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Lead
and Women: Women and the Environment
by Elizabeth
O'Brien
As soon as I announced that the theme of the next
issue of LEAD Action News would be Lead and Women, Women and the
Environment, Dr Chloë Mason kindly sent in a vast array of articles
to add to the excellent library here at the Community Lead
Information Centre (CLIC).
Here is an annotated bibliography and selected
quotes. Full bibliographical details, plus the articles. can be
obtained from The LEAD Group by phoning (02) 9716 0014.
Lead and Women at Work
Reproductive Hazards in the Workplace.
A book review by Chloë Mason, in Refractory Girl (1991 ?).
Reproductive Hazards, by Regina Kenen, successfully draws
together the diverse subjects of reproductive health. the assessment
of health risks from hazards and conditions in the workplace. legal
provisions to protect occupational health and the rights of women
(and all workers) to safe employment. Kenen's book also covers the
social history of health and safety rights at work and ensures that
the reader appreciates how current regulations have grown from
social action for change. The reader is engaged with topical issues;
for example. the so-called foetal protection policies - excluding
women from jobs where reproductive health hazards exist which the
US Supreme Court recently struck down in a class action case under
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Lead and Foetal Protection
Policies.
By Chloë Mason. in Refractory Girl No 40. 1992.
Since 1977 women have been objecting to a rash of company
policies barring women from jobs on account of some reproductive
health risk. The campaign was started in Willow Islands. West
Virginia where five women underwent sterilisation rather than lose
their jobs in the lead pigment department of a company. The company
had informed the women that they had the option of leaving jobs
which paid $225 per week plus overtime and transferring to
janitorial jobs which paid $175 per week with no extras. Many US
companies had adopted so-called "foetal protection
policies" which operated by excluding women from jobs involving
a wide range of chemicals and physical processes that are a
reproductive health hazard (often to men as well) rather than by
controlling the hazard at its source.
Mt Isa Mines injunction.
By Chloë Mason. in Refractory Girl. Mar 1992. No 42.
This article summarises the ramifications of a US Supreme
Court decision. and sets the scene for the battle to prevent
Australian companies from adopting discriminatory "foetal
protection policies".
By September 1991. the National Occupational Health and
Safety Commission (also known as Worksafe Australia) through a
tri-partite Taskforce had made considerable progress in revising the
Draft Standard and Code of Practice for all lead workers. Those
revisions overcame. in large part. the discriminatory impact on
women's employment and the unduly high levels of exposure allowed to
lead. a toxic substance. However. in late November. Mt Isa Mines - a
corporation mining lead ore and smelting lead - took legal action
against the actions of the National Commission in relation to lead
and in relation to its consideration of the Sex Discrimination Act.
1984. Specifically. Mt Isa Mines sought an injunction restraining
the Commission from "further considering the formulation of and
the publication of the [lead] Standard and Code." The legal
action. and a successful injunction. stops the development of the
lead standard and code dead in its tracks. although it has been in
the making since 1986.
Controlling women, controlling
lead
by Chloë Mason in Refractory Girl No 43.1992.
Teachers at the local schools near the Pasminco Smelter
at Lake Macquarie have been issued with curriculum materials on
children and lead. These materials communicate to teachers that the
family unit is the key to coping with excessive exposure to lead.
For
example, 'Children who are supported and confident in their family
unit will be better able to deal with problems associated with the
lead issue.'
It's a
far cry from controlling the hazard at source. However, these are
excellent resource materials on the ideology of the family and the
use of victim-blaming to manage hazards.
This
article also describes progress in the Mt Isa Mines case.
Anti-Discrimination
Law and Occupational Health and Safety
In this
speech to the Forum on Women's Occupational Health and Safety
(Brisbane, 1992) Chloë Mason uses foetal protectionism as one of
three examples in the complete history of anti-discrimination law in
Australia.
Feminism
in the 90s
by Chloë Mason, in OSWomen, (newsletter
of the Office of the Status of Women) 1992
Chloë
raises several important issues in the Mt Isa Mines case.
In the
US several papers have been published on the general lack of
attention that science pays to paternal exposure to lead.
A
concern for women is that lead is not the only toxic material used
in modern industry and allowing one industry to exclude women may
set a dangerous precedent for other industries to apply for similar
exemptions. Women have argued that foetal protectionism has the
potential to bar women from millions of jobs, and also denies men
the right to work in a safe and healthy workplace, since it
reinforces the idea that it is acceptable for men to do dangerous
work.
Federal
Court endorses safe use of lead at work
by Andrea Durbach
(April 1994) in Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) Bulletin.
The Full
Federal Court encouraged WorkSafe to continue working towards an
appropriate lead standard which is fair to women in recognising that
exposure to lead may affect reproductive capacity of women more than
men, may harm the unborn foetus and may affect the health and
welfare of a child breastfed by a mother with undue lead levels.
Lead
standard saga continues
by Winder and Mason
Feb. 1994
WorkSafe
has to be clear about what equal opportunity is. The equal
opportunity principle is not about ensuring fair conditions for a
specific group of workers, but about ensuring fair conditions for
all workers.
WorkSafe
has been working on a lead standard since 1986 and, prior to the
Mount Isa Mines challenge, was working closely with government,
industry, and equal employment bodies to resolve issues relating to
the entry of women into the lead processing industry. It is likely
that the draft standard that was ready to to to the National
Occupational Health and Safety Commission in December 1991 before
the MIM challenge will be dusted off and the relevant passages
relating to equal employment will be deleted or modified.
Consideration of this "minimalist" amendment to the draft
standard by WorkSafe's Standards Development Standing Committee and
finalisation by the National Occupational Health and Safety
Commission should follow, possibly as early as June 1994.
Graphic by Rose Lennon, aged 6.
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