There was good news from the White House on the every-worker-deserves-a-safe-workplace front last week — President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Dr. David Michaels of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, a former Assistant Secretary of Energy and a longtime fighter for workers’ health and honest science, to be the new head of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA):

He has conducted numerous studies of the health effects of occupational exposure to toxic chemicals, including asbestos, metals and solvents, and has written extensively on science and regulatory policy. From 1998 to 2001, Dr. Michaels served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety and Health, responsible for protecting the health and safety of workers, neighboring communities and the environment surrounding the nation’s nuclear weapons facilities. In that position, he was the chief architect of the historic initiative to compensate nuclear weapons workers who developed occupational illnesses as a result of exposure to radiation, beryllium and other hazards. In 2006, Dr. Michaels received the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award for his work on behalf of nuclear weapons workers and for his advocacy for scientific integrity. He is also the recipient of the 2009 John P. McGovern Science and Society Award given by Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.

You can get a good sense of where Dr. Michaels comes from on the issues OSHA deals with by reading some of his writings. In 2008 he published Doubt is Their Product, a book that exposed how industries such as asbestos and Big Tobacco used multi-million dollar campaigns of biased “science” to delay regulations that would have protected the public from the dangers of their products. Three years earlier, he explained this business of “manufactured uncertainty” in the pages of Scientific American:

Uncertainty is an inherent problem of science, but manufactured uncertainty is another matter entirely. Over the past three decades, industry groups have frequently become involved in the investigative process when their interests are threatened. If, for example, studies show that a company is exposing its workers to dangerous levels of a certain chemical, the business typically responds by hiring its own researchers to cast doubt on the studies. Or if a pharmaceutical firm faces questions about the safety of one of its drugs, its executives trumpet company sponsored trials that show no significant health risks while ignoring or hiding other studies that are much less reassuring. The vilification of threatening research as “junk science” and the corresponding sanctifi cation of industry-commissioned research as “sound science” has become nothing less than standard operating procedure in some parts of corporate America.

Dr. Michaels was also a leader in the fight to protect consumers and food workers from the dangers of exposure to diacetyl — a chemical commonly used to provide a buttery flavor in microwave popcorn. Inhalation of diacetyl, however, can result in a form of lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans, which can severely damage the lung. Bronchiolitis obliterans is incurable; the only treatment is lung replacement, itself a risky and delicate procedure. High levels of diacetyl in the air in popcorn plants resulted in many workers contracting bronchiolitis obliterans — in one instance, eight workers at a single factory over in eight years — leading to it being dubbed “popcorn lung”.

As the evidence linking diacetyl exposure and popcorn lung mounted, Change to Win affiliated unions the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters launched a campaign to protect workers from the hazards of diacetyl exposure. In 2006, they urged Bush Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao to take action immediately by issuing an emergency standard for acceptable levels of diacetyl in the air workers breathe. Dr. Michaels was a leader in this effort, organizing scientists across the country to sign a letter to Chao supporting the call for a standard. As he wrote in the letter,

There is compelling epidemiologic and toxicological evidence linking exposure to diacetyl to severe respiratory impairment and disease. It is more than thirty months since [the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health] issued an alert calling upon employers to “minimize occupational exposures to flavorings or flavoring ingredients.” It is now time for OSHA to use the scientific evidence to protect American workers from debilitating lung disease.

Secretary Chao did not heed their call. Today, however, there’s a new sheriff in town, and President Obama and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis have shown they’re taking diacetyl with a level of seriousness their predecessors did not; the Labor Department actually started the process of making new rules on diacetyl the day after President Obama was inaugurated — thanks in no small part to Dr. Michaels’ work to raise the profile of this important issue.

After eight years of Bush-era neglect, I’m still getting used to seeing people getting nominated to lead government agencies who actually believe in both the letter and spirit of those agencies’ missions. So it’s exciting to see President Obama tapping someone to lead the agency responsible for worker safety who actually believes that workers should have safe workplaces, and has fought consistently to make that a reality.

CtW health and safety coordinator Eric Frumin told the Charlotte Observer that Michaels’ nomination is a big step forward for workplace safety:

Michaels drew praise from some workplace safety advocates.

“His recent leadership work on chemical hazards … demonstrates his commitment to protecting workers from unregulated hazards,” said Eric Frumin, safety and health coordinator for Change to Win, a federation of seven national unions.

And the public health blog Effects Measure agrees:

OSHA once again has deeply committed health and safety professionals at its helm. I don’t think the agency has had such competent and committed leadership since the days of Dr. Eula Bingham in the Carter administration. Eula is still fighting for workers’ health and many others from those days are still around. David and [Deputy Assistant Secretary for OSHA] Jordan Barab will have our full support, but will also have to carry the weight of all our hopes. But they’re up to it.

Congratulations, Dr. Michaels!