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December 30, 2003
Ergonomics Scientists Boycott
From global warming to medical studies, the Bush Administration has systematically set out to destroy scientific peer review of policy. Now the scientists are telling the administration they won't participate in their dog-and-pony shows any more.
Read this over at Confined Space:
The nation's leading ergonomics experts have announced that they will boycott an upcoming ergonomics research symposium called by OSHA as part of its CompRehensive APproach to ergonomics.So the scientists are refusing to participate in an intellectual fraud and a scientific farce.Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, John Henshaw, is not amused. “The good scientists will engage in the process and participate like responsible people.”...
One of the leading lies that the anti-ergonomics industry, Congressional Republicans and the Bush Administration used in their campaign to repeal the ergonomics standard was that there was no science behind ergonomics. Despite the fact that there were more good studies done on ergonomics than any other health or safety standard ever issued by OSHA, and despite a comprehensive review of the literature by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in 1997, Republicans in Congress called for another review by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)...That study, issued in January 2001, shortly after the ergonomics standard was issued, confirmed the findings of the previous study and, like every other scientific study in the history of mankind, called for more research on a number of issues.
Posted by Nathan at December 30, 2003 10:26 AM
