Occupational Health and Safety Resources

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Occupational Health and Safety Resources

by Unknown

‘Science for the People’ Vol. 7, No. 5, September 1975, p. 38

Some Worker-Oriented Projects 

Boston area:

Occupational Health and Safety Project/ Urban Planning Aid.
—this group provides free assistance to unions and organizers in trying to understand and correct health and safety problems. They have published many helpful fact sheets and pamphlets. Among the most useful of these are How to Look at Your Plant (see article excerpted from this pamphlet in SftP Vol. VI, no. 4, p.17, July, ’74) and How to Use OSHA (see box on page 4 of this issue)

Address: Urban Planning Aid, Inc.
639 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139 

Chicago area:

Chicago Area Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (CACOSH).
—for a brief description of this group’s composition and activities see box on page 35.

Address: CACOSH
542 S. Dearborn St., Rm 508
Chicago, IL 60605 

New Haven area:

New Haven Occupational Health and Safety Project (NHOHSP).
—for a self-critical analysis of the evolution of this collective’s work and ideology during its first three years of existence see the report which begins on page 22.

Address: NHOHSP
Rm 701, 265 Church St.
New Haven, CT 06510 

Pittsburgh area:

Pittsburgh Area Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (PACOSH).
—this committee of workers, union representatives, students and professionals provides information and support for organizing efforts around occupational safety and health issues.

Address: PACOSH
P.O. Box 7566
Pittsburgh, PA 15215 

St. Louis area:

Worker’ Health and Safety Project (WHASP)
—for a critical description of this project’s first year of activity see the report which begins on page 25.

Address: WHASP
7184 Manchester
St. Louis, MO 63143 

San Francisco Bay area:

Bay Area Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (BACOSH).
—for a discussion and analysis of this project’s past and current activities see the report which begins on page 31.

Address: BACOSH
P.O. Box 24774
Oakland, CA 94623  

Other Sources of Useful Pamphlets 

Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR)

—the MCHR Occupational Health Project publishes a newsletter and other literature including a very useful pamphlet, entitled Guide to Worker-Oriented Sources in Occupational Safety & Health. This pamphlet contains an extensive list of projects, fJlms, slideshows, books and other educational materials. Address: Occupational Health Project/MCHR 558 Capp St. San Francisco, CA 94110 

Health/PAC

—offers a very informative packet of reprints of articles on occupational health and safety from their regular bulletin.

Address: Health/PAC
17 Murray St.
New York, NY 10017 

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

—this federal research agency publishes many free pamphlets providing technical information on a variety of hazardous occupations and substances.

Address: NIOSH
Office of Public Information
P.O. Building, Rm 536
Cincinnati, OH 45202 

Some Useful Books

Work is Dangerous to Your Health by Jeanne Stellman and Susan Daum, Random House (1973). (Available in paperback from local bookstores or from Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers’ Union, Box 2182, Denver, CO 80201). An extensive handbook of health hazards and what to do about them.

The American Worker: An Endangered Species, by Frank Wallick. (Available from the United Auto Workers’ Education Office, 8000 E. Jefferson, Detroit, MI 48214.) An analysis of health and safety problems and how to clean things up from the point of view of the UAW.

Bitter Wages by J.A. Page and M.W. O’Brien, Grossman (1973). (Available in paperback.) A Nader study group report on the history of neglect in occupational health and safety and the struggle for legislative action leading to the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1970. 

Muscle and Blood by Rachel Scott, Dutton (1974). A vivid account of the “industrial slaughter” faced by American workers in a variety of industries. 

Expendable Americans by Paul Brodeur, Viking (1974). (Available in paperback.) A well researched narrative indictment of the asbestos industry based on a series of articles published in The New Yorker magazine.

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