Why I'm On A Hunger Strike-Environmental and Injured Workers Activist And Advocate Diane Wilson
Background:
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WILSONALAMOBAY AT AOL COM
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Diane Wilson is a long time environmental activist, author and injured worker advocate on the Texas Gulf Coast.
She is presently on a hunger strike to stop Valero from investing in the Canada tar sands.
She is a cofounder of Texas Injured Workers www.texasinjuredworkers.org and a board member of the Injured Workers National Network www.iwnn.org
For more information on the hunger strike go to http://tarsandsblockade.org/13th-action/
Workers! Demand Valero divest from tar sands. The life you save may just be your own.
I’m
a fourth generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf Coast. For forty
years I have made a living on a shrimp boat plying the Gulf Coast
waters, but for the past twenty-five years, I have fought a long and
difficult battle with industry to preserve the health and wellbeing of
our Texas bays and marine life for our children and our children’s
children.
Today
I am involved in one of my most difficult challenges. I am on the 35th
day of a hunger strike that I began to convince Valero to divest from
Canada’s tar sands.
Many
stakeholders have been pulled into this fight that is so colossal and
mind boggling that it can almost be called biblical and not be an
exaggeration. The indigenous tribes of the First Nation in Canada, land
owners, cities’ water supplies, communities surrounding the refineries,
and the very planet that we call home are all being threatened by the
extraction of tar sands and the XL pipeline that is snaking its way from
Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas.
Workers
in the refinery don’t get mentioned much and that’s pretty surprising
given that workers are ground zero for exposure from the refining of tar
sands.
When
a refinery uses a bitumen blend from Canada’s tar sands, it is using a
raw material that contains large quantities of sulfur. This means U.S.
refineries using tar sands generally produce more intense sulfur dioxide
air pollution that is, today, not adequately regulated. The result is
heightened health risks not only to communities living near tar sands
refineries, but also to the workers inside.
In fact, workers are the most direct line for sulfur dioxide poisoning.
A
few statistics from publicly available sources indicate that, in
general, tar sands refineries spew more sulfur dioxide pollution per
barrel produced than refineries that do not use tar sands. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), short- term
exposure to elevated sulfur dioxide levels is associated with reduced
lung function, chest tightness, wheezing, shortness of breath,
respiratory illness, deterioration of the lung’s defense systems, and the aggravation of cardiovascular systems.
In
addition, a refinery’s processing of tar sands leaves a toxic cocktail
of 20 by-products (often at 1,000 times above the safe limit) that
include the cancer-causing chemicals benzene, toluene, and hydrogen
sulfide.
Now
I know what some workers are going to say when they read this. I know
because I’ve asked them and they say, “Smells like money to me!” or “Not
me! I’m healthy! ” Or “That’s why I have two life insurance policies.”
Then stuff happens.
The
experts say 870,000 workers get sick and 55,000-60,000 die each year in
the United States from an occupational disease. Then the experts add
the caveat that these numbers are undoubtedly underestimates. How much
of an underestimate? Well, as much as 69 percent of illnesses and
injuries never make it to the Bureau of Labor statistics. And the vast
majority of workers with an occupational illness never receive any
benefits from workers compensation.
Ask
any injured worker who’s developed an illness brought on by exposure to
a chemical and he can recite a litany of reasons why help never comes.
Work
related illnesses are difficult to identify, especially those with long
periods between exposure and illness. Part of the problem is simply an
absence of data on the health effects of hazardous exposures.
Absolutely nothing is known about potential toxicity for more than
85percent of chemicals in use in industry. In addition, routine
training on known hazards and their effects is lacking. The average
doctor receives 4 hours or less of training in occupational medicine in a
4 year medical school curriculum.
But
the major reason is Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s
(OSHA) reliance on employers self-reporting. Employers have strong
incentives for underreporting illnesses or not at all. Businesses with
few illnesses on the job are least likely to receive inspections from
OSHA, they have lower worker compensation insurance premiums, and they
have a better chance of winning government contracts.
There
are other reasons. Employers and Worker compensations Insurers have
major incentives to deny a connection between a workplace exposure and
disease. Every occupational disease that is not recognized saves them
money by socializing the cost on to someone else, mostly injured
workers, their families, and taxpayers.
Workers
themselves may not want to suggest their health problem is work
related, fearing they might lose their job or suffer retribution from an
employer angered by a Workers Compensation claim. Workers report
widespread harassment and intimidation when they report an injury or
illness. Reports, testimonies, and new accounts show that many
employers fire or discipline workers who report injuries or illnesses or
complain about a safety problem. Other employers add demerits to a
workers record for reportable illnesses or injuries or absenteeism that
resulted from an alleged safety violation.
This is all just to say: Workers! Demand Valero divest from tar sands. The life you save may just be your own.
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