Teachers Union Organizes Members to Enforce AHERA Law--A Work in Progress

Our plain-English summary of Teachers Union Organizes Members to Enforce AHERA Law--A Work in Progress, by M.P. Sireci, C. Levenstein, S. Gibson (New Solutions, 2016).

The study

• Authors: M.P. Sireci, C. Levenstein, S. Gibson
• Journal: New Solutions
• Published: 2016;26(1):72-82
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

The Massachusetts Teachers Association's Environmental Health and Safety Committee is using a number of approaches to evaluate and improve the enforcement of the U.S. Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act legislation intended to ensure the proper management of asbestos in public buildings, including schools. The committee first approached state regulators directly concerning enforcement concerns, with limited success. Next, the Massachusetts Teachers Association developed an organizing strategy and a curriculum focusing on the requirements of the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act and on building a membership-run health and safety committee infrastructure in local unions. Five trainings took place throughout Massachusetts over a 2-month period in 2015. The committee implemented follow-up procedures and support for locals to continue to engage in this ongoing effort. This work illustrates that the passage of the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act in 1986 was insufficient action to remediate school asbestos exposures. It is necessary for unions representing school employees to systematically hold regulators and school districts accountable for enforcement and compliance.

© The Author(s) 2015.

In plain English

This is a report on a union project still under way, not a scientific study of disease. It describes how the Massachusetts Teachers Association, a union of about 110,000 members, tried to improve enforcement of the federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, which governs asbestos-containing materials in schools. Through public records, the union's safety committee obtained the state's annual reports for 1998 to 2008. On average, about 90% of the state's random school audits led to a Notice of Non-Compliance. In March 2013, the state Department of Labor Standards reported receiving reports from only 1,670 of 2,649 public and private not-for-profit schools in Massachusetts. About 1,000 of those reports were severely deficient, 665 had minor deficiencies, and five had none. The article's body describes six three-hour workshops in December 2014 and January 2015, but its abstract says five trainings in 2015. About fifty local unions took part, learning to form safety committees and request their districts' asbestos records. Data on the locals' follow-up had not yet been collected. The authors concluded that passing a law does not solve the problem without adequate enforcement.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Descriptive report of a union organizing and policy project (work in progress), not a research study
• Who was studied: The Massachusetts Teachers Association (about 110,000 members), its Environmental Health and Safety Committee, and about fifty local unions; Massachusetts public and private not-for-profit schools as reported by state regulators
• Exposure: Management of asbestos-containing materials in schools under AHERA, including one high school's spray-on fireproofing containing asbestos
• Main results:
  • In state reports for 1998 to 2008 obtained by the committee, about 90% of the state's random school audits on average resulted in a Notice of Non-Compliance
  • When union representatives met with state officials about these data, the union's concerns were dismissed as "paper work" violations
  • At one central Massachusetts high school, 39,500 square feet of spray-on fireproofing asbestos had been recommended for encapsulation in 1988; at a state inspection in 2007 the problem was still unresolved
  • After a whistleblower group complained to the EPA, the federal agency said it was satisfied with the state's enforcement
  • As of 5 March 2013, the state had received reports from only 1,670 of 2,649 public and private not-for-profit schools in Massachusetts
  • Of the reports received, about 1,000 submissions were severely deficient, 665 had minor deficiencies, and five were not deficient
  • Twenty-one of the severely deficient schools were prioritized for inspection because the state was concerned about the deteriorated condition of the asbestos
  • According to the body of the article, the union held six 3-hour workshops in December 2014 and January 2015 in its six regional offices (the article's abstract instead says five trainings over a 2-month period in 2015)
  • About fifty local unions took part in the trainings
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that passing a law does not solve the problem: regulating through record-keeping may be less effective than requiring remediation, and neither will work without adequate enforcement
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Data on what local unions did after the trainings had not yet been collected when the article was written
  • The authors note that mesothelioma cases among school employees, reported by a separate state health department study, are not necessarily evidence about how well the law works, because those workers were probably exposed before AHERA

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: AHERA, Asbestos Exposure.

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