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AFGE Seeks Long-Term Health Care for Thousands of Employees Working in Office Complex Contaminated with Cancer Causing Chemicals

AFGE Seeks Long-Term Health Care for Thousands of Employees Working in Office Complex Contaminated with Cancer Causing Chemicals

November 15, 2021

Categories: The Insider

AFGE is seeking long-term health care for employees exposed to toxic chemicals at a federal office complex in St. Louis, Mo., after an investigation revealed that the facility, which also housed a daycare center, was contaminated with chemicals known to cause cancer, neurological disorders, and other diseases.

The investigation, done by the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), substantiated a whistleblower’s allegations that federal workers and tenants were exposed to toxic chemicals at the Goodfellow federal complex and that the General Services Administration (GSA) knew about the toxic chemicals since 2002 but did not do enough to reduce the hazards or notify employees of the danger. In fact, GSA management downplayed the hazards to get higher tenant satisfaction ratings and higher bonus. The whistleblower was an AFGE member.

AFGE is calling for congressional hearings on the issue. We’re also seeking long-term health care for those exposed to the toxic chemicals.

“While it appears the facility is closing, thousands worked there over at least 20 plus years,” said AFGE Assistant General Counsel Ward Morrow. “We don’t have accurate numbers, but this appears to have been a problem since 1988 or longer. We suspect the number of employees impacted may be as high as 30,000. Many employees may be retired or passed not knowing the full dangers of their exposure.”

Indeed, the OSC report noted that “past exposures to site contaminants (e.g. lead, asbestos, mercury, cadmium and others)could have caused or may cause in the future adverse health effects in employees, contractors or tenants (e.g. mesothelioma in employees exposed to asbestos) or developmental issues in children who were in childcare in building 104.”

“In addition, since no effective policies were identified by FOH regarding decontaminating personal items prior to leaving the workplace or precautions associated with laundering clothes, contamination was likely brought home by workers and could have resulted (or result in the future) in adverse health effects among family members,” it added.

The 23-building Goodfellow federal complex was built during World War II for the production of ammunition before being converted to civilian use decades later. It housed 2,000 employees from the Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Defense, Social Security Administration (SSA), and GSA.

For years, employees working in this complex raised concerns about the hazardous substances including lead, cadmium, arsenic, asbestos, and other potentially cancer-causing chemicals. Their concerns were ignored even though GSA had been on notice due to multiple reports from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Inspector General, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and its own privately contracted reports.

GSA even tried to stop the whistleblower – AFGE member Jeffry Cushing, an occupational health and safety specialist at GSA – from reporting these issues to health and safety agencies.

The failure by managers at GSA to properly mitigate hazardous working conditions at the Goodfellow complex prompted AFGE to file a whistleblower complaint with the OSC.

The OSC investigated and on Nov. 5 issued a report substantiated the whistleblower allegations.

Some key findings and most damning portions of the report include:

There was significant site-wide environmental contamination at Goodfellow.
GSA management was aware of both the potential and actual hazards at Goodfellow since at least 2002.
GSA did not do enough to notify employees and tenant agencies of the danger prior to 2016.
GSA did not do enough to reduce and/or prevent contamination or exposures before 2016.
GSA management downplayed the problems to obtain higher tenant satisfaction scores so they could get a larger performance bonus.
GSA did very little to prohibit actual access to contaminated areas prior to 2016.
At GSA, there is a pattern of ongoing management flaws, including “group think”, history of noncompliance, and a disbelief of the opinions of subject-matter experts.
GSA kept doing duplicative tests and studies that turned out to be wasteful as the resources could have been used to reduce contamination.
There were several federal regulations in place when GSA management was made aware of the contamination, which could have prevented exposures, but GSA did not comply with these regulations and did not begin to take steps to prevent exposures to employees until 2016.
Explosives were stored in the facilities that housed childcare centers.
GSA has had a policy on explosives on federal property since 2012 and has had a policy on fire, safety, and health space evaluation since 2015 following whistleblower complaints with the GSA inspector general, but GSA did not implement these policies to reduce risk and improve safety between 2002 and 2015. In fact, there were many instances where GSA failed to address safety problems.
There are potentially serious issues that OSC has not identified in this report, including long-term health effects in employees, tenants, and children exposed to toxic chemicals in the contaminated buildings. Family members were also likely at risk as contaminated items such as clothes were also brought home. Health effects were also not assessed in terms of impact on pregnant women, immune-compromised individuals, and others.
There are areas that have not been properly evaluated to determine the extent of the hazards and what needs to be done.