program at HSPH. I worked di- ditions in the workplace. Both might have been forced off the road rectly with two locals (New Jersey, causes will sorely miss Tony's lead- while she was allegedly carrying and upstate New York) who were ership, and the entire labor move- documents confirming her allega- dealing with health and safety con- ment mourns his passing." tions about Kerr-McGee’s safety vio- cerns. I did plant tours with the In 1996, Mazzocchi lations. No documents were ever workers, helped to identify potential brought 1,400 union leaders to a found. Mazzocchi pressed for a for- hazards and associated toxic effects, Cleveland convention hall to form mal government inquiry into the cir- and worked with them to define ap- the Labor Party. Labeled a fool- cumstances surrounding her death, propriate protective measures that hardy idea by union leaders and which was ruled an accident despite they could negotiate for. I also had political analysts, it was conceived unanswered questions that fed specu- a chance to see Tony in action when in an era of waning union strength lation for years. In 1986, 12 years af- he came to our locals to speak with and has fewer than 14,000 mem- ter her fatal car crash, a civil suit company representatives-he was a bers. Although disappointed by the lodged against Kerr-McGee by Silk- tiger promoting health and safety. fledgling party's slow growth, Maz- wood’s estate was settled out of court He also always took the time to edu- zocchi remained committed to its for $1.3 million. The Kerr-McGee cate me personally about the need pro-worker agenda, focused on sin- nuclear fuel plants closed in 1975. to protect workers’ health. I will gle-payer national health insurance, During the 1980s, Mazzocchi drew never forget the experiences of that free higher education and workers' attention to efforts in industry to summer-which gave me a first hand rights. His slogan: "The bosses have make women working around toxic view and appreciation of the work- two parties. We need one of our materials undergo sterilization. Ms. ers' perspective. And the experience own!" magazine cited him in 1982 as one of did not end there. Over the years I With Ralph Nader and the "40 Male Heroes of the Decade" had many opportunities to recon- other activists, he was a key figure for "exposing exclusionary corporate nect with Tony, whether at meetings behind the passage of the Occupa- fetal protection policies' " that re- or over various issues—I was always tional Safety and Health Act in stricted the hiring of women of child- amazed at his untiring energy and 1970, one of the most far-reaching bearing age. devotion to the cause of improving pro-labor laws of the past half- workers’ conditions. He always ex- century. "Over the last 30 years, no- pressed an interest in what I was do- body comes close to him," said ing, and nudged me to stay on the Nader, who praised Mazzocchi's path of protecting workers’ health leadership on the drives to pass and safety. He was self-taught and OSHA, the Natural Gas Pipeline self made-he certainly showed me Safety Act and other major legisla- that not all knowledge and wisdom tion. came from formal schooling. My As former secretary- parents taught me “knowledge is Page 3 power,” but Tony taught me how to physicians to prevent an employee safety — regardless of the accuracy harness knowledge’s power to bring from performing a job that was and reliability of the medical opin- about change. I am grateful that I likely to cause him harm. ion, and regardless of the severity had Tony as one of my most inspir- of the health threat. The Ninth ing teachers. Chevron U.S.A. v. Echaza- Circuit relied on a literal reading bal began when Mario Echazabal of the ADA, which only mentions Glenn Pransky, MD, MoccH: was offered work at a Chevron refin- the threat to “others in the work- I met Tony while in medical ery involving exposure to various place” in describing this defense to school. He was giving a talk (I forget chemicals on a daily basis. In a pre- a discrimination charge. the location) to students and practi- placement physical the company’s tioners in the medical field. He dis- doctor discovered that Echazabal When the case advanced cussed the health and safety issues had asymptomatic, chronic active to the Supreme Court, the justices facing American workers and how hepatitis C. Chevron revoked the unanimously gave short shrift to little medical education or research job offer to Echazabal because of a that literal reading of the ADA. was devoted to these issues. Tony strong risk that he would damage his Chevron U.S.A. v. Echazabal was described in very real terms the liver by working in this facility. decided largely on legal technicali- negative impact of doctors' failure to Echazabal did not take this decision ties – the question of how much recognize occupational disease, or to gratefully — he sued Chevron, alleg- deference any court must give to consider the public health impera- ing the company had discriminated regulations promulgated by a regu- tive to identify groups of workers af- against him on the basis of a disabil- latory body like the EEOC.