Last Dec. 16, 2009, newly appointed Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels spoke at NIOSH’s Making Green Jobs Safe: Integrating Occupational Safety and Health into Green and Sustainability. The conference was held in Washington, D.C. Dr.

Michaels stressed out that green jobs cannot be good jobs unless they’re safe jobs. He also discussed the importance of worker participation when it comes to reporting injuries and illnesses in the workplace and OSHA’s Green Reform Principles.

Here are some excerpts from his speech:

“We’re all aware of the job opportunities that green jobs offer, and in the present economy, new technologies with the potential of new jobs are especially welcome.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recently announced nearly $55 million in green job grants, authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These grants will support job training and labor market information programs to help workers, many in underserved communities, find jobs in expanding green industries and related occupations.

But in addition to job opportunities, there are many concerns that we need to consider – which is why you have gathered here this week.

Secretary Solis has provided the Department of Labor with her vision, which is simply and profoundly: “Good jobs for everyone.” And everyone at this conference understands all too well that green jobs cannot be good jobs unless they are safe jobs.”

“It is vital, now, that we integrate worker safety and health concerns into green manufacturing, green construction and green energy. Most importantly: We must push worker health and safety as a critical, necessary, and recognized element of green design, green lifecycle analysis and green contracts.

It’s not a matter of choosing either a green future or safe jobs. It’s both. It’s all or nothing, and NIOSH, OSHA and everyone else needs to play a role in building this sustainable economy – an economy that will provide sufficient jobs, green jobs, and jobs that are safe for all workers.

Here is where we start: Most people instinctively see green jobs as safe. But at OSHA, when we hear “weatherization and renovation,” we see exposure to lead and asbestos. When we hear insulation, we think isocyanate exposure. When we hear rooftop solar power, we see fall hazards. When we hear wind energy, we see lockout hazards.

It’s small wonder that some call OSHA the “Debbie Downer” of federal agencies.

But there are even more fundamental issues – and these present problems as well as opportunities. You’re all aware of the industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls. What’s at the very top of that hierarchy? Substitution.

This means exchanging a safe, clean chemical for a hazardous one. But, we also all know that, all too often, substitution is an unreachable panacea – because the safer chemical may be too expensive or may not quite fit the job’s technical needs, or because we don’t have enough information to know which chemicals are actually safe.”

“I have a vision of a greener world where there is full and complete hazard information available for every chemical and every chemical mixture; where science is at work not only to make more effective and more profitable chemicals, but safer chemicals, too. I dream of a world where workers can collaborate on an equal basis with management to find safe chemicals and develop and implement processes that won’t put workers in danger.

There’s an enormous chasm to bridge between the ideal future and the imperfect present. Today we suspect that at least a couple of thousand high-use chemicals out there may present some threat to worker health. Yet, OSHA currently regulates about 500 chemicals, based mostly on science from the 1950s and 1960s. How many chemical standards has OSHA issued in the past 12 years? Two – and one of these two only came about because of a court order! We haven’t been keeping up with the science.

So, not only are we lacking critical information about the hazards of many chemicals, but we have virtually no information about the hazards of chemical mixtures.

If we don’t pay attention at the dawn of this new green revolution, we’ll be replicating past problems as we move into future industries. I’m making it my mission and OSHA’s mission to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Clearly one of the best ways to move forward on worker safety at the same time that we move forward on green jobs is to ensure that workers are more engaged in the work process and in the development of green jobs. It’s clear that we must move toward a permanent system where employers and workers come together, on a basis of mutual respect, to assess and abate hazards. This is OSHA’s ‘Green Reform Principle Number One.’”

“Another part of the big picture is chemical safety, as I outlined earlier. This is Principle Number Two. For example, the European Community’s REACH program will provide industry and American workers with more and better information about the chemicals they are exposed to. More important, REACH is also, finally, challenging the old paradigm where chemicals are considered innocent until proven guilty – and all too often proven guilty by the sick and dead bodies of American workers.”

“As green industries grow, OSHA will be fully involved in the movement toward Prevention through Design. This is OSHA’s Green Reform Principle Number Three. Prevention through Design is about fundamental change that integrates safety efficiently and thoroughly.

Prevention through Design asks: Why should we go back and expend precious time and resources retrofitting hazardous industries to make them safer when we have the ability and the opportunity to begin fresh and make work safe from start to finish?”

“Principle Number Four: Where, and when possible, OSHA must move ahead on rulemaking for urgently needed standards – and to create good standards, we’ll need the input of scientists and engineers, academics, students and workers. We’ll also need allies in the progressive business community who will say “yes” to sensible changes and participate in the rulemaking process with constructive comments and insight.

OSHA’s Green Reform Principle Number Five: Enhancing workers’ voice in the workplace. To get us up to date and move into a safer, healthier future, it’s also clear that workers must have a stronger voice in workplace safety than they have now. Giving that voice impact and value means that workers must have much better information about their rights, the hazards they face and controls for those hazards.”

“It’s been OSHA’s pleasure to participate in this workshop. Thanks to your contributions now and in the future, we can look forward to developing a reliable roadmap to help employers drive their industries in the proper direction – toward a safe and healthful future.

The challenge now is to get everyone else on board across the Nation. We need to make the expression “green jobs” synonymous with “safe jobs” – because green jobs are good jobs only when they are safe jobs.”

To read the full speech, please visit www.osha.gov