OSHA has a database of workplaces with high levels of beryllium and which inspector did the testing. The agency said last week that its records show that since 1984, it has conducted 4,000 inspections where beryllium was present and collected 13,000 samples. Of those, 147 samples, or 1.1 percent, were above the agency's safe exposure limit.
"It's disconcerting that OSHA wouldn't take precautions for their own inspectors," said David Michaels, former assistant secretary for safety and health at the Energy Department during the Clinton administration.
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The beryllium industry and some of its users maintain that working with the substance is safe when proper precautions are taken. Brush Wellman Inc., a large producer, has supported extensive research on the effects of beryllium and does not think there is a definitive link to cancer or that it should be listed as a carcinogen.
It also thinks that inspectors don't need a special testing program and that the test being used is inappropriate for screening. "Brush Wellman has had employees diagnosed with sub-clinical chronic beryllium disease who run marathons and climb mountains," the company said in an e-mail.
Instead of lowering the beryllium standard, OSHA has issued periodic hazard information bulletins saying the standard may not be adequate.
Public Citizen and a labor union petitioned the agency in 2001, asking that the federal standard be lowered to 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter of air and that surveillance of workers be required. In late 2002, OSHA issued a "request for information," which is a preliminary step to rulemaking.
Snare said last week that the agency does not yet have a proposal but is querying the small-business community on the likely effects of changing the standard.
The Bush administration took up the issue of testing inspectors in April 2002. OSHA's administrator at the time, John L. Henshaw, pronounced in a meeting that retired inspectors would not be tested and that any testing in the future might be part of regular physical exams, Finkel said.
Defying orders to keep those discussions confidential, Finkel told the press of the agency's decision that fall. Almost immediately, Finkel said, Henshaw told him he was being transferred to Washington to work on the agenda for an upcoming health and safety meeting.
That prompted Finkel to file whistle-blower complaints. Pressure on OSHA increased when Finkel took his case public in October 2003, accusing the agency of failing to disclose "a substantial danger to public health" and claiming his bosses were retaliating against him. OSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary R. Davis Layne sent a memo to employees saying that Finkel's allegations were "completely false" and the agency was expanding medical monitoring procedures for beryllium. The testing began in April.
Snare said he could not address Finkel's accusations. Henshaw and Layne, who both left OSHA in December, did not return calls.
Finkel settled with OSHA in late 2003. He is on the government payroll through this year while he teaches at Princeton University.
