Poorly Trained Cleanup Crews Facing Toxic Risks, Official Says

Scores of temporary laborers hired by contractors to mop up the oil spill along the Orange County coastline were not properly trained and could have been exposed to cancer-causing toxins, a federal official said Saturday.

“We’re very concerned about the lack of training that the workers seem to have,” said Jack Rhodes, district supervisor of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “They need to know how to work with hazardous materials, especially how to dispose of them properly. It appears that some of them have received no training at all.”

OSHA inspectors dispatched to ensure that safety standards were being upheld found that “all of the companies” hired by British Petroleum to clean the beaches had not properly equipped or trained some of their workers, Rhodes said.

OSHA guidelines require at least 24 hours of training for all workers involved in cleaning up toxic chemicals, Rhodes said. But in some cases, he said, workers at Huntington Beach and Newport Beach received little or no training.

Chempro of Long Beach, one of the cleanup contractors, was threatened with fines Friday for failing to provide proper footwear to the 30 workers about to begin work at the shore in Huntington Beach, Rhodes said. Workers are required to wear boots lined with plastic at sites where toxins are present, he said.

Chempro officials on Saturday referred all questions to British Petroleum, which leased the damaged tanker that spilled the oil Wednesday.

Rhodes said that the Chempro employees were stopped by OSHA inspectors before they actually began working, and that they did not appear to be in any danger of chemical exposure.

Chempro workers eventually were issued the proper footwear, Rhodes said.

Doug MacDonald, 33, of San Pedro, a halibut fisherman who sought work from Chempro to maintain his livelihood while the fishing industry waits out the cleanup, said everyone who showed up at the sea scalers’ union hall in San Pedro at 4 a.m. Saturday was hired. They were all given proper gear, but no one, he said, was instructed in proper cleanup techniques.

“I had on-the-job training,” MacDonald said. He added that the majority of the workers hired for the cleanup crews spoke only Spanish and were not told of the possible hazards of cleaning up the oil.

Spokesmen for British Petroleum said the contractors hired for the cleanup effort were retained with the understanding that they would adhere to OSHA’s 24-hour training requirement.

“All I can say is every effort was made to ensure that every requirement was met,” said British Petroleum spokesman Tony Kozlowski.

Nearly 600 cleanup workers were on the beaches as of Saturday afternoon, according to figures provided by British Petroleum spokesman Peter Necarsulmer.

Rhodes said the unrefined oil washing up on beaches contains benzene, a chemical known to cause cancer. Without proper training, he said, workers “might mishandle or expose themselves to hazards at the cleanup site.”

“If a worker sits down to eat lunch and he’s got oil on his hands, he could ingest benzene--that’s a carcinogen,” Rhodes said.

Workers also could suffer temporary respiratory problems from airborne benzene or dermatitis if they get oil on their skin, he said.

Necarsulmer said it was for those reasons that citizens who showed up at the beaches to help out in the cleanup effort were asked to leave.

“There is a very legitimate public health and safety concern,” Necarsulmer said. “Skin contact or ingestion of the oil can cause serious bodily harm.”

OSHA issued a temporary waiver allowing companies employing workers who were not fully trained to continue work until 4 p.m. Saturday. Companies found not to be in compliance with the 24-hour training requirement after that hour were subject to citations and fines, Rhodes said.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, members of the cleanup crews are earning between $11.50 and $13 an hour.

The following Times staff members contributed to the coverage of the Huntington Beach oil spill. In Orange County--Bill Billiter, Sonni Efron, Mary Lou Fulton, James M. Gomez, Shelby Grad, Tom McQueeney, Frank Messina, Maria Newman, Rose Ellen O’Connor, Wendy Paulson and Jeffrey A. Perlman. In Los Angeles--Richard Beene and Larry B. Stammer.

Patching The Holes

The two holes on the starboard side of the American Trader will be covered by two patches made of steel, plywood and water-resistant foam. With the holes covered, the tanker will be able to dock in Long Beach early this week, officials said. Source: Tony Kozlowski, British Petorleum, Mike Murphy, American Trading Research By Shelby Grad / Los Angeles Times