Tobacco Documents Online

CLEAR INDOOR AIR: A TRADE UNION PERSPECTIVE by James Savarese The historical commitment of trade unions throughout the world can be simply stated: to work, in the interests of all of their members, to improve the terms and conditions of employment. In view of that commitment, it is hardly surprising that unions have been in the forefront of efforts to ensure clean indoor air in the office as well as the industrial work- place. The hazards that can be presented to health by air in the industrial environment have been appreciated for many years. Often, such hazards have been a direct by-product of the manufacturing process -- the release of asbestos fibres or silica dust, the release and accumulation of chemical vapors, and so forth. The ubiquity of these hazards in developed countries in years past has led, typically as a result of union pressure, to standards designed to clean up the indus- trial environment and to the creation of governmental agencies to enforce the standards. While trade unions were playing a pivotal role in policing of the environment of the industrial workplace, little attention was being paid to the overall office environment. In this, trade unions were hardly alone. Indeed, the widespread assumption -- within the scientific community, government circles, management councils and union leadership -- was that

t office air could be looked to as the standard against which the air in other environments should be measured. The reduction in office ventilation that accompanied the energy crisis of the mid-1970s, coupled with publication of a number of scientific studies actually focusing on office air, has prompted a fundamental reassessment of official views and policies with respect to office air quality. For all of their attractiveness and apparent sophistication, we now know' that many modern office buildings are sick indeed. We also now know that such buildings are making the people within them sick. While in the past complaints by office workers of office- related discomfort and illness were typically dismissed as the hypochondria of a few isolated individuals, we now know enough to take such complaints seriously. The air quality problems that have been documented in offices, particularly in North America and Europe, are ch 0 varied and complex. Modern building materials (composition ~ ~ wood products, wall coverings, carpets, etc.) give off gases %0 .A that, in sufficient concentrations, can pose serious short- and long-term health risks. Modern office equipment (copiers, VDTs, etc.) add to the mix of contaminants. Bacteria and fungi can and often do proliferate in office buildings, result- ing in symptoms that range from a flue-like condition to death in the case of bacteria such as legionella. And undergirding the whole are inadequate, or inadequately maintained, ventila- tion systems.

As the primary guardian of worker health and safety, trade unions must be prepared to play a leading role in the campaign to clean up the office environment. A management guarantee of a safe and healthful office environment should be part and parcel of any collective bargaining contract. Union health and safety officials need to be trained to recognize the symptoms of the sick building syndrome. They also need to be attentive to office worker complaints -- and particularly patterns in such complaints -- relating to air quality. In addition, more research and funding is needed to answer the many as yet unresolved questions in this area. Finally, manage- ment and union members need to be made aware that union leaders regard acceptable air quality to be a fundamental right of off ice workers -- not a luxury that can be sacrificed on the altar of economics or expediency. Ironically, one of the greatest challenges that trade unions face in the campaign to improve office air quality is in keeping the campaign on target. The goal of clean indoor air has almost universal appeal and, concomitantly, few out- right opponents. There is a danger, however, of the issue being used by groups to achieve other -- often competing -- N cn objectives. 0 -4 The movement for smoking restrictions in the work- 4 N) 10 place is a case in point. Particularly in North America, o smoking restrictions have been used by management as well as government as an excuse to avoid dealing with the overriding-

air quality issue. The smoking issue also has been used as a reason for not hiring or continuing the employment of an entire category of workers. in fact, North American unions are confronted daily with employer attempts to use the $moking issue to discriminate against individual workers (on occasion, even because of smoking off the job) and to circumvent their collective bargaining obligations. If tobacco smoke lingers in the indoor environment to the point that it becomes a nuisance, other indoor pollu- tants -- not as visible as tobacco smoke -- almost invariably are accumulating as well. The remedy in such circumstances is not to ban or severely restrict smoking but, instead, to deal with the inadequate or poorly maintained ventilation system that generally is the root of the problem. In the meantime, any specific complaints concerning smoking can and should be handled on an individualized basis or through the collective bargaining process. Over the last few years, government agencies and private groups in a number of countries have developed tech- nologies and approaches for monitoring indoor air quality. A body of useful data has begun to emerge as a result of such efforts. As an example, a study conducted in the United States by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NZOSH) has placed the indoor air quality problem, including smoking, in perspective. in examining over 200 buildings with

( C air quality problems, NIOSH found that environmental tobacco smoke was a problem in only 2 percent of the total. By con- trast, almost half of the complaints -- which included head- aches, dizziness and respiratory problems -- were specifically traced to inadequate ventilation. These results have been confirmed by hundreds of building studies conducted in Western Europe and North America. Thus, from the perspective of trade unionists, it is clear that steps taken to ensure adequate and clean ventilation will have an infinitely greater impact in improving air quality in the office workplace than will a law restricting smoking. Indeed, the North American experience teaches that trade unionists must be vigilant in guarding against smoking being'singled out improperly as*the scapegoat for indoor pollu- tion -- while the real problems escape attention and remain unaddressed. An approach to clean indoor air that looks at the issue comprehensively, and pays particular attention to adequate ventilation, is a step toward solving a serious envi- ronmental problem without trampling on the fundamental collec- tive bargaining rights of all union members. F