Opinion ID: 780241
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Does Scientific Uncertainty Justify OSHA's Delay?

Text: 45 In Oil Workers, the first installment of this case, Public Citizen relied upon the Crump Report's finding that between 88 and 342 out of every 1,000 workers exposed to hexavalent chromium will die from cancer attributable to that exposure. 145 F.3d at 123. We recognized, however, that there were serious questions about the validity of the data and assumptions underlying Petitioner's calculations. Id. For example, as the Intervenors noted, it was wrong to assume that all workers in industries dealing with chromium in some way or another are exposed to 100 µg/m 3 hexavalent chromium, every working day for 45 years. Id. We likewise observed that some workers breathe through respirators that protect them from exposure to chromium, and that Public Citizen's calculations failed to distinguish between lead chromate and other hexavalent chromium compounds with potentially different carcinogenicities. Id. at 124. Finally, and most importantly, we were troubled by the Crump Report's failure to control for smoking and asbestos inhalation, two factors likely related to lung cancer incidence. Id. 46 Based on this imperfect science and our recognition that OSHA ... possesses enormous technical expertise we lack, we concluded that we were not in a position to tell the Secretary how to do her job. Id. OSHA offers several reasons for us to continue that deferential posture. First, OSHA allegedly has not yet completed its evaluation of the Hopkins study. [OSHA Br. at 26.] It points out that the study's authors acknowledged certain limitations of their data, particularly in estimating the cumulative exposure for different individuals in the cohort, and also that the study did not address the previous dispute over whether all hexavalent chromium compounds present the same degree of risk. [ Id. at 26-27.] OSHA summarizes that, even assuming the Hopkins study is the most useful single study available, it does not answer all of the technically complex questions about carcinogenicity and other health effects that OSHA would need to resolve in developing a Cr VI rule. [ Id. at 27.] 47 Second, OSHA alleges that Public Citizen virtually ignores the other critical components of a Cr VI rulemaking. [ Id. ] One of OSHA's requirements is that a standard must be technologically feasible, and given that one governing hexavalent chromium would apply to numerous industries, the feasibility analysis is quite complex. While it admits that it has successfully addressed issues of comparable complexity in the past, it notes that these efforts have not been successful where courts have found insufficient rigor in the agency's analysis of scientific and economic issues. [ Id. at 30] See, e.g., Industrial Union Dep't, 448 U.S. at 662, 100 S.Ct. 2844 (invalidating benzene standard); AFL-CIO v. OSHA, 965 F.2d 962 (11th Cir.1992) (vacating standard setting new exposure limits for over 400 substances). The bottom line, OSHA states, is that [t]he belief that a chemical may be carcinogenic does not lead easily to the appropriate PEL for that chemical, and forcing it to issue a rule prematurely will likely result in that rule being overturned in court. [OSHA Br. at 24.] 48 We agree with OSHA that the evidence may be imperfect, that the feasibility inquiry is formidable, and that premature rulemaking is undesirable. But given the history chronicled above, we find these concerns insufficient to justify further delay in regulating hexavalent chromium. First, while it is true that the Hopkins study's authors recognized certain limitations of their data, 49 the epidemiological data as of the mid-1990s were sufficient for EPA, ATSDR, NIOSH, the National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer to find hexavalent chromium carcinogenic; for OSHA to commence a rulemaking proceeding; and for OSHA's contractor to estimate that exposures at a fraction of the current PEL would result in significant excess cancer deaths. 50 [Public Citizen Reply Br. at 19-20.] Moreover, OSHA based its delay on its professed desire to consider that study because of its superior data and ability to control for smoking. It was released in August 2000, more than two years ago, but it has hardly facilitated the rulemaking process. 5 OSHA now offers it as a justification for further inaction, claiming that it has not completed its evaluation of the study's findings and that the study's conclusions can be much better assessed when experts in the field have had the opportunity to review and criticize it. [OSHA Br. at 27.] 51 We are unconvinced. Public Citizen points out that, as the study was published in a peer-reviewed journal, experts in the field have already had the opportunity to criticize it. [ Id. at 20.] Notably, in the two years since its publication, no response or letter criticizing it has been published. [ Id. ] Especially since many of the study's findings have been available since 1995, see supra at note 5, the time for examining it has passed; we also note that, if further professional criticism is absolutely necessary, the notice-and-comment process will provide an ample opportunity. 52 Nor do we find persuasive OSHA's broad assertion that the Hopkins study does not answer all of the technically complex questions ... that OSHA would need to resolve in developing a Cr VI rule. [OSHA Br. at 27 (emphasis added).] This is obviously true, but without more it is irrelevant, for the Occupational Safety and Health Act does not require scientific certainty in the rulemaking process. Indeed, read fairly, the Act virtually forbids delay in pursuit of certainty — it requires regulation on the basis of the best available evidence, 29 U.S.C. § 655(b)(5) (emphasis added), and courts have warned that OSHA cannot let workers suffer while it awaits the Godot of scientific certainty. United Steelworkers of America v. Marshall, 647 F.2d 1189, 1266 (D.C.Cir.1980). 53 OSHA points to one specific shortcoming of the Hopkins study — that it did not address the previous dispute over whether all hexavalent chromium compounds present the same degree of risk. [OSHA Br. at 27] That is indeed a question it did not resolve, and this uncertainty is the principal topic of Intervenor CPMA's brief, which argues that the lead chromate used in pigments is not as carcinogenic as other hexavalent chromium compounds. The Hopkins study casts no light on this issue because its test population did not work in the pigment industry, but even without better data than that which existed in Oil Workers in 1997, we find this uncertainty insufficient to delay rulemaking further. Even if the chromate in pigments is not carcinogenic, an argument that, tellingly, OSHA itself does not offer, requiring concrete findings on this distinction would effectively hold hostage the thousands of workers who are exposed to non-pigment hexavalent chromium. We will not sanction that result when, even though OSHA acknowledges that this issue was flagged in the prior litigation over four years ago, OSHA does not claim to have done anything to resolve it. [Public Citizen Reply Br. at 24.] 6 54 Finally, while we are sympathetic to OSHA's claim that a thorough feasibility analysis is both highly important and quite difficult, we cannot allow an imperfect analysis to justify indefinite delay. OSHA first announced a rulemaking nine years ago, and by its own account it has been examining the issue through NIOSH for at least four years. OSHA does not explain why this particular feasibility determination requires an extreme length of time, and it does not offer even a projection of how much time it might ultimately require. In such a situation, our traditional agency deference begins to resemble judicial abdication, and we conclude that scientific uncertainties and technical complexities, while no doubt considerable, can no longer justify delay. Judges on this court are not paid to decide the easy cases, and neither is OSHA. Difficult challenges go with the territory, and courts and agencies regularly surmount them. The notice-and-comment process should itself provide a fertile forum for gathering information on feasibility. 55