Raytheon workers got decent care, judge says

This story was published Thu, Sep 7, 2000

By Mary Hopkin
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - A judge has ruled Raytheon gave its workers proper medical attention last September when about 30 employees became mysteriously ill while working at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

The decision by Administrative Judge Stanley Schwartz of Denver is to be filed Friday in a case that came after Raytheon contested a citation issued by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The citation was issued last December by Carl Halgren, OSHA area director, after he investigated the depot incident. The actual cause of the workers' illness still has not been determined.

Halgren issued the citation to Raytheon Constructors Inc. for allegedly failing to have medical personnel available "for advice and consultation on matters of occupational health."

Halgren said he found during his inspection that provisions were not made to get the workers promptly to the hospital after they were exposed to an unknown chemical.

The citation states "the assistance of a physician from the Umatilla Chemical Depot was refused and the exposed employees had to wait approximately two hours before they were transported to a hospital."

The citation was contested by Raytheon, which sent the matter before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. "It goes into a regular trial before an administrative law judge," Halgren said.

In his decision, Schwartz said OSHA had "failed to prove that Raytheon's preparations were unreasonable."

"The complainant's theory in this case is that Raytheon's infirmary was understaffed to handle a potentially catastrophic event ... and that Raytheon violated the cited standard by turning down an offer of assistance from Dr. Jose Ortiz, the doctor on staff at the Army's Depot Clinic," Schwartz said.

But the OSHA code Raytheon was cited under does not contain specific guidelines, leaving it up to the judge to decide whether the two emergency medical technicians Raytheon had on hand that day was adequate protection for its workers.

"There is no evidence that Raytheon's EMT staff, or its response to the chemical release was inadequate," Schwartz said. "Finally, there is no evidence in the record indicating that a physician on the scene would, or could, have done anything more than the EMTs."

Jack Herrmann, director of communications for Washington Government Group, which recently bought Raytheon, said the company was pleased with the judge's ruling.

"This reaffirms our commitment to employee safety," Herrmann said.

But Halgren said he was disappointed with the decision, as was James McCandlish, an attorney representing many of the injured workers in a civil suit against the Army and Raytheon.

"The decision is disappointing but understandable," McCandlish said. "Nobody told the referee that the Army's own follow-up testing found both mustard and nerve gas inside the incinerator building where the mass exposure occurred."

However, the Army disagrees with McCandlish, and has said he has misinterpreted air test documents.

 

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