Back to Proposed amendment
Earlier this year I dropped off a
package to explain how congress rewrote “The Sanitary Food Transportation Law"
(title 49 transportation chapter 57 sanitary food transportation),but never put
in an amendment to uphold this law. For example, section 5706, which calls for,
dedicated vehicles so food products can be delivered safely to the American
people. However, this section is completely useless because there is no way to
uphold it at the present time. I do have an easy answer to this that would not
add any cost to the taxpayers. Let me explain:
All trailers have to be inspected
once a year and have an inspection sticker affixed on them to prove it has been
inspected. To uphold section 5706 of the “Sanitary Food Transportation”
law, an amendment could be written that states, “when a trailer is inspected
that is going to haul food or food products that touch the food, that trailer
should have a letter F on the inspection sticker that is affixed to that
trailer.” The rest of the system is already in place. We have D.O.T. inspection stations all over these United
States. When a truck is pulled into
these inspection stations it is weighted, then the inspectors checks the
manifest for the load that it is hauling and inspects the vehicle. What would be so hard in having the
inspector look at the inspection sticker to see if this vehicle should be
hauling the freight that is in it? When
an inspector looks at the driver’s manifest and then checks the inspection
sticker, if there is an F on the inspection sticker and there are chemicals in
the trailer or other toxic substances the trailer would be impounded and the
inspection sticker stripped from the trailer. The company should also be
heavily fined.
There are many reasons an amendment such as this
should be in place. The most important reason is the health care of the
citizens of this nation. Every time I listen to a news report I hear the
government is trying to cut the rising cost of health care. This would be a
good way to do this and more. Doctors
look for the obvious reasons why a person is ill they don’t take in account
that there might be other underlying reasons. In other words they treat the
symptoms not the toxic effect. The doctors can’t be blamed, they are not being
told. The person suffering doesn’t know
what is happening. By the doctors treating the symptoms it cost the taxpayers
millions of dollars a year. The people
that are most at risk are our children and the elderly. The State Agencies or State Insurance cares
for some of these children. While most elderly depend on Medicare for there
medical insurance. If we can stop the poisoning of our food supply by these
industries our children and elderly will have a healthy and more productive
life.
In my research of the products that I hauled for the
company where I was injured I found that most of these chemicals are the same
chemicals that are in tobacco smoke. In fact one chemical is worse then the
rest because it sensitizes the human body to many other things. In other words
it makes the body allergic to many other chemicals and natural things such as
pollen. Could this be one of the reasons there is a rise in asthma in
children? By the way congress has gone
after the tobacco companies because of the heath risk associated with these
toxins you would think they would do everything in there power to keep these
same toxins out of our food supply due to contamination. The health issues of
the tobacco industry are a testament to this.
You had asked for some evidence that
these laws where being broken. Instead
of sending you all my invoices and trip sheets I have put everything on
spreadsheets. Asbestos on one, the
loads I hauled for my company Monsey Products Corp. on another. There is also a
spreadsheet showing the loads I hauled for Amstar Sugar. And another one
showing loads I hauled for WR Grace. Which are the majority of the loads and
the most critical, due to the fact that their product (Styrofoam food trays),
is packaged in perforated plastic bags and are laid directly on the floor and
touch the walls of the trailer. So if there is any contaminates in the trailer
these food trays pick them up. On the Amstar and WR Grace spread sheets you
will find some of the trailer numbers printed in Red these are the trailers that have hauled asbestos before
hauling the food product. The trailer
numbers that have been highlighted, are trailers that have hauled Monsey
Products Corp. products before the food product. Monsey Products Corp. makes driveway sealer, roof coatings,
paints, and in doing so use highly toxic substances; Asbestos, coal tar,
Anthracene, Naphthalene, and others.
The only reason that the loads that I hauled where contained in the
northeast is because my contract was out of Waterford NY. What you also have to
remember is these are from my records
only. It does not take into account the other 45 plus drivers and Owner/Operators that moved these
trailers across the country. With all dispatch coming from the Kimberton, PA
Office. Monsey Products Corp. and MPC.
Trucking also had terminals in Kimberton PA, Indianapolis IN., Barlow FL.,
Rockhill SC. and Texas.
Enclosed are Driver Logs of the dates in question,
along with trip sheets showing the routes traveled with the asbestos loads. If
more information is needed please contact me. I have most trip sheets and all
paid invoices along with most of my Driver Logs for the time I worked at MPC
Trucking.
Also
I’m attaching pages from WR Grace’s website because I am convinced that they
knew exactly what asbestos could do. One site is on “The Woburn Story“.
Another is “Grace in Libby”; the others are from Grace News, which show
that WR Grace has been dealing with asbestos-related bodily injury litigation
dated 2/4/99. In fact in one of Grace’s
news dated May 14, 1998 WR Grace was considering asbestos insurance. Yet they
allow their food product to be hauled with asbestos and other chemicals. In fact they loaded the trailers and put
seals on them, every load I hauled from WR Grace was preloaded.
I understand that the Sanitation Food Transportation
laws are dated in 1994 BUT they refer back to laws in 1990 that where
basically the same. I am also enclosing
some of the documentation showing how OSHA mishandled the investigation. I have been told that OSHA only has six
months from the date of the offense to investigate a claim. If you look at the letters sent from MPC
Trucking to OSHA you will find that they are dated after the six months window
of investigation. Also if you look at
the third page of the report dated 8/10/92 you will see where hazardous waste
comes before food and directly after food it states Asbestos. I will highlight different things that are
wrong on each page and make notations.
I also enclosed FACT SHEETS
from OSHA, EPA, and ATSDR all are government agencies. The Polystrene,
Isbutene, and the Styrene go directly to the product that WR Grace makes and I
delivered without training or being notified what effects the product would
have on my health because I was in a non-ventilated area over long periods of
time. The Formaldehyde shows that it’s
used commonly in a lot of the products that I have hauled for MPC
Trucking. It shows it has server heath
affects inhaling low levels over a long period of time can cause sensitization,
which has happened to me. I have more
information that is more detailed from these government agencies.
Please contact me if you
need other information. June 6, 2000
Charles Lake
PO Box 1237
Cairo NY 12413
Respectfully
Charles Lake