Medical News & Exposé
epi
The Ship Breakers
| Investigation: Occupational Health |
Jan. 1, 2009—Eleven years ago the Baltimore Sun ran an award-
winning series of investigative reports on the dangers faced by
contractors hired by the U.S. Navy to dismantle retired ships. The
Sun’s reports led to congressional inquiries and the scrapping of
Navy plans to sell retired vessels to ship-breaking firms in India,
where worker safety practices were even worse than those
documented at shipyards in the U.S.
More than a decade after the Sun’s pivotal investigation, the Navy's
safety record appear to be improving.
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) has awarded four Navy shipyards with its
top safety award and now allows these facilities to police their own
worker health and safety issues under OSHA’s "Voluntary
Protection Program."
But appearances can be deceiving.
winning series of investigative reports on the dangers faced by
contractors hired by the U.S. Navy to dismantle retired ships. The
Sun’s reports led to congressional inquiries and the scrapping of
Navy plans to sell retired vessels to ship-breaking firms in India,
where worker safety practices were even worse than those
documented at shipyards in the U.S.
More than a decade after the Sun’s pivotal investigation, the Navy's
safety record appear to be improving.
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) has awarded four Navy shipyards with its
top safety award and now allows these facilities to police their own
worker health and safety issues under OSHA’s "Voluntary
Protection Program."
But appearances can be deceiving.
Government studies of Navy nuclear shipyard workers' cancers, published in 2008, indicated that elevated leukemia rates among
Navy shipyard workers—long dismissed by the Navy—were real after all, as workers and academic epidemiologists have long
believed.
Curiously, the Navy’s premiere ship breaking facility—the Puget Sound Navy Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash., where retired nuclear
submarines are dismantled—was not included in the government's cancer studies.
OSHA awarded the Puget Sound Navy Shipyard the Voluntary Protection Program “Star” status award after a string of particularly
serious workplace health and safety violations—violations that continued right up to the day OSHA officials arrived at the shipyard
for their final visit, to discuss the new self-policing program with workers.
By Feb. 2003, violations had become so routine at the shipyard that it made local headlines when OSHA reported that the Navy
was complying with a safety probe. (OSHA officials told reporters they'd encountered Navy "confusion" about the shipyard's
obligation to comply with health and safety investigations.)
Bremerton is one of four Navy shipyards awarded “Voluntary Protection Star” status by OSHA, an honor that allows employers to police
their own health and safety issues without OSHA inspections. Bremerton’s occupational cancer rates remain secret, but internal
shipyard documents obtained with the Freedom of Information Act reveal that worker safety complaints continued well after OSHA
washed its hands of the shipyard's workers.
Much of the Navy’s self-celebrated “safety” record at Bremerton appears to be a mirage, less a reflection of safe working
environments than a pervasively hostile workplace culture where speaking out about health or safety infractions has cost workers
their jobs and where sick workers are pressured into "light duty" assignments and early retirement rather than the Navy simply
acknowledging occupational illnesses.
epiNewswire found evidence of a cluster of five chronic leukemias among workers at the shipyard and a Navy track record of
denying compensation to shipyard workers with cancer and aplastic anemia—a life-threatening disease that, like leukemia, has
been tied to radiation and benzene exposures.
The most troubling finding of the investigation has been this: there is nothing inescapably deadly about ship breaking. Many of the
repeated and life-threatening safety lapses at the shipyard could be avoided by consistent observance existing laws and
regualtions.
But all too often, the Navy eschewed worker safety in pursuit of project deadlines.
In the course of our investigation, claims by former shipyard official and whistleblower Hank Langhjelm—some of which initially
seemed so outrageous as to be implausible—again and again were supported by interviews with shipyard workers and
independently obtained Navy and OSHA documents.
Telling implausible truths—about safety and health violations, callous treatment of workers with cancer and other chronic
diseases, poisonous water fountains and carcinogens-laden lunch tables—cost Langhjelm dearly.
From a promising career in shipyard management and engineering, Langhjelm's stubborn pursuit of worker safety over "institutional
loyalty” put him on a familiar path for many whistleblowers: a free fall into professional ruin and chronic unemployment.
Navy shipyard workers—long dismissed by the Navy—were real after all, as workers and academic epidemiologists have long
believed.
Curiously, the Navy’s premiere ship breaking facility—the Puget Sound Navy Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash., where retired nuclear
submarines are dismantled—was not included in the government's cancer studies.
OSHA awarded the Puget Sound Navy Shipyard the Voluntary Protection Program “Star” status award after a string of particularly
serious workplace health and safety violations—violations that continued right up to the day OSHA officials arrived at the shipyard
for their final visit, to discuss the new self-policing program with workers.
By Feb. 2003, violations had become so routine at the shipyard that it made local headlines when OSHA reported that the Navy
was complying with a safety probe. (OSHA officials told reporters they'd encountered Navy "confusion" about the shipyard's
obligation to comply with health and safety investigations.)
Bremerton is one of four Navy shipyards awarded “Voluntary Protection Star” status by OSHA, an honor that allows employers to police
their own health and safety issues without OSHA inspections. Bremerton’s occupational cancer rates remain secret, but internal
shipyard documents obtained with the Freedom of Information Act reveal that worker safety complaints continued well after OSHA
washed its hands of the shipyard's workers.
Much of the Navy’s self-celebrated “safety” record at Bremerton appears to be a mirage, less a reflection of safe working
environments than a pervasively hostile workplace culture where speaking out about health or safety infractions has cost workers
their jobs and where sick workers are pressured into "light duty" assignments and early retirement rather than the Navy simply
acknowledging occupational illnesses.
epiNewswire found evidence of a cluster of five chronic leukemias among workers at the shipyard and a Navy track record of
denying compensation to shipyard workers with cancer and aplastic anemia—a life-threatening disease that, like leukemia, has
been tied to radiation and benzene exposures.
The most troubling finding of the investigation has been this: there is nothing inescapably deadly about ship breaking. Many of the
repeated and life-threatening safety lapses at the shipyard could be avoided by consistent observance existing laws and
regualtions.
But all too often, the Navy eschewed worker safety in pursuit of project deadlines.
In the course of our investigation, claims by former shipyard official and whistleblower Hank Langhjelm—some of which initially
seemed so outrageous as to be implausible—again and again were supported by interviews with shipyard workers and
independently obtained Navy and OSHA documents.
Telling implausible truths—about safety and health violations, callous treatment of workers with cancer and other chronic
diseases, poisonous water fountains and carcinogens-laden lunch tables—cost Langhjelm dearly.
From a promising career in shipyard management and engineering, Langhjelm's stubborn pursuit of worker safety over "institutional
loyalty” put him on a familiar path for many whistleblowers: a free fall into professional ruin and chronic unemployment.
Puget Sound shipyard police officer (center) watching photographer Bob
Farmer. Photograph by Robert Farmer. (http://rff.smugmug.com/)
Farmer. Photograph by Robert Farmer. (http://rff.smugmug.com/)