Safe Shops Program

Auto shop workers, community at risk

There are special hazards associated with automotive mechanical repair and collision repair (body) shops. Shops that are not complying with occupational and environmental laws not only put workers at risk but also the surrounding community. Shop workers with high exposures to certain industry chemicals may suffer adverse health effects and as well as premature death in certain cases. Additional concern exists for the potential contamination of auto shop workers' families by the inadvertent transporting of the hazardous chemicals residue to home on the soiled work clothes of shop workers. One of the common chemicals in today's auto paints is isocyanate, the largest single cause of industrial asthma. Quite notably, asthma rates among children in the city of Boston are elevated considerably higher than Massachusetts state average.

Safe substitutes, sound practices sought

The goal of the Safe Shops project is encourage all shops to strive beyond compliance towards the elimination of the most hazardous types of chemicals and to substitute those chemicals with more environmentally sound replacements via the implementation of industry best practices. Not only can the environment be helped by changing the chemical and/or changing the work process, but very often a real dollar cost saving can be realized. Sometimes, when all the costs of working with hazardous chemicals are tallied up, it is just plain cheaper to work with the safer alternatives.

Through the experience gained with the Boston Safe Shops Project, MassCOSH is now expanding the program to provide training and technical assistance to union member workers who may work with similar hazardous materials. In the winter of 2006, MassCOSH conducted an informational outreach to the unionized industries in an attempt to identify work locations that could benefit from this training. The initial response from the unions has been strong. Now MassCOSH is piloting training to some union repair shops that maintain their industry's fleet of motor vehicles and union production shops that use similar chemicals in their manufacturing.

The project goal of working with our unions is to develop workplace environmental literacy, understanding the effects of their common work day chemicals, the routes of exposure to workers, and the potential health hazards that may occur. Knowledge is power. MassCOSH seeks to empower workers and their unions, encourage them to add their voices to elimination of work place hazards, and seek solutions by forming health and safety committees.