Cancer News, Treatment and Research

At a gathering on the steps of the state house in Boston last week, the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) and Massachusetts AFL-CIO gave a synopsis of a new report entitled “Dying for Work in Massachusetts: Loss of Life and Limb in Massachusetts Workplaces,” a study that was designed to “shine a spotlight on the toll of unsafe working conditions.” The gathering also marked the 25th annual Workers’ Memorial Day, an event that honors those who have lost their lives on-the-job in workplaces throughout Massachusetts, reports an article in Open Media Boston. The event, say attendees, was especially difficult this year as it came on the heels of the bombing-related shooting of MIT police officer Sean Collier. Highlighted in the report, co-authored by Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, executive director of MassCOSH, were the 32 on-the-job fatalities in Massachusetts workplaces as well as the 300 deaths from occupational diseases, including 90 that were in some way related to asbestos exposure . “Too often there are basic safety measures that employers are simply ignoring…putting profit over human beings’ lives, and we know that we deserve better,” Goldstein-Gelb reported. She also commented on what she views as “meteoric growth” in temporary workers, day laborers, and changes in working conditions where employers are “trying to separate themselves from being responsible to the safety and well-being of their workers.” One speaker at the event, Catherine Devitt, lost her husband 2 years ago to mesothelioma cancer. He was a boat builder and repair worker on the North Shore, she noted. The soft-spoken widow told the crowd about her husband Geoffrey’s horrendous death caused by continuous asbestos exposure on-the-job. “I’m not a public speaker, I would not choose to do this, but Geoffrey would have had me come, and he would have loved that his name was being spoken at this place, on this podium,” she told the crowd, noting that Geoffrey’s nickname was “Mr. Be Careful,” because he saw danger everywhere and was diligent about taking precautions that would protect him and those who worked with him. “His death was terrible. He did not die suddenly like so many…we lost him over a year and a half. He went from a vibrant 59 year old to a 60 year old man who could not live; he weighed very little, he looked like he was 90,” said Devitt. The report also noted that asbestos use is still legal in Massachusetts and that there are no laws requiring its removal from buildings. Goldstein-Gelb also noted that the report shows that “it would take OSHA 140 years to inspect every Massachusetts workplace within their jurisdiction, and what that says is that they’re completely under-resourced; there are not enough inspectors, there is not enough funding.”