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| NYU union presses laboratory safety probe as worker's health problems intensify Union meetings, newsletter focus on safety info 
June 2, 2004 UCATS officers meet with lab technicians and graduate students in March to discuss concerns with lab safety at NYU. When the academic year drew to a close at New York University , the staff union redoubled pressure to improve laboratory safety as a probe continued into one worker's exposure to formaldehyde. Michelle De Paola, who worked in the NYU dental lab, says her health has only worsened since New York Teacher first reported her story in March. "There are medical personnel who believe my body is in a traumatic state and has responded in the breakdown of my system," said De Paola, 27. Besides her worsening asthma, she has been diagnosed with Type II diabetes, hypertension and two non-specific growths on her thyroid. "I now take around 10 pills and check my blood sugar daily, have 10 appointments weekly and sonograms every six months. "I still have to sleep sitting up and am unable to do much of anything that requires physical exertion," she said. The union says she was permanently disabled from lab overexposure. She resigned her NYU position so she could concentrate full-time on regaining her health. Earlier this spring her local — the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Technical Staff at NYU — published a newsletter and held meetings on safety concerns while awaiting results of an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation at the NYU Dental Center lab. The union charges the university committed more than a dozen safety violations at the "seasonal lab" where De Paola, who prepared cadavers for dissection, breathed in formaldehyde fumes at seven times the rate considered safe. The NYU lab occupies rented space in the basement of a Hunter College dormitory . "The university talks about how this was a temporary lab," said Stephen Rechner, president of the 1,700-member union. "Unfortu-nately, what happened to Michelle isn't temporary. In fact, this is a worst-case scenario all workers need to know because it illustrates how quickly you can become permanently disabled at work." New York State United Teachers supported its local with expert help in filing complaints with OSHA and the federal Environ-mental Protection Agency. The statewide union also alerted other unions whose members work in the building to the safety concerns. Family helps "My family is supporting me financially on the aspect of my medical insurance and care," De Paola said. When she first fell ill, she didn't realize the extent to which she would become disabled and that she would not be able to find work. "Being dependent on other people for everything bothers me terribly," she said, although the knowledge she's not alone also helps to sustain her. Besides her family, she has the union. "I appreciate everyone's well wishes and concern," she said of NYSUT and UCATS. Raise awareness Workers need more information on lab safety, said Ellen Steinberg, a member of the Professional Staff Congress, which represents faculty and staff at the City University of New York. Steinberg, who said she developed chemically related asthma several years ago, works in the same building where De Paola was employed. Steinberg recalls the formaldehyde fumes being so strong in December that she had difficulty breathing, even though she worked several floors above. "I remember the fumes seemed to permeate the hallway and I had to take my albuterol medication," said Steinberg, a lab tech for 33 years. "The real issue here is that these seasonal or temporary laboratories, and even classroom labs, are not designed correctly with adequate amounts of fresh air being circulated in," said Steinberg. "Walk into any classroom lab and there's never enough fume hoods, and air is just being recirculated." 'Could have been me' This is not the first time lab safety has been an issue at NYU. Susan Price works at the Morse Academic Plan science labs, where workers brought safety violations to the union. She said NYU converted what used to be a registrar's office into lab space in the 1990s without providing adequate chemical spill kits and eye-wash stations. With help from NYSUT, the union demanded a walk-through by a New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health representative. Only after the unions proved that the workers had legal rights to test the labs did NYU permit it. Among other violations, NYCOSH found air ventilation far below standards. "What struck me was the difference in approach," Price said. "NYU initially refused us the right to test the air, ventilation and other equipment in the lab, while the union's first concern was to find out what staff, students and faculty were breathing in." Price has joined the union in its fight to test dental lab work sites. "What happened to Michelle could have happened to any of us," she said. That's what keeps UCATS working, notes Greg Succop, a union staffer. "Our initial discussions to find out about lab conditions revealed that procedures and standards are really different from one part of the campus to the other," Succop said. "We're advocating for one high standard that should apply to all workers." — Betsy Sandberg |
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