Many if not most coaches do it. Certainly, drill sergeants do it. Most people decry the state of politics today. Belittling your opponent with schoolyard taunts and insults, however, has been a staple of politics seemingly forever. 

I am playing a dangerous game this year. Your mom’s sage advice that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is not true. Some people can be very vindictive and sly when angered. I understand the risks, but I believe the risks are worth taking.

Speaking out

Speaking on stage or in one-to-one conversations at local and national OHS events this year, I have lamented that “local and national OHS organizations have demonstrated massive leadership failure,” “leaders no longer lead, they are too OSHA-fied (a word I coined) to understand the larger world around them,” “industrial hygienists today are no longer taught to think, IHs today are taught to paint by numbers and think they are Rembrandt,” “I put ‘industrial hygienist’ into a new national law but organizations that represent IHs are too stupid to know how to use this opportunity to advance the profession.” 

Why would I risk OHS organizational wrath with such nasty and unfounded comments? Sometimes you must poke the beehive to get the bees to make honey. The following is another example of OHS leadership’s limited thinking. 

Big bucks!

In mid-August 2024, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced they settled a $45 million lawsuit and agreed to reform the agency’s policies based upon outdated risk views for pregnant workers. Regardless of whether there were workplace health limitations or not, the CBP forced every pregnant worker since 2016 to enter a light duty program. The flawed logic was that all normal duties were too risky for pregnant CBP workers to perform. 

To put the $45 million EEOC judgement into perspective, by comparison the settlement would rank by far as the second highest corporatewide penalty ever issued by OSHA. Stakeholder pain is greater in this case, however. All penalty dollars to OSHA are sent back to the U.S. Treasury. A good chunk of the CBP judgement, perhaps one-third of the amount, goes to attorney fees. This is how your tax dollars are being spent.

Crickets 

If the above was an OSHA corporatewide settlement agreement, most if not every OHS organization would plaster the topic on every newsfeed they have. OHS big thinkers would stumble over themselves to advise employers how to avoid this catastrophic misstep and loss of money. I am banking as I write this article that all you will have heard about this topic is crickets. That is the problem I am trying to solve. When are the bees going to start to make honey on the topic of health risks for pregnant workers?

Read ISHN

Here is a poke at CBP leadership. If CBP had read and followed my advice on risk assessments for pregnant workers, they could have saved themselves the embarrassment and anguish of paying out a $45 million lawsuit judgement against their agency.

I wrote last month’s column to explain why risk assessments are not required by the PWFA. The ISHN article explained why things such as gender bias and OSHA-fication e.g. rigid and fixed attitudes in the U.S. provide a caution light to move forward on risk assessments for pregnant workers. ISHN articles going back years ago cautioned about risk treatment failures for pregnant workers, mentioning authoritative sources such as U.S. Supreme Court decisions such as 1991 UAW v Johnson Controls and 2015 Peggy Young v UPS. 

Income or health?

Going as far back as the U.S. Supreme Court 1908 Muller v Oregon, the issue has always been about the choice a pregnant (or potentially pregnant) worker must make (or made for her) about income or health. The CBP lawsuit fit the same pattern. The CBP lawsuit argued that forced entry into a light-duty program offered pregnant workers fewer chances for overtime and other differential pay, lowered the chance for promotion, allowed for fewer training opportunities, made preferred schedules more difficult to earn and required the pregnant worker to surrender their right to carry a firearm.

Male macho ego

Most members of OHS organizations are men. I served my tour in the Marine Corps. I am more macho than 99% of the members of any OHS organization. I love this poke because no one is tough enough to challenge the boast. The point is, if I can change and accept that most pregnant workers are not some delicate, breakable thing that must always be placed on light duty, you can change too. Your risk concepts must change to recognize that most work is safe for a pregnant worker, although risk must consider reasonable accommodations when necessary.

Embarrassing 

Out of more than 100,000 public comments on PWFA proposed rules, mine were the only comments that supported that industrial hygienists be recognized as a healthcare provider under the PWFA. IHs are now in the PWFA final rules as equal among other HCPs but IHs may be positioned “who may best serve the person’s needs.” 

I firmly believe that IHs have the historical and future capacity to excel in this elevated recognition. IHs are one more step closer to being a licensed profession. I should not, however, be the torchbearer for the path that IHs must follow that now lays in front of us. I believe there are greater future OHS risks — such as AI — that must be examined.

AIHA, ACGIH, ASSP, National Safety Council or other organizations that represent IHs must take the lead on PWFA involvement. NIOSH has a special role to play in success of the PWFA. NIOSH must help define the risk science for pregnant workers, something that they were successful in doing years ago.

Final taunt 

AIHA, ACGIH, ASSP, and NSC were all formed before the late 1930s. I am not aware of any Fortune 500 Company that has remained intact that long. If these dated organizations cannot support the modern risk concepts within the PWFA, there is no shame in closing a shop, giving away your possessions, and becoming a historical footnote. 

Entrepreneurs with a medical and global slant have recognized U.S. OHS organizational weaknesses. I suggest that OHS organization members sign up at the registry at www.maternityprotector.org. I have no ownership or financial interest in the registry. I believe in its logic, however. Support modern concepts or be left behind. It’s your choice.