HEALTH CARE

Although W.R. Grace has a multitude of businesses, the one that I will be focusing on is the Styrofoam food Container Division. The Styrofoam food containers are made and then packaged in perforated plastic bags so they can breathe. This is a hazard as it lets the food container be contaminated very easily, because they are stacked directly on the floor and touch the walls of the trailer. They have several Trucking Companies that haul the food containers for them. All that is required to haul the food containers is the trailer be swepted out with a push broom by the driver no matter what the prior load. This is a practice that is used by many food corporations, not just by W.R. Grace. If there are contaminates that can not be swepted out or even seen, they are left to contaminate the food containers that in turn contaminate the food that is put on it. Does this way properly clean out a trailer to be sanitized for food product? Here is a little back ground information about WR Grace. In the 1960's and 1970's, WR Grace, along with other companies, were charged with contaminating the drinking water of a community in Woburn Massachusetts. In 1989, WR Grace settled the lawsuit filed against them for this contamination. In fact, Disney made a movie, called A Civil Action, staring John Travolta. For more information on this, go to the Internet and visit www.civil-action.com/ and follow the links. " From 1984 to 1994 the Department of Energy investigated WR Grace for a Contamination in Wayne, New Jersey, although the federal government evaluations have concluded that there is no health hazard at the Wayne site in 1994. In 1998 WR Grace paid an approximately $32 million settlement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Departments of Energy and the Interior". And as recently as November 1999 WR Grace is involved in another involvement of contaminating another community in Libby Montana. This time it is for asbestos related illnesses. In their press release of January 20, 2000, WR Grace has announced sweeping health care program for Libby Montana residents. (For more information on this you can go to the Internet and visit Grace's Web site at www.grace.com. And go to Grace Media Relations). Remember this is only one company out of thousands in this Industry.

The trucking industry has been accused of hauling hazardous materials one way and food or food products the other way in dry trailers. The manufacturer I just discussed makes this easy for this trucking industry to contaminate their product. Their policy is not the proper way to clean out a trailer that hauls food or food product. I picked a trucking company involved with WR Grace because I have knowledge they hauled both WR Grace's food product as well as hazardous materials. MPC trucking is a company based out of Kimberton, Pennsylvania, its mother company (Monsey Products Corporation) makes driveway sealer, roof coating, and paints for different companies. MPC Trucking hauls these products as well as the raw materials to make these products. These raw materials consist of asbestos, solvents, coal tar, etc… Although I speak of several raw materials, I will explain how the asbestos is hauled. Most of the asbestos was hauled from Johns-Manville's asbestos mine in Asbestos, Quebec, Canada. MPC trucking dispatched its drivers to Johns-Manville, where upon arrival the guards at the gate were required to check the trailer for holes. If there were any holes in the trailer walls or floor, they were not to load the trailer. Their reason for not loading the trailer if it had a hole was a plastic bag of asbestos could break open in transit and it would be contained in the trailer. If the trailer had a hole the asbestos could blow out of the trailer. When the driver opened the doors to the trailer they stayed opened till it was loaded and checked at the guardhouse. This could mean hours of waiting in line. This would contaminate the trailers inside and out because the waiting area was under the conveyor belts bringing the asbestos to the building from the mine. The loading doors were in the back of the building where the asbestos was bagged and where the conveyor belts suspended over the waiting area. When a breeze or a good wind would come through this area, it would blow the asbestos off these conveyor belts making it look like a blizzard in the middle of July and August. This asbestos blowing in the wind would contaminate the inside of these trailers because they were sitting there with their doors open.

I found another way MPC Trucking has been abusing the health care system. In February of 1991, MPC Trucking required its owner operators to purchase Workmen's Compensation at the cost of 3.5% of their pay. Although one owner operator refused to sign for MPC Trucking to have this money taken out of his pay, MPC Trucking took the money anyway, under protest. On 3/6/91 this owner operator had his foot broken while unloading food product at Star Markets food warehouse, and MPC Trucking paid the bills.Norwood Hospital-pg 1 The next time this owner operator was injured while unloading a trailer for MPC Trucking was on 4/6/92 at C&S food warehouse. This time the owner operator was exposed to a chemical or toxin while unloading WR Grace's product. MPC Trucking refused this owner operator the Workmen's Compensation authorization numbers and put this owner operator through a lengthy Workmen's compensation trial. At the end of the trial the judge's decision was that the owner operator was contaminated. Even though the Judge was never informed what the contaminate was he ruled that the owner operator should have been better in two weeks. Because of this, the judge violated this owner operator Right To Know what he was contaminated with along with the American public that ate the food from the containers. This judge also ruled that because this person was an owner operator, he was not entitled to workmen's compensation. This owner operator now collects Social Security Disability in which Medicare pays his medical bills due to the exposure on 4/6/92. This is another way this industry takes advantage of the health care system.

The Food Warehouse Industry receives the food and food products from the manufactures by way of the trucking companies and distributes it to the grocery stores. This industry protects its workers by not letting them unload the trailers of incoming food or food products. There are signs when a driver checks in to deliver a load informing the driver that he or she is responsible for unloading the product. If the driver is unable to unload the product, there are what are called lumpers who do not work for the food warehouse, but solicit work from drivers for the that load. Although most of the drivers make the lumper sign receipts before paying them, most lumpers give false names; therefore, there is no way to track the money. When the lumpers become ill with no regular job, they end up getting health care from the government. This raises the cost of health care to the taxpayer, not to the food warehouse or the healthcare provider for the warehouse. By not having their employees unload these trailers, how do they know if the product is contaminated or if the trailer is sanitary?