WASHINGTON - All too often, construction workers are forced to live with deplorable sanitary conditions when nature calls.

Few workers haven't been exposed to overflowing, smelly portable toilets. And when workers have completed their business in those portable toilets, and the spring-loaded plastic door slams shut, employers may have made soap and water or some antiseptic gel available for hand-cleaning - but more likely, there's none to be found. On construction sites that may just be coming out of the ground, a nearby tree, or the nearest Burger King, are the places to go - and the law allows this lack of bathroom facilities.

Does anybody care that U.S. construction workers are the only workers in the nation who are forced to work in these inhuman, Third-World conditions? The answer is yes - but the process of improving construction hygiene is moving as slow as molasses in January.

"The (OSHA) General Industry standard requires a place for employees to go to the bathroom, and time to do so," said Jane Williams of A-Z Safety Resources Inc., a safety consulting firm. "But the standards in construction are completely inadequate. There are seven-and-a-half million construction workers out there who deserve better conditions."

Williams co-chairs the Sanitation Workgroup of the 15-member Advisory Committee for Construction Safety and Health, which advises OSHA. More than a year ago, the committee made several recommendations to OSHA to improve hygiene on construction sites, including placing hand-washing stations or antiseptic gel within or next to toilets, and lowering the ratio of toilets per worker to one in 10 from one in 40.

Currently, the standard does not require employers to provide time for construction workers to relieve themselves, has no provisions for hand-washing fixtures, and has no requirements for any bathroom facilities at all on some small projects.

This week, OSHA was scheduled to release its regulatory agenda to the public, disclosing its list of rulemaking priorities. Williams said if a new hygiene standard for the construction industry isn't on the list, she intends to campaign to have it put there.

The momentum toward getting a new hygiene standard came to a halt last year with the change in presidential administrations. The new administration, Williams said, has needed time to get people in place at the Department of Labor and assess priorities, a standard administrative process.

There isn't a lot of resistance to implementing a better hygiene standard, Williams said. Some employers have complained about cost. Some bureaucrats have claimed that the alcohol-based gel would be a hand irritant. But the major drag on getting the standard adopted is simply convincing decision-makers to make it a priority.

Policy makers at OSHA, Williams said, "look at where they can make a difference in saving lives, and put a number on it. For example, confined space and steel erection standards may save 30 or 40 lives per year. If you look at this hygiene standard, can you say that it will save lives? No. But there are so many other considerations that come into play, like blood borne pathogens, hepatitis, and infectious diseases that can lead to illness. We must permit our workers to enter the 21st Century!"

Lisa Sturm, an infection control staff specialist with the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, said she knows first-hand how unsanitary conditions are for construction workers. "My husband is an electrician, and it just grosses me out when he tells me about having to use a can, or the other places he's had to go" she said. "It's hard to believe they don't have requirements for cleaning hands."

Sturm said the most significant hazard comes from diarrheal infections. Hepatitis A or salmonella infections can spread when workers touch any feces-contaminated surface, including the door handle of a portable toilet, and then touch their mouth or their lunch.

"There are a katrillion bacteria in feces, and normally there aren't many effects if they're ingested," Sturm said. "But some can be dangerous. "We have found that the sanitizing gels are extremely effective in killing most viruses and all bacteria. They even have sanitizing wipes out that are even better for visibly soiled hands.

"I hope they get a better standard passed. You've made me think about this. I know I'm going to remind my husband to keep one of those little sanitizer bottles in his toolbox."