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possible time. We are working in concert to ensure that we make the best possible 

 use of the resources of the three agencies. 



OSHA has the responsibility for the safety and health of workers on the job. The 

 Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 authorizes OSHA to promulgate occupa- 

 tional "safety and health standards and to conduct inspections to enforce those 

 standards — by issuing citations, proposing monetary penalties, and requiring em- 

 ployers to abate hazards. The OSH Act also gives OSHA the authority to work with 

 and assist employers and employees in reducing workplace hazards. 



Chemical exposure at the workplace is a major cause of illness and disease in 

 America. There are thousands of workers who die each year from illnesses caused 

 by exposure to substances such as asbestos, silica, chromium, and carbon monoxide. 

 The Off ice of Technology Assessment has reported that as.many as 20,000 cancer 

 deaths annually may be caused by workplace exposures. 



Dr. Philip Landrigan of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine has written that al- 

 though precise information on the number of occupational illness cases in America 

 is not available, it is estimated that between 50,000 and 70,000 deaths and 350,000 

 new illnesses are caused by occupational exposure each year. Landrigan also pointed 

 out that a survey undertaken for the National Academy of Sciences found that fewer 

 than 20 percent of industrial chemicals had been adequately evaluated for possible 

 human toxicity. If there is no toxicity data, the risk to exposed workers only be- 

 comes known when they become ill. In many cases physicians then cannot assess 

 the health hazards of the material to which their patients have been exposed. Thus 

 there is a pressing need for data on the degree and nature of the hazards posed 

 by industrial chemicals in order to protect workers and prevent disease. As a former 

 EPA official said, "It is time to start putting chemicals to the test, not people." 



In developing its standard for Hazard Communication in 1983, OSHA estimated 

 that there were 575,000 chemical products used in American industry. The Hazard 

 Communication Standard has generated a great deal of information for workers con- 

 cerning the immediate and acute hazards of these chemicals to the extent that their 

 toxicity has been studied. Manufacturers are required to label chemical containers 

 and to develop Material Safety Data Sheets which provide detailed information 

 about the properties of each substance. Employers must provide this information to 

 their employees. As a result of this standard, workers are much better informed 

 about the dangers to which they are exposed than they were ten years ago. 



However, there is still insufficient information about the long-term or chronic ef- 

 fects of chemicals used on-the-job. We simply do not know enough about which 

 chemicals at which concentrations cause cancer, heart disease or pulmonary dis- 

 eases. We know even less about the combined effects produced when workers are 

 exposed to numerous chemicals daily. 



Regulating workplace chemicals is not an easy task. It has taken many years to 

 regulate some of the more dangerous substances such as arsenic, asbestos and lead. 

 The "Comprehensive Occupational Safety and Health Reform Act," currently under 

 consideration in the Senate and House, would provide the agency with new tools to 

 address toxic substances and the Administration supports enactment of that bill. 

 TSCA is another vehicle for assisting OSHA in protecting workers. We share EPA's 

 interest in making TSCA more effective. Data from chemical tests are valuable to 

 OSHA in assessing risk to workers and setting priorities for developing occupational 

 health standards. Better information about the toxicity, potency and number of 

 workers exposed to chemicals in common use would help OSHA in determining 

 which should be addressed first. We have found that the regulations which most 

 successfully withstand court challenges are based on strong data generated by 

 sound stucUes. More detailed data about chemical exposures would also allow OSHA 

 to direct our compliance officers to the workplaces in which the most hazardous 

 chemicals are located. 



TSCA presents OSHA with several statutory responsibilities. Section 4 establishes 

 an Interagency Testing Committee (ITC) to make recommendations to EPA concern- 

 ing chemicals which should be given priority consideration. By statute, OSHA is one 

 of eight members of the Committee, and a scientist fi-om OSHA's Directorate of 

 Health Standards currently chairs the group. Since TSCA's inception the ITC has 

 met more than 300 times and has recommended tests for 126 chemicals and 43 



