“Trike Is No Treat: Health Problems at Monarch”

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rike

by Carl Feuer, TCLC and
Robin Whittlesey, TCLC

“For a machine shop it’s pretty clean.”
That’s one reaction many workers have to
working conditions at Monarch Machine
Tool in Cortland.

Probe a little further, however, and you
find that things may not be so rosy. A
‘number of the UAW Local 802 members who
use or come in contact with trichloroethane, a
cleaning solvent, have problems with their
eyes; some don’t sleep well; others find their
noses frequently stuffy at work. Are they
being slowly poisoned by the Trike?

A few months ago, Local President Ron
Powell passed around a Workplace Health
Survey. He was surprised and disturbed at
the results: :

e Almost two-thirds of the workers regularly
feel ill at work

e Over half have work-related respiratory
problems

e Almost 40 percent have work-related eye
problems

e Almost 40 percent have work-related skin
problems

* One quarter have work-related ear or
hearing problems

¢ Many have back problems
Some departments are worse than others.

Are they being slowly
poisoned by the Trike?

Assembly may be the worst of all. And they

use a lot of Trike there.
1,1,1-trichloroethane (a.k.a. methyl

chloroform; Trike) is a carcinogen; over-

exposure can lead to liver or kidney cancer ~

years later. Contact with it can irritate the
skin and eyes. Prolonged contact can cause
thickening and cracking of the skin.
Exposure can also cause you to feel dizzy and
lightheaded. Higher levels can cause un-

s No Treat
Health Problems at

* consultation.

Monarch

death. You can breathe it or it can pass
through your skin.

The National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH, a government
research agency) recommends that Trike be
handled with extreme caution “limiting
exposure to as few employees as possible and
reducing exposures to the lowest possible
limits.”

Monarch’s management has not complied
with this recommendation. Nor do they
conduct air sampling to see what level of
Trike workers are being exposed to. Nor do
they provide a good local exhaust ventilation
for worksites where Trike is used. Yet the
smell of Trike is regularly in the air at
Monarch. This is a clear warning of
hazardous exposure. If workers. are
smelling it there is a real fear that air levels
may be exceeding the danger limit, which
NIOSH sets at 350 parts per million, not to be
exceeded during any 15 minute period.

At its meeting February 3, Local 802’s
newly formed Union Health and Safety
Committee began considering what it can do
in this matter. One option is to find safer
alternatives and force management to use
them. Since the Trike is so expensive to
dispose of—because it is so hazardous—
Monarch does have an interest in alter-
natives (too bad they aren’t as concerned
about workers’ health as about the costs of
disposal). The Committee also considered

the need to do air testing, and to assist the
most affected workers in having a medical
Dr. Michael Lax, Director of
the new Occupational Health Clinic at
Syracuse Medical Center, would be the best
person to do this.

No doubt management will attempt to stall
the Committee...while workers’ health
suffers. But the Committee and the Union
are committed to doing whatever they can to

ccanepeceemencieet nee ne tet cece! Peet

protect workers’ safety and health. And

consciousness, irregular heartbeat and _ Trike is the first target.