We reported in March that a new and improved federal standard to improve sanitary facilities on construction job sites is "dead in the water," according to an OSHA representative.

The standard would have mandated the placement of hand-washing stations or antiseptic gel dispensers within or next to portable toilets on construction sites, while lowering the ratio of toilets-per-worker to one in 10 from one in 40.

OSHA dismissed years of effort by the building trades to improve the standard, using government-speak to drop the matter from the regulatory agenda "due to resource constraints and other priorities."

With the matter suddenly off the table on the federal level, the OSHA rep we talked to suggested that as an alternative, Michigan's state health and safety rules could be updated to include the better sanitation standards. In order for that to happen, the nine-member Michigan Construction Safety Standards Commission would have to develop and approve any changes.

"Forget about it," said Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council Secretary-Treasurer Tom Boensch. "As it stands now, the majority of that commission is not voluntarily going to do anything to help working men and women."

Appointed by Gov. John Engler, the committee is supposed to be made up of four management representatives, four labor representatives, and one public employer representative. But two of the supposed labor representatives are owners of small companies.

The only representative on the panel from organized labor is the commission's vice chairman, Carl Davis, a Plumbers Local 98 member who is an assistant general foreman for the Detroit Public School District. With the improved federal sanitation standard going nowhere, he said he would heed our request and look into getting a better standard adopted in the Michigan. But he offered little hope that it would happen any time soon.

"I have strong feelings about this," Davis said. "I know there are some employers who have the attitude that 'hey, your hands are just going to get dirty again, anyway.' But I feel that a worker should be able to wash after he uses a bathroom, especially if they go just before they eat lunch."

Currently, construction workers have the unfortunate distinction among nearly all U.S. industries in that their employers are not required to provide them with even the most rudimentary method to wash their hands. On some smaller construction sites, employers are not required to provide any bathroom facilities at all. The closest fast food restaurant, or more likely, the nearest ditch or behind the nearest tree, sometimes are the only facilities available.

Some forward-thinking construction employers provide employees with heated toilet trailers that have hooks for clothes, private stalls and hot running water - but demanding anything that "extravagant" for all construction job sites when state law doesn't even require hand-washing areas seems like an impossible dream.

Davis said it's rare that MIOSHA's construction standards deviate from federal standards, although it has happened (see related article on the headache ball). The first step toward making a change, he said, is a little research to check which of the commission's committees has jurisdiction over the sanitation standard. Then, he said once the language for a new proposed standard is written and is placed before the proper committee, expect "a long, slow process" in making the rule change, Davis said. The commission's next meeting is in the second week in July.

Boensch said realistically, "nothing is going to happen until next year, when we will hopefully get a more worker-friendly administration in Lansing and improve the makeup of the Construction Safety Standards Commission."

Michigan voters go to the polls to elect a new governor in the Nov. 5 general election.