New OSHA chief Michaels: ‘Green’ jobs not necessarily safe

The Obama administration has placed a lot of emphasis on rapidly creating “green” jobs – to help both the economy and the environment. But David Michaels, new head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is warning about the perils of quickly ramping up environmental industries without paying sufficient attention to safety.

“Employers who race into this green economy without paying attention to worker safety will blunder into many preventable injuries and deaths,” Michaels said in an address prepared for delivery earlier this month at a “Going Green” workshop of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The speech provides lots of insight into how Michaels sees OSHA’s role, both in green industries and beyond. Here is some more of what he had to say:

“Most people instinctively see green jobs as safe,” Michaels said. “But at OSHA, when we hear ‘weatherization and renovation,’ we see exposure to lead and asbestos. When we hear insulation, we think isocyanate exposure. When we hear rooftop solar power, we see fall hazards. When we hear wind energy, we see lockout hazards.”

“We must use our knowledge and skills to identify potential hazards as they emerge. We can’t wait years for hazards to be completely characterized, to let industries shift their responsibility or defer workplace protections by producing ‘doubt’ instead of actively practicing prevention.”

“I have a vision of a greener world where there is full and complete hazard information available for every chemical and every chemical mixture; where science is at work not only to make more effective and more profitable chemicals, but safer chemicals, too. I dream of a world where workers can collaborate on an equal basis with management to find safe chemicals and develop and implement processes that won’t put workers in danger.”