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In the afternoon of March 23, 2006 a Providence firefighter was diagnosed as having cyanide poisoning after working at a building fire. In the aftermath of three fires at commercial and residential sites that day, eight additional firefighters (out of 28 tested) were found to have elevated levels of cyanide. Numerous other members reported symptoms consistent with cyanide poisoning, including headaches, weakness and fatigue, nausea, and shortness of breath. The Providence Fire Department (PFD) established a joint union management committee to review the situation.

Critics of the precautionary principle assail it for calling for action before science establishes unquestionably that a substance causes harm. They claim theirs is the viewpoint of the "scientific method." But the conflict is not between science and antiscience but rather between different pathways for science and technology; between a commodified science-for-profit and a gentle science for humane goals; between the sciences of the smallest parts and the sciences of dynamic wholes. This article addresses the social construction of scientific production and the pattern of strengths and weaknesses to which it leads. The author offers proposals for a more holistic, integral approach to understanding and addressing environmental issues.

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Section 126(g) of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 mandated the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to establish a grant program for the training and education of hazardous waste operations and emergency response workers. This program, originally established as the Superfund Worker Training Program, has evolved into the Worker Education and Training Program (WETP) and is currently in its nineteenth year of successful operation. Beginning with eleven awardees in 1987, it currently supports eighteen awardees that include more than one hundred organizations nationally. The NIEHS WETP built upon the lessons learned from earlier worker health education and training programs to establish a national worker health education intervention that has demonstrated the capacity of and potential for public health excellence. The principles and practices established as the program's foundation in its first five years are detailed, providing a basis for understanding how the program was able to take an active supporting role in response to the national disasters on September 11, 2001.

Working conditions in Europe are getting worse, due to changes in work organization, including intensification and increasing insecurity. A critical assessment of the state of prevention in Europe remains essential. Trade union organizations on the Luxembourg Advisory Committee on Safety, Hygiene and Health Protection at Work drafted a document on what Community occupational health policy should seek to achieve. In June 2001, the ETUC Executive Committee adopted a resolution based on the document. This article discusses the trade union strategy. The first step is to critique the few existing indicators. To a considerable extent, they actually conceal the health problems of work. The statistics on occupational disease reflect, above all, characteristics of the various national systems of benefits but say little about the real state of workers' health. "Traditional" risks still cause tens of thousands of deaths and injuries every year. Risks associated with work organization are increasing steadily. The intensification of work is an important aspect of the reorganization of production processes and is associated with major changes in work management and organization. At the same time, the spread of Taylorized work procedures in certain sectors (probably correlating strongly with work performed by women in both services and some branches of industry) and the introduction of management methods may be summarized in the phrase "controlled autonomy." It involves shifting some of the supervisory burden to the level of the team, which destroys collective solidarity and detracts from the conditions under which work can contribute to mental health. Labor insecurity has been facilitated by the reappearance of mass unemployment and technological changes. Work has become increasingly less "sustainable" and companies are swamping society with the real social costs of their appetite for profit. In seeking harmonization, we must ensure consistent legislation based on the fundamental principles of the Framework Directive. Thus, trade unions demand that all risk factors be covered by directives based on effective preventive approaches. The new language of risk assessment and broadened approach to occupational health may initiate a process that (i) makes the invisible visible; (ii) moves on from observing individual complaints to collective analysis; and (iii) formulates a collective strategy based on identifying what "can be tolerated no longer."

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